A Dog's Prayer

Please, please, please, please, please....take me for an afternoon ride!

Pronghorn

We saw this Pronghorn on the side of Outer Loop Rd last Friday. Before we could see the carcass, I spotted 6 or 7 turkey vultures circling high up in the air. Once we got a little closer, there were 6 or 7 down in there snacking away. Unfortunately as we drove close enough to get a good picture, the movement of the car and it's sound scared them all away. I just got that one sitting there waiting to go back to the feast. They are ugly birds, aren't they? (Mom and Dad - Click on the picture to get a larger view of it)

You can read more about them here. I discovered this website while doing a little research for Jen and Dave's visit with Amanda and Nathan. I know Dave can not wait to go to the zoo. It's not a huge facility, but they have some neat animals which you can read about under the animals menu. I personally can't wait to go see these guys.

Bang

Went the left kneecap on the big boulder.




Darnit, I very much dislike injuries. It was such a nice ride too. Did the 347 again but went a little farther today. Out onto 332 which Zach and I did on Sunday. On the way back I took 345 to the lot instead of staying on 347. 345 takes you closer to Granite Mt and it has lots of rocks and boulders compared to the mostly smooth 347. Here's a coupla pictures from Sunday and today. Mike inspired me to try the timer function on the camera. I had to pull out the manual to remind myself how to do it.

LOVE IT

I was on my way to Granite Mt this afternoon around 2. The cruiser read 93 degrees outside. I was a little irritated with myself...I thought, Why, oh why, don't I ride right after I take Grace for a walk? Leave at 7am when it's 70 degrees outside? Oh yeah, I have to feed her. Then let her out. Then I have to have some breakfast and finish the coffee. While I'm finishing the coffee I might as well do a thing or two. Send some emails, make a few phone calls, try and understand what the heck net unrealized appreciation and cost basis both mean. And then the paperwork starts. Opening the mail, signing the forms, calling the old phone company who still has not disconnected our old phone line. Then it hit me. It's The Paperwork....The Paperwork is bringing me down!!!

After a 15 minute drive I arrive at the Williamson Valley Trailhead and settle down a little. Head out on 347 on the singlespeed (for the first time out here) and realize I forgot the wrench on the front seat. I think I'll be okay because we just replaced the rear tube with a slime tube. So if I do get a flat it will probably be the front. It is pretty hot on the climb out. I make it up all the hills, which on this ride is not too big a deal, but I was still happy with myself. I got to the gate at 346 in about 40 minutes. Turned around and headed back down. After riding for a little and feeling the cool breeze (yes, at 92 the breeze can actually feel cool) I had the best idea.

I retired from Molex, why can't I just retire from the paperwork? It's just too time-consuming.

I wonder what Zach will think of that idea.

The lot

All is not yet lost...Should know more on Friday.

The locals

Haven't seen anything too scary yet...although I am glad that critter over the nickel was dead. I am still trying to get a closer shot of a roadrunner. They are fast little suckers.

It puts the lotion on it

House hunting is something else. There are alot of crazy, quirky houses out here. One thing I do not understand is the lawn with the manicured section of green grass. We're in the middle of the desert people...there is a constant water shortage and it's really expensive (we will likely have a $40-$60 water bill per month). Why, oh why would you plant grass that requires so much water to be dumped on it to have it look nice? I prefer the rock lawn. It fits better. Another popular...or maybe not so popular alternative is Astroturf. Yes, you can still have green grass in your yard that requires zero maintenance.


This house that we looked at had Astroturf and a strange concrete hole in the backyard. The selling agent asked our real estate agent to ask us if we knew what it was (I think the house was a foreclosure so he had no contact with the previous owners).

To me the hole looked like they were trying to make one of those lap pools where the water jets out at you so you just kind of swim in place. But there were no electrical or water connections. It reminded Zach of Silence of the Lambs....some sort of strange torture chamber.

We took a pass on that house.

