The Butte

We had a pretty good weekend of riding. Saturday we started at Thumb Butte with Robert and Steve. Thumb Butte is an area we have not yet spent enough time. Mike and Adam rode it when they were here. The last few sections of the Whiskey were through that area. In fact, on Saturday we rode that last torturous, big-time-cramp, gradual-but-super-rocky climb. It wasn't so bad this time around. Sunday morning Zach rode up Mingus on 89A, down to Jerome and Clarkdale then turned around and rode back. AND HE GOT DROPPED!!! It's not funny but it is. I've been hurting on every ride since we've been back and he just LOVES trying to make me laugh on the last climb when I have no energy left to do so. Instead I want to cry. At one point I really wanted to push him off of his bike. But back to him getting dropped. He rode Mingus with a 19 year old super fast kid, a 58 year old, and a ...we'll say... 55 year old (not quite sure of his age). Is that great or what. Zach got dropped by 2 old dudes. Granted, one guy owns one of the bike shops in town and the other is a freak of nature. But it's still fun. I went and did the Skull Valley Loop. Over the summer months there's a ride that leaves the safeway at 6:30am on both Saturday and Sunday. I ended up knowing a few people on the ride. Keith is a retired Air Force helicopter pilot and has to be the nicest guy I've ever met. Brian is the husband of one of the ladies at the preschool. Everyone else I had met for the first time. I was the only female. Me and two other dudes got dropped for the first 2 thirds. We met up with everyone at Wilhoit and I kept up with the fast group from there. I was able to hang with the final sprint into town too. So I felt pretty good about myself after the ride, which made hearing about Zach's drop even better!!!!

This week wasn't so good. I spent most of the day Monday cleaning and studying - no ride. Tuesday I was exhausted from working at the preschool again. Wednesday I packed my bike and planned on riding after work to the butte, but a scary looking storm rolled in and I skipped it. Tonight I did the same but I ignored the lightening and sprinkles. It had already downpoured earlier that day for crying out loud. I rode the streets to Thumb Butte on the 1x1...not exactly fun cause it's geared pretty easy I think. Rode the start of the ride we did Saturday and then turned around and back tracked. I didn't realize it until tonight when I rode the opposite way, but the trail we started with on Saturday was one of the first Zach and I did when we first moved here.

Miscellaneous

I can not believe it is almost time to head back to Prescott. These 2 months have totally blown by. Just a few random photos taken over the last couple of weeks.


Out on Brian's Trail




I know these are not exiting pictures, but these roads are where we spent alot of time riding when we lived here. I enjoyed getting back out on them. Zach...not so much.




Rachael and I had a really fun ride out at Palos. I can't believe that was in JUNE!!! We haven't made a Wednesday night since then. WTF! Do I always look like such a rookie?

A nice turnout for the Thursday night group ride.




We took my dad out for a little spin.



This was in Galena. The first picture explains why we were laughing in the second.

Not what I thought

Well, we've been back in Illinois for 3 weeks now, and I'm a little disappointed that it's not what I expected. I am taking 2 online courses and have so far spent entirely too much time working on one of them. I'm enjoying it, but I definitely pictured myself being able to spend alot more time with family and friends. And I have not been getting enough riding in at all. Okay, enough of that...just needed to get it off my chest.

I feel like we've done so much since we've been back, but we still have so much to do!!! A few highlights:
Hanging with our parents who are so graciously letting us stay with them.
Seeing my sistos and their families.
Riding with the old crew and getting our butts kicked by them.
Hitting Wausau with Rachael, John and girls and seeing all our old Wisconsin buddies.
Going downtown with Karen and Justin. I made it until 2am.
Spent an evening with my mom's brother and his family. My cousin just delivered a baby boy today!!!
Going to Larry's Diner almost every morning.
And of course visiting with all of my grandparents.

Friday

Let's start out with the "after" picture.
Does Zach look like he's about 50 in this picture or what???

Friday morning I drove into work. The boys had breakfast out, then went to pick up the bike Adam was renting for the race. From there they went to ride the 305.



We all met back at the house for a little pasta dinner. We had to leave soon for packet pickup, but before we left we had time for some sinus maintenance. A first time neti pot experience for Adam.
We finally made it downtown for packet pickup and the 8:30pm rider meeting. Saw some familiar faces and found Christina too. Cruised home right after the race for a restless night's sleep.

Thursday ride

After building Mike's bike, the 3 of them went out for a ride from the Little Granite trailhead. Not a course I would choose 2 days before a 50 mile mountain bike race, but I was working that day.

Here's the Garmin data.



There was only one option for dinner. We went out for Mexican to a place Zach and I have not been yet. It was good.

(This is the before shot)

What the?

Sedona ride

Last Sunday Christina and I joined the Arizona Luna Chix on a ride that started at the Bike & Bean in Sedona. It was part of Alison Dunlap's clinic weekend.

