Last week I rode Alta and Bajada, trails around “the other mountain” in the north west part of the South Mountain park. This was an mtbr ride, and while normally I dread going back down to Phoenix on a weekend this was looking to be a big ole group fun thing. Indeed, we had maybe 15 odd riders rolling by 5:30 am, from 2 miles into the Central Ave entrance. Not bad.

Alta did not fuck around, immediately up a staircase up up some more up and more up up up. Many tight switchbacks, lots of looseness, I might have gotten 3 of them. But I can push, and thusly I was as usual among the lead group to the top. Big views, but alas pre-monsoon not a goddamn bit of cool wind even at 6:30 in the morning. I padded up and we rode the very narrow, loose and jagged ridgeline for a few miles. The exposure and off-camber was pretty intense, and there were a number of scary trials. I was not really feeling in a good flow, maybe it was the newness of the trail or all the on-again\off-again, maybe it was genuinely hard and the Blur was bouncing around as bad as I thought…whatever, I kept it pretty conservative and didn’t hit a lot. Somewhere amongst a nasty shoot DurtGurl flopped over the side and boinged her way down like 15 feet. Its funny now that It was no big deal but a fractured butt bone, but wow it was scary in retrospect, as a little more flopping and she would have fallen a long way. Props to the girl she showed up at the end of the ridge like “la-di-dah no big deal, where is my peanut butter samich?”.

We rested at the top of the DH for a good while waiting for everyone to arrive in one piece; good times. I knew a lot of the people on this ride already, and so it was easy to get to know everyone else. Lots of fun hanging out and looking out over the big descent we were about to hit as it dropped to the green flat expanse of the West Valley. It looked steep! The day before, I dropped $500 on the deposit for a new 2007 Santa Cruz Heckler. That will, rest assured, merit several of its own entries, but this ride was so cool to remind me of exactly why I bought the new bike. Or at least what I hoped to get out of the new bike. I had been riding safely, but definitely felt that the stability of the thru axel and the bigger suspension would have been a good call today. Any shred of buyer’s remorse dropped off the cliff soon after we dropped into the gnar on the Alta downhill. The Heckler is going to become my friend. Meanwhile, the Blur and I were riding chilly at the back of the pack, certainly not my best ride but no blood and no damage, and worked my way down slowly to the bottom where it meets with the very west end of National.

We took off our pads and it felt like the temp dropped 10 degrees. wow that stuff is hot, but worth it for sure if you are gonna ride anything nasty. we then rode National for an xc stretch of a mile or 2, until it crossed San Juan road and linked up w. Bajada. A couple of the group bowed out and opted for the road back at this point. They said the trail was fun and rolling tech, but loose rocky and tiring. It was maybe 4 miles back around the mountain, so I figured I was in for an hour more and rolled on w. 4 others. 3 of those 4 others happened to be fast as shit, and I was quickly alone, without my music (antisocial) or my computer (put it away in the gnar), and suddenly wanting this ride to end. I guess the trail was good, but it was hard rolling and hot, so for me the trail was Blowjada. After riding most of it, we jumped out on the road maybe a mile before the end. none of us were having much fun at this point, it was hot, for one of the first times ever I really felt like I was heating up to a point that could be bad. And I probably was not even close to in trouble. We later heard that this same day a 15 year old kid from New York rented a bike from Cactus and went out alone, with one bottle, no partner parents stayed at the hotel, in pads and full face, and got lost somewhere on National — they found him just in time, almost naked half covered in sand in the wash near Fat Man’s Pass.

Back at the cars, some quick goodbyes before it was time to tag back in for baby-duty. On the ride home I concluded I will go with an air shock instead of coil — even on a nasty ride I am not doing big hits, so the Heckler can save a pound next time we hit this beast.

Some good videos and photos, and some different writeup, found here on my new bud Sam’s blog.