Ahhhh, the 305

Saturday August 11th. Zach wanted to try once again to scout out a route off of Perkinsville Rd that would take him all the way to Prescott Valley. There are a ton of fire roads that might get him there, but it seems that many of them take you into private property. He could be much more efficient at that type of ride without me (I like to take pictures every few minutes and need to stop to catch my breath every now and then too), so I ventured off to try the 305, another recommendation from Pete at Ironclad. The 305 is part of the Lynx Lake Recreation Area, which is in between Prescott and PV, south of 69.

Although there are many, many trails we have not ridden yet, I think I found my favorite. It starts in a low brush area with rocky/sandy soil. Quick ups and downs and twists and turns. You cross through a gate (like the kind at Kettle, except tighter) on either side of Walker Rd and head down towards the Lynx Creek Ruin. Take a short ride up the 301 to the ruins for some excellent views. Continue on the 305 and pass by a few campgrounds to find some of the greatest singletrack ever. The smell of the pines is intoxicating. It's another out and back... and you don't realize as you are heading out until the last mile or so when the trail really heads up, but you are climbing most of the way...with fun ups and downs as you go. Ugh...I wish I could write better...my description does not do it justice. Zach and I have since been back together, and his favorite is still the 347. There both super fun but I just die for the pine trees and the views on the 305.

Back to Aug 5, Peavine

I almost forgot about the Peavine Trail. The Peavine starts at Watson Lake and heads north for about 3.5mi. At mile 2.5, it connects with the Iron King Trail that heads east to Prescott Valley. It dumps you out at Santa Fe Loop Rd and Glassford Hill which is very close to Zach's school.

Peavine is just a plain ole prairie path. Nothing too exciting until to start winding through Granite Dells. Kinda looks like you're on the moon. Reminds me alot of Slickrock in Moab, just not as vast...by any means. We rode all the way to Zach's school so he could learn the route just in case we do discover a secret path from Chino that connects up with it.


This is what the sky looked like as we headed back to Watson Lake. When it storms here, the sky really opens up and let's us have it.

Aug 10, Friday morning walk

Yes, that is Zach and Grace out for a walk on a Friday morning. One of the perks of his job is a 4 day school week. He will end up working only 1 or two Fridays of each month. The days he is teaching though are a bit longer compared to a traditional school day. So far he likes the schedule. We are heading back to the Williamson Valley trailhead on the 308.

August 8, Back to the top

Another solo ride, I decided to head back to the first route we did out here. The day Zach and I rode it, we didn't quite make it all the way up. We turned back early to miss the rain.

Glad I went back because I got the shot of the sign for my parents...."she's so good". Turns out where Zach and I stopped was not that far from the end. The road dead ends on the back (west) side of the hill....Which is why I probably won't ride that one by myself anymore. I don't like not having an escape route.

If there were any weirdos living off of that road I'd be trapped. Is that being paranoid or is that being smart? It was a nice ride anyway though.

August 4, Yardwork, Granite, The Last Supper

The first real off-road ride. Thumb Butte only took us about 45 minutes and Groom Creek was a bust because of the rain. We left our hired help back at the house to finish up the yardwork. It was really taking them way too long to get the yard in decent condition. If anyone can recommend some good help that we can hire, please let us know.

Earlier in the week, Ken, Pat, Grace and I stumbled upon Ironclad Bicycles in Prescott. Pete gave me a few a trails to try out, so we packed up the car and headed back to Granite Mt. This time we headed south on 347.

The trail starts out fairly flat, dirt/sand mixture, little ups and downs. You are pedaling along with houses that are off of Williamson Valley Rd on one side and Granite Mt on the other. After a short time you head west and start a gradual, rocky climb up to the junction where 347 and 345 meet. Turn south, head through the gate and this is where it gets interesting.