It was a fun ride and the Bike & Bean hosted a BBQ after....Free food and free (good) beer. What more can you ask for. Met some cool women and we got a few good tips from Alison (cornering) and Joell (decending).

And yes, Christina and I were nerds and had Zach take a picture of us with Alison.

Black Canyon Trail

Christina and I hung out until about 9pm at the race venue Sat night after the race with a few of her teammates. We had a blast. I spent the night at her house (Zach drove to Mesa to hang out with some friends in from IL) that night. We got to her place, showered and passed out. We were both zonked from the race and the sun and the drinks. For breakfast on Sunday, she made the best fried eggs that I have had in a really long time. Fantastic.

Shortly after breakfast her friend Robert arrived. We were all headed up to the Black Canyon Trail off of I17. It's a multi-use singletrack trail that will eventually stretch from Carefree Hwy all the way up to Hwy 69 in Dewey (which is just east of us); that's 62 miles of singletrack!.

We started at the Table Mesa trailhead and headed north. Took the east side of the loop on the way out, and the west side on the way back. We were beat from the race on Saturday, so we only did about 18 miles.

It was awesome!! The trail winds up the Bradshaw Mts so much of the trail is....I wouldn't say ledgy is the right word, but you've got hill going up on one side and hill going down the other side of the trail. Not sure what the technical term is for that. Beautiful scenery along the way.

The whole area is multiuse. There are separate 4x4 trails, miles and miles of well used trails. There are shooting ranges. The one downside to the singletrack trail is that there are a few rednecks that venture off of the legal shooting areas and end up too close to the trail.

Other than that, it is awesome.
Here's a few pictures.

Somewhere near the beginning of our ride





















We just crossed the Agua Fria. You can see the rednecks and their truck through the trees if you look close.











Climbing up one short stretch of gravel road.











Desert poppies











Christina checking out the trail we just rode











Ahhh, thel view





















Shoes off!

New Job, New Rides, New Hair, New Scrapes, & New Glasses

I finally decided to help Sara out and write one of these things.

It was a pretty good week. I got to go and chaperone a field to trip for the 7th graders to Sunset Crater in Flagstaff. It was pretty cool. It is where all of the dormant volcanos are in Flagstaff. It is in a national park that has a bunch of areas with really cool volcanic rock formations. The weather and Flagstaff were gorgeous. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures cause I forgot to take a camera. The roads were great in the park and there were tons of roadies out hitting the climbs. I was jealous!

I have been commuting to work everyday on my bike.
I finally think I have my route down. I had been riding a different way everyday for a couple weeks. There are a lot of different options. My route involves a little singletrack, some doubletrack, bike paths, a frontage road, and plenty of climbing. It is about a 40 min commute that I can tack on some extra in the evening if daylight permits. This week I had to put on some extra clothes in the mornings. Temps in the upper 30s. Sara is going to post a few pictures she took from last weekend when we rode a section of it.

Sara started working this week. She started subbing as a aide in the Prescott School District. She worked 4 days this week. She really liked it. Most of her time this week was spent at a preschool working one-on-one with a student. On Friday she finished out the week at a middle school. She didn't have as much fun there. It seems there are a lot of changes going on in that school due to growth and the students are really feeling the stress. To make the day a little more challenging she was assisting a substitute teacher.

Sara went on a group ride without me Wednesday night. I didn't get home from work in time. She rode with a Debbie and Billy, a couple of people we had met on some prior rides. They rode the 305. Sara almost had a collision with a deer. We've got to watch out for those things.

Thursday I went on my first full on night ride since we have been out here. Sara stayed home cause we didn't know the caliber of the ride. She would have been able to hang but it was tough. There were five people that I had ridden with before. We went out for about 2 hours. We climbed, climbed, climbed, hiked, and then climbed some more. It was all worth it once we stared decending. I have been doing pretty good with the climbing out here but still can't seem to keep up with the locals on the decents. The BMC is a great bike with more than enough travel for what we are riding but decending like these guys do on the really rocky singletrack and then flying down the winding jeep roads still freaks me out a little.

Friday Sara worked and I was off. We decided that Sara is not going to work Fridays so we can be on the same schedule. Four day weeks are nice! I rode the 305 by myself. I took it pretty easy cause my legs were a little smoked from the night before.
It was a beautiful day and I just cruised along listening to all of the new tunes Jam provided before we moved. The new Editors album rules! Sara and I met at home after her trying day at the middle school. We enjoyed the deck with a couple of Fat Tires.

We headed out on a goup ride on Saturday with a big group. There were 13 people in the goup total. There were a lot of people we had not met before. There was a pretty wide range of abilities on this ride. You know when you head out with that many people there is bound to be some stories. Robert planned out the ride. He wanted to show us some trails that we had never ridden. The trails were awsome. There was a lot of breaks so that we could regroup. Most of the ride was led by three other guys and myself and with Sara close behind. Sara made her presence known early in the ride when all of us up front had to dismount on a rocky climb with Sara blasting through all of us walking still on her bike and a big smile on her face. She should have been yelling "Expert Women Coming Through!" She just rode past and kept climbing. A few minutes later Sara made her presence known again but in a little different way. After a decent a few of us were waiting at the bottom waiting for the rest of the group. Here comes Sara looking a little out of control. It was one of those crashes you can just see coming. Her bike was washing out from side to side until she finally went down on her old stand by right side. She always crashes and lands on the right side. All of the scar tissue that makes up her third butt cheek must pull her to that side. She poped right up laughing as she does most of the time. Everyone made sure she was OK. She was OK except for new scapes in the standard spots (Elbow, Butt, Thigh). The ride continued on as planned. There were more stops to regroup and a few minor mechanicals. All and all the ride was going great until one of the last decents. I was riding second behind a guy named Steve. Steve is 57 years old and is a super strong rider. Steve is one of the guys I have probably ridden with the most since I have been out here. Anyway he was flying down a this rocky decent when a rock kicked him a little to the right towards a tree that was dangerously close to the trail especially on a steep decent. He bumped the tree with his bars and it sent him flying. Once he stopped rolling, he stood up with a confused look on his face. He pulled the neck of his jersey aside and there was no mistaking that the collar bone was broke. It was pretty bad and looked like it was pretty close to coming through the skin. Just like anytime something like this happens the confusion started. OK who is going for the car? What is the fastest way to walk to a road? Who is going with him? Luckily we had cell phones and were able to get a hold of his girlfriend to pick him up at the nearest road to the trail. It was a good ride except for the crashes. I always hate seeing things like that happen.

Along with the riding we did this week, Sara got a new haircut, and I got some new glasses.


I amost forgot the highpoint of the week. After Saturday's ride Sara and I stopped for gas at the AM/PM Station. I went inside to look at some potential snacks. I had my eye on a jalepeno cheddar corndog when I noticed that the guy behind the counter was throwing away all of the cheesburgers that had been sitting under the warmer for too long. Without even thinking I dove behind the counter and had one hand into the garbage can before the guy noticed me. I told him the burgers looked pretty good. He seemed to be in shock and told me that he would notify the women at the counter not to charge me for the burgers. Sara and I did go with the corndogs along with the garbage burgers. The burgers were good but I don't know if they were as good as the garbage donuts from Casey's in Minooka.

We Got People

Okay, not quite, but we are making progress.

I added my name to the Prescott Cycling Group's email list this week. After only a few days of being on the list it seems they are really good about keeping everyone informed about the various group rides that are going on. Zach decided on a potential all-dayer for this morning. I decided to go out with the group that moved here from California that we met our first week out here at Thumb Butte. I've seen them once out at Granite and Zach and I ran into them this past week also. Up until today I couldn't quite put my finger on their age.

I met Pete and Peggy at 7:15 (I was on time!!) this morning out at the Cayuse, one of the trailheads at Granite Basin. We did some of the same trails that Zach and I have ridden, but in a different direction.

It was about an hour and a half ride. At the start I brought up the rear, but after the first climb, Peggy had me ride in front of her. Pete and I would ride together and wait for Peggy at the top of any climb. It didn't take long before I heard the basics of their story. Peggy and Jim and Pete and his wife are all from Southern California. Jim and Pete are old biking buddies (they've been riding for 10 yrs). Peggy and Jim moved here a few years ago and built a house. Pete and his wife moved from their original location in Cal. to an area farther out. After they moved, they quickly decided that it was still Southern Cal and still too busy. They ended up having the same builder build them a house down the street from Peggy and Jim. Over the last year and a half they have ridden just about every great mt biking area in the region. Utah, Colorado, Arizona...their list was really long.

At one point while Pete and I were waiting for Peggy, I mentioned how lovely the morning was and how biking has to be one of the greatest forms of exercise. He quickly agreed and started talking about all of the other benefits of biking...then mentioned that he does have to lift weights to keep his upper body strong...especially at 65!!!!! This guy was softpedaling our entire ride!!!! Holy cow. Can't believe how strong this guy is. I can't wait for him and Zach and Jim to go out sometime. I am not kidding when I say I'm not sure who is the stronger rider.

I also found out that Peggy has only been riding a year and a half. She has recently dropped 30 pounds...she was up at 188. So she doesn't quite have the endurance that Pete has but she is certainly a skilled rider for the amount of time she's been riding. It was really cool to hear her story.

It was a fun morning. I asked a million questions [Pat, I reminded myself of you:)] at every stop. I am sure I made them late to their next "appointment" at the local swap meet.

Zach rode for about 5 hours with some stops along along the way. Hit some spots we probably wouldn't have tried on our own. Tomorrow morning we are doing a group road ride. There's a 54 mile memorial ride coming up September 16th we want to prepare for.