Happy Freakin' New Year

I decided to start 2009 off right by going mountain biking on New Year's Day on one of my favorite trails in the valley, Hawes. Since I had spent the night at my in-laws up in Glendale, I told Mike I would just meet him at the trail head. Other than it being a bit chilly in the shade, it was a perfect morning for riding. And the chilliness wore off after just a few minutes on the trail.
But no more than 25 minutes into the ride, we were cruising through the rock garden section of the Saddle trail, when I get a little too far to the right, caught a big rock with my front tire and went flying over the handlebars. I then got to enjoy a slow-motion view of the rock my face was barreling towards while not seeming to be able to bring my hands up to shield my face. The result was what you see below.

As you can probably tell from the expression on my face, I was not really enjoy myself at this point in time. Rather than having a fun couple of hours racing around Hawes I spent the next several hours mopping up blood, slowly riding back to the car and getting stitched up at Urgent Care. Not really an ideal start to the year. What's even better is that my wife's brother is getting married tomorrow and we're doing family pictures. I'm going to look great with 9 stitches and a black eye. At least the road rash on my neck and chest will be covered up.

Thunderbird Park

Today I tried out a new trail up in the Northwest Valley in Thunderbird Park, which is located on 59th Avenue, 1.6 miles north of the 101. There are a few different loops in the park that you can ride. Most of the traffic on the trail is hikers, though I did pass one rider on a cyclo-cross, and there are a lot of hikers.

This was only my second ride since before Thanksgiving. Between work and travel I just haven't been able to slip away. As a result of my being off the saddle for so long I am out of shape. Add to that the fact that I am struggling with a chest cold right now, I was only feeling about 50% out there today.

The trail provides lots of opportunities to practice switchbacks. I parked at the lower parking lot and rode the northwest loop clockwise. It was a chilly 52 degrees out and the wind was whipping pretty hard. The trail is not too challenging. The first half is pretty much all climbing, with lots of the aforementioned switchbacks. There are a few rocky stretches but no major obstacles to clear.

Once I got to the top of the hill I was rewarded with some great views of the Valley. Having lived here for 3 1/2 years I'm starting to feel like I know my way around pretty well. Still, sitting at the top with a bird's-eye view I was able to put a few locations into perspective. I also had a nice chat with a hiker named Betty at the top, who moved here after her husband retired from the Coast Guard.

From the top I continued the clockwise loop and got more practice on the switchbacks, now in the descent mode. It was a fun descent, although the cold and wind had me feeling tight and I couldn't really open up on the straight stretches. I also had to stop 4 times for hikers on their way up. The descent had more obstacles than the ascent. It didn't make much difference as I was able to jump or glide over all of them. But if I were to ride the loop counterclockwise they would be more challenging climbing over them. That being said, there is nothing on this trail that is unrideable.

When I got back to the starting point my odometer said 4.09 miles. I would recommend riding the loop clockwise then counter, or including a few of the other trails I saw in the park. But since I am sick, I decided not to push it further.

This trail is certainly not a must do for anyone visiting Phoenix. If you live nearby it would be a good ride to do before work to keep you in shape for the more challenging trails in the area.

I've been neglecting this blog for the last month as I have been occupied with other things. I did some riding up in Wyoming and Idaho during August and had some pictures from my cell phone to post. But then I spilled a drink on my cell phone and fried it before I could get the pictures off. So, no pictures.
Racing season starts here next month. I'm looking forward to competing again. I haven't raced in over 13 years, so it will be fun to get back into it.
Here is a video I came across on YouTube today of some dude in England with some wicked skills. Check him and be amazed.

Catching Up

So it's been a few weeks since I last posted here. I got a report on Cort and his face. It appears that he is healing well and hopefully will not have much of a scar. This morning Mike, Spencer and I rode Hawes. We stopped at the site of Cort's crash and built him a small monument. We also officially dubbed the spot "Broken Face Rock". That's the second portion of the trail we have taken the liberty of naming ourselves. The other is "Cardiac", the long, arduous climb near the beginning of Hawes.
Last week the family took a last minute trip to Sedona. The in-laws have a time share there and Ma Boushley was staying there alone (since Pa Boushley had work to do at home) so we decided to go keep her company. Of course, I must admit I had ulterior motives, namely an opportunity to ride some trails in the red rock country.
Thursday morning I got up early and rode what Cosmic Ray calls the Submarine Rock Loop. I started on the Broken Arrow Trail at the end of Morgan road. From there I rode up to Chicken Point then down the Little Horse Trail to where it hooks up with the Bell Rock Pathway. After road riding through a neighborhood I connected with the Mystic Trail which took me back home.

The ride was great and the trail was quite amazing. Unlike the rough, gravelly trails here in Phoenix there were long sections of curvy, smooth single-track, with rocky technical sections popping up randomly. There was also lots of slickrock to play around on.