The trail turns into fun ups and downs, twists and turns, a little bit of sand, and a nice mixture of rocky sections, slickrock, and flat smooth sections. With all of this fun stuff comes a constant gradual climb up. The first time we rode the 347, I did not think it was so fun. It's hard to find enjoyment when you are in a constant state of oxygen deprivation. I don't know if it was my lack of fitness or the altitude, but I could not breath. My legs had no spunk. I was hurting. So when Zach thought it would be funny to tire rub me on almost every climb, I started to get a little bit crabby. Plus the sand was still damp from the rain, and it felt like pin pricks when it flew up and hit my legs. I had to stop many times to catch my breath. Had to walk up a few hills. But then we got to the end and turned around and it was sheer bliss. The perfect combination of heading back down combined with just enough climbing. Zach thinks it may be the most fun he has ever had riding. At the end of the ride that day, I didn't think so. I thought he was crazy. I was so exhausted. But since then I have gone back when the sand wasn't wet and I went solo. I took my time on the way out so I could breath more evenly and understand better (ie.. my brain was able to process and absorb the ride instead constantly being on the verge of blacking out) why he loved it so much. And now I understand. The 347 is where Zach will take Adam and Aaron when they come visit in October with Stacy and Amy.

That night was the night before Ken and Pat headed back to Plainfield. They really took care of us in so many ways while they were here. We went back to the Prescott Brewing Company for dinner. MMMmmmm..they have good food and good beer.

August 1 & 2, Perkinsville Rd & Rails to Trails

The ongoing quest to find Zach a commuting route to work. It seems logical that there would be a safe bike route from Chino Valley into Prescott or Prescott Valley. We've been searching but have not found a way that will not result in Zach getting shot by an angry rancher or getting plowed down by bull.

I headed east from Chino on Perkinsville Rd. We've heard you can take this all the way up the Black Hills into Jerome. Looking at the map, Perkinsville actually turns north and takes you all the way up to I40 into Williams, which is west of Flagstaff. I must not have gotten the complete route from the guy. It looks like you have to turn off of Perkinville onto FR318, which is where I was headed. I took the right onto FR318 (I think...it's not marked). Shortly after I took the turn, I saw a huge cow that looked like it was in a pen, leaning up against the gate. A gate that I couldn't exactly see but certainly knew that it was there. As I rode closer to the very large animal, it heard me and bolted (thank goodness) away from me into the pen. The pen that was NOT gated. Apparently I had ventured into free-range area. Holy crap, that freaked me out. All of the bulls and cows were staring at me as I went past. I didn't go very much further before I scared myself half to death and decided to turn around. I had to ride back past them...I think they were just as scared of me. Top to Bottom: Granite Mountain, high school football practice, the Black Hills.

The next day I tried the rails to trails path that intersects Perkinsville west of FR318 (closer to Chino). It's a nice path, great views, and heading in the direction of Zach's school. We've heard conflicting information - that it does and that it does not connect Chino with Prescott and/or PV. I quickly found out that it does not currently connect Chino with anything. Apparently the BLM and NPS are still working to acquire all of the land between the Peavine trail and the Rails to Trails. I am sure it's still years out before they connect. Left to right and top to bottom. View west to the hills in Chino Zach and I rode, either the Bradshaw Mts or the Black Hills, Granit Mt, Bradshaws?, and the end of the road.

July 31st, Williamson Valley Rd

July 31 - Our Birthday and Zach's first day of teaching. A new career, a new job, in a new state. Wow, what the heck were we thinking? Ken and Pat treated us to dinner and some tasty treats.
Tuesday was also my first day of riding alone since I'm a slacker and don't have a job yet. I've been a little nervous about riding off-road by myself out here. We are in ranch country. You can carry a weapon on your person so long as you don't enter a bank or....one other type of establishment. Can't remember what the other one is right now. Schools probably.

I decided to head back out towards Granite Mt, except instead of turning left onto Williamson Valley Rd to go to the parking lot, I'd turn right. The people we met at Thumb Butte trailhead said this route is where they head every Saturday morning. It was a good road ride, rolling hills while gently climbing up. Great views out that way.

Groom Creek, Monday July 30

Zach's last ride before starting school.

