The bike was coming…the vacation was accruing…the accrual was maxing…karma or just good luck? I HAD to take days off this week, no one could stop me without an HR stain to deal with, nothing could be more important, because clearly I had been saying that for the last 2 years. A wonderful, uncrowded, riding\camping, fall-in-love break in Flagstaff was required! Beckie said it was weird that I would go on my own for 2 days; I don’t get that? Talking to yourself does not make you crazy, it makes you interesting, though sometimes prone to oversights and lapses from reality; talking to your bike makes you a little crazy. I do the former, not the latter.

Let the story unfold.

2 big days, one bad endo, thunderstorms, hail, trashed mp3 player, misdirection, warm beer, drained car battery, some nice Flag people, and a lot of naughty bike love.

Day 1 – Hit the road after dropping G at daycare, and finally got riding around 12:15. Route (not all by intention) was Schultz-back to car-Schultz-Weatherford-Ricochet-Secret-half of Old Supermoto-back up to top on new Supermoto-back down on new Supermoto-Pipeline-Little Gnarly-Jedi-Schultz. 24 miles, 4:15 riding, computer said about 3300 feet of climbing.

Me, totemic Baby, and totemic Kila leaving Mesa

The Heckler at the start of Day 1

The 4 of us

Shot off up Schultz full of enthusiasm, only to realize 5 minutes later that I had not put gatorade in my water. Hmmm..? Onward I say! 1 minute later the battery in my player died. Hmmm..? Onward I say! 2 minutes later the backup battery for my player died. Fuck that back to the car! A short taste of down Schultz which I shall do twice more this weekend, and then a flat .25 miles from the car. Not entirely unsurprising, my front was flat after the Pass Mtn ride as well. But happily neither was due to us riding the cactus, that happened with like an hour and half of ride remaining and I didn’t flat then. Walking the last bit back to the car, i was good. This trip was going to be all about happy happy happy, i was gonna roll with the punches. So back at the car, I had a party hat and took care of my issues and set off again at 12:50.

Back up Schultz, and then I braced myself for the ugly climb up Weatherford. At least I didn’t get lost this time looking for the trailhead.

Ah Weatherford…1.75 miles of pure joy

pretty spot going up Weatherford

Weatherford still sucks!

meadow at the top of Weatherford

Talked at the top for a few minutes with a guy on a 29er who had flown past me on the way up Schultz. He came up Supermoto and maybe Secret too, then took the road to the top — sounded like a good but brutal route. He was finishing his loop by climbing Little Bear!

Down to Ricochet, and still managed to get confused on the trail a few times. But I was ready for the log drops. Hit the first one, then stopped to check out #2 immediately after and take some photos. Hitting these 2 back-to-back was a hoot!

#1

#2

#2

Then the ride started to suck. I