I did take a spill near Chicken Point, during which I managed to bend my rear dropout. My bike worked for the rest of my time in Sedona, but when I shifted into my lowest gear the derailleur rubbed against the spokes.
On Friday I took my brother-in-law with me on the same trail. He's done some cycling before, but not any serious mountain biking. Since I haven't ridden in Sedona before, I figured it would be best to take him on the one trail I was now familiar with. This time we added two miles of the Llama trail to the loop. He handled the trail well, but he did break in his new Kona with a trip over the handlebars that knocked his rear tire all out of whack. Fortunately, the bike came with free lifetime service at AZ Bikes & Boards‎.
After getting back to Phoenix I took my bike into Nick at Estrella Mountain Cyclery to get it serviced and to take care of that bent rear dropout. Thus, when we were riding on Hawes today I was back on the old Gary Fisher. It felt odd riding the old bike again. I have definitely got used to the GT.

More Blood on the Trail

Spencer called me up last night and asked what I was going to be doing around 4:30 this morning. It was clear that he was itching for a ride. Apparently an old friend from Utah (Cort) was visiting Spencer and had brought his bike down. So we made plans to head over to Mesa and ride Hawes.

We hit the trailhead by the power plant at 5:30 and rode the Pig Trail to Hawes to Saddleback to Mine. At the bottom of the Mine Trail we chatted for a few minutes and then clicked in again to ride over to the Ridge Trail and back to the car. Other than being a little out of shape Cort did fairly well. He opted to hop off and walk down a few sections of trail. Unfortunately, after our little break there was a section he was wishing he had walked down.

There is a spot on the trail where you have to take a hard right and drop down over some rather sharp rocks. Cort was a little off balance coming into the turn and went over the handlebars. Spencer and I didn't see it as we were ahead, but we heard him yelling and went back to see what was up. This was the site that greeted us:

Cort managed to hit one of the rocks with his face hard enough to dislodge it (the rock not his face). Once he cleaned up the blood we could see he had two pretty serious cuts that may need stitches and some abrasions on his cheek. Cort seemed more concerned about his teeth than his face. He impacted the rock pretty hard and though none of his teeth were loose I guess he could still lose some.

Spencer and I felt pretty bad for dragging Cort out on the trail and then getting his face all busted up. But he was good-natured about it and even managed to smile when Spencer snapped the photo. Hopefully this won’t put a damper on his future mountain biking excursions. He was worried about what his wife would think. I have to say that if I came home looking like that my wife would want to put the brakes on my riding.

Hope you recover soon Cort.

Independence Day Ride

This morning I rolled out of bed at 4 a.m. so I could head down to South Mountain with Mike and Spencer for an early morning ride. We parked at 46th Street and took the Beverly Canyon Trail over to the Pima Canyon parking lot and the trailhead for the National Trail and Mormon Loop. We rode up Mormon Loop and then hooked up with National. We continued West along National to the Buena Vista lookout point. Then we bombed 2 miles down Geronimo which dumped us out on to 21st Street. We finished up with a few miles of pavement back to the van.


Mike was the cursed rider today as he suffered both injury and flat. Coming down a switchback section of National just East of the Buena Vista Lookout he smacked a rock with his right leg. We stopped at the lookout for him to bandage up. I didn't even think to pull out the camera until he was already bandaged up.

FINS, Roof Racks and De-Stitching

For some unknown reason I got myself into a rut with the FINS trail. Whenever I went to ride there I took essentially the same route. Mike and Spencer had complained that the trail was getting boring and I was starting to agree. Yesterday Mike had to work so it was just Spencer and I. We decided to take a different route this time and went up a part of the trail Spencer had never rode and I hadn't rode for probably six months. All at once the trail took on new life as we explored new parts of FINS and rode sections different directions. This morning I went back to FINS and again mixed things up. I even found a new little section that I had never ridden. Both rides were great and I was left wondering why I had ever allowed myself to only ride the trail a certain way. It won't happen again.

I purchased another bike tray for my roof rack today. We usually take Mike's van or Spencer's Tahoe when we go ride, but yesterday Spencer needed me to drive. I realized that the Volvo only had one bike tray on top and the back door is jammed shut, so there was nowhere to put Spencer's bike. Anxious to not miss a ride I went to Target, of all places, at 10 pm to purchase a trunk rack for the Honda. As was to be expected with a bike rack purchased from Target, it's a flimsy piece of $#!* (junk). But it got us where we needed to go. (Today I will take it back to Target.) When I got home I got onto Craigslist and found somebody selling a Saris roof rack with two bike trays. Since Saris doesn't make their roof rack anymore this is the only way to find accessories. I called the guy up and asked if I could just buy one of his trays. This morning I went over and picked it up. I may have even found a new riding partner as he is interested in hitting the trails together.

I am pulling my stitches out tomorrow. I had the doctor look at them on Thursday and he suggested I leave them in a few more days. I didn't want to stop riding simply because I had a few stitches but I also didn't want to prolong the healing process. Fortunately based on the location of the cut the stitches are not stressed when I ride a bike. But there is a chance of smacking my shin against something on the trail. Since I don't have any biking body armor I decided to improvise. I pulled out an old pair of soccer shin guards that I got while living in Virginia. It worked perfect. It came up just high enough on my leg to cover the wound, but did not restrain my riding. Even though I'm yanking the stitches out tomorrow I think I'll wear the shin guard for a couple more weeks on the trail, just to keep protecting my leg until it is completely healed.