We thought we were so smart. Thought we had a pattern figured out in the rain. We arrived out here the week before right in the middle of monsoon season. It had been raining every afternoon so we thought we could miss it if we headed out early. We were at the Groom Creek trailhead by 9am. Looking back it was probably a bit aggressive to try that trail anyway, after having been here for only a week. There's 1200 feet of climbing in the first 3 miles. I'm guessing we didn't even make it that far because we were caught in a torrential downpour. It started nice and easy and quickly turned into heavy rain, pea sized hail and the scariest and closest lightening and thunder I've ever experienced. The one good thing that came out of it was that the rain washed away the creak from the Blur.

Thumb Butte July 29

Our first real off-road adventure. When I visited here in June to find a place for us to rent, I picked up a few trail recommendations from the Prescott Chamber of Commerce. I was lucky to talk to the manager there who is an avid rider himself. The discussion with Robert was my first real confirmation that the riding out here is as good as we had hoped. Thumb Butte was one of many on his list of fun trails.

We packed the bikes into the Element and headed up to Thumb Butte. You can see it from downtown Prescott. We met a few riders that moved here from California in the parking lot. We chatted for a while and they told us how to get from the trailhead to the start of their favorite loop. We rode up the gravel road to the "white rock." I'm not sure at what point Zach got so irritated... it might have been my creaking bike...but the road up to the white rock took longer than either one of us expected. And there were ALOT of rocks on the way up. Every rock we saw, Zach was sure to say: Was THAT the white rock? How about that one, was THAT one the white rock??? He only had two more days of freedom before starting his job. The thought of that probably had him a little on edge.

After just a little bit longer up the hill, we finally found the white rock. Total time up probably wasn't as long as it felt. We were both so eager to get off-road, the anticipation was killing us. We moved half way across the country and wanted to feel that we made the right decision.

It didn't take long once we found the white rock before both of us had big smiles on our faces. That's Adam on the phone.

2nd Ride, Saturday July 28

2nd ride, 2 days later. Again, we hopped on the bikes and left right from the house. Headed out to Granite Mountain, where Zach and K&P had been walking Grace. It's an 11 mile paved road ride to the trailhead, gradually climbing most of the way. I'm thinkin it took us about 45 minutes to get out there. Once there, we didn't last long on the trail we chose because it got pretty rocky. Zach was on this Wojcik and I was on my cross bike. I'm not sure what the look on my face is all about.

First ride, Thursday July 26

With all of the work that goes into moving in, we didn't get our first ride in until Thursday. Instead of loading everything into the car and driving to some trails, we decided to hop on the bikes and check out he neighborhood.
We headed northwest from our house to the hills we can see in the distance.
We found some jeep roads (There are a lot of unmaintained roads around here. Dirt/gravel roads that get really hairy after the rains) and tried to navigate our way to the top.

An unfortunate (or fortunate depending on how you look at it) wrong turn put us at the top of this climb.
We eventually made it to the top of this hill, which is where we meant to go. Had to turn back right away though because the monsoon was headed our way.

Catch up

Need to go back a few weeks.....to July 22nd, 2007. Zach and I started our drive from Plainfield, IL to Chino Valley, AZ. We closed on our house a month prior. We had been living with Zach's parents since mid-February, when Grace had her left hind leg amputated.

The Element was packed with kitchen and bath basics, a few bike tools, some clean underwear, Grace, and one bike for each of us. We said goodbye to Zach's parents, stopped at the cemetary, then met my parents, Grandpa Tuffy and Gramma Esther, Uncle Denny, Aunt Norma, Julie, Hannah, Luke, and Aunt Kathy, for the last Cracker Barrel breakfast.

We were on the road by 9:30am. The drive was uneventful.


We arrived early evening Monday, July 23rd. Our movers were expected the next morning. Zach's parents drove the Cruiser with all of our computer stuff and pulled in Tuesday afternoon.


The next few days consisted of cleaning, unpacking and getting settled. I focused on the house, Zach on the shed.


It was great having Zach's parents there to help us feel at home right away. They stayed until August 5th. We had several good, fun dinners together, checked out the local safeway, went to church, and started looking at houses while they were here. We were sad to see them go.

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August 11, 2007