Sedona, December 24th 2008

The next day we decided to go and try another area that had a few local knowledge trails that I had read about on MTBR. We started up a trail called Munds Wagon Trail or something like that. The riding was still good but it was decidedly looser with baby heads floating around many trail sections.


Amber coming down a rocky section that is steeper than it looks.


We ended up turning around here as the trail was just a little loose for our tastes after this. But there was still nice slick rock to be had.


Amber taking an alternate line across a steep slick rock section.


The trail criss-crossed a creek many times which I imaging if there was water flowing could be quite problematic.


Back in the parking lot.

We decided to head down to Phoenix the next day and see how the riding on South Mountain was. It hosted a trail called the National Trail which in the rock climbing world would be on a 50 most crowded list - but for good reason...

Sedona, December 23rd 2008

I had never been to Sedona before and despite hearing a lot about it and that it was a great riding destination we had just never even thought to come here until now. The weather in Moab forced us south and I am glad it did. Sedona is a beautiful place with rock all over the place. It is a big tourist destination so being able to be happy in traffic and crowds is a necessary thing for a visit here. Fortunately there is plenty of free camping on both sides of town.

We popped into a local bike store to find a guide or a map. The second store we wandered into was Mountain Bike Heaven and the guy in the store was amazingly helpful suggest a nice link of of trails that we could ride to straight out of the store.


As soon as we hit dirt we realized that the riding out here was going to be fun. The trails were single track with rock everywhere but not loose rock. It was also very scenic. We started by heading up to Teacup and then on the advice from the store took a turn of the main trail and headed higher with the plan to be to drop down some gullies and rejoin the trail.


The trail section going down the gully was excellent with a few steep rollers and nice flow in between.


Still in the gully area.


We exited the gully soon after this and re-joined Teacup. The first section of Teacup we rejoined was fast smooth riding with some great corners.


It then started to climb across some more exposed slick rock and the riding was now fun, more technical riding where strength and body english were both needed.


Oh, and you had some decent views as well.


This is near the end, but there was a bunch of great riding before this as we had climbed up a jeep road to pick up some single track on a trail called Soldiers Pass. After this sink hole we decided to try and join across to another area called "The Secret Trails" - there was some great riding, but mostly we just got lost in the area until we popped out near the main road. At that point we road up a creek bed that the locals call Second Coming. It seemed that the creek bed would be blast coming down it and large sections of it were fun to ride up, but it was pretty technical and we pushed a fair bit it.

Vacation! 2 weeks on the road. First stop - Moab.

So my work has a mandatory Christmas holiday week so we decided to tack an extra week on and hit the road for a 2 week road trip to warmer areas. Denver has had some absolutely brutal winter conditions leading into the new year so both Amber and I were antsy to get some decent time on our bikes again.

We decided to sign up for a camp with Gene Hamilton (www.betterride.net) in Bootleg Canyon, Nevada on the weekend of New Year so we planned on heading to Moab and riding there for as long as possible before drving to Nevada.

First day in Moab was amazing. The sun was out and temperatures got as high as 45 degrees. We decided to do an old favorite - Gold Bar.


Bishop has become quite the bike dog. She is still learning how to behave on trails but is getting there. At the moment her biggest issue is when bikes come from the other direction and I still need to train her properly in those situations.

Moab has a decent covering of snow on most of the area but Gold Bar is largely wide expanses of Slick Rock and is southerly facing so the trail itself was perfect to ride on.


Amber avoiding snow.


Fresh tracks!


Scenic background and one happy dog.


Amber in the middle of a great little section of the trail. I love this section in both directions as you have to keep momentum and flow to clean it on the climb and the more smooth you ride it on the decent the bigger your smile.


About to exit the section.


Things started to cool down later in the day, but the riding was still good times.


Playing around on a little thing in the sun.


Amber on the same.



Weather came in that night and we awoke to a world of white so we opted to pack up and head south. Weather and condition reports said that St George was just as bad so we decided to head to Arizona as reports were that Sedona and Phoenix were perfect for riding.

New Bike! just in time for a road trip.

My new Intense M6 finally arrived. I can't believe how nice this bike looks!

I moved some parts from my old M1 and purcased new parts as they were needed because of differences in the frame (i.e. Bottom Bracket, 150mm rear wheel drop outs, 1.5" head tube etc.)


Shiny new Saint 2009 cranks.


Diety Dirty 30 Handle Bars. I was looking forward to riding these wider bars.


Cane Creek Double Barrel with Ti spring - dead sexy to look at and an amazing shock to ride on. It will take some getting used to with all of it's tuning options - high and low speed settings for both Compression and Rebound.


Picture perfect White Intense M6.

Here are my other bikes. I am very, very happy with my stable.


Black Market Riot Hardtail.


Fat Ibis Mojo with coil 160mm front fork and Pushed coil rear shock.

Thanksgiving in Moab

Thanksgiving is always a fun long weekend for Amber and I as we always head to the desert to play. Last year we headed to Moab and were forced further south by cold weather and snow and ended up in St George for the first time.

This time around we were hoping that the weather would hold up and we could just stay in Moab to avoid the drive and to enjoy the riding there. Amber also had her new Downhill bike for the 2009 race season and was looking forward to trying it out in Moab. Unfortunately her wrist was still pretty sore from a crash a few weeks early on Porcupine so it would be a day by day decision as to whether she would actually even ride.

We opted to drive over Thursday morning to get some rest and avoid the traffic leaving Denver.

Friday just I rode as Amber relaxed and kept the dog's amused. I didn't get any photos but had a great time as I went out and checked out in it's entirety a local knowledge trail. I rode it as an out and back and had a great time in both directions.

On Saturday I got a free shuttle in the form of Porcupine.


Conditions were interesting as snow had been falling recently and the cloud level was very low. It was only really rideable from the LPS drop point as snow was deeper the higher you went. This is the drop point we ended up using.


This is how it looked from the Kokopelli start.


Not a lot of photos as I was riding alone. But the trail conditions were actually pretty insanely nice with the moisture making the surface very tacky.


I did bring Bishop though and she loved the romp down Porcupine.


Amber snagged one photo near the start and then we were off.


It was strange riding in North Shore style mist and this is the conditions at the Porcupine lookout spot. (where LPS joins Porcupine). This is another rider approaching as he finishes the climb up the original Porcupine jeep trail. There were a few other riders out on the trail, but no where near the normal numbers.


A random shot of Bishop along the way.

As always, Porcupine was awesome times. The trail was perfect and tacky and the sense of solitude much higher due to the cloud and mist.


Sunday morning we opted to do a couple of runs on the little hill in the back of Sovereign from the Dalton Well Rd side. Amber's wrist was at about 80% which was enough to take her Socomm for a first ride. It is a great little trail section to push a big bike up and rail down.

Another fun Thanksgiving, although it was a pretty brutal drive home as there was a storm in the mountains that ended up closing Vail and Eisenhower passes for a while. We got held up in at the bottom of the highway to the Tunnel for a couple of hours before they re-opened the road. The drive home ended up taking about 10 hours instead of the normal 5-6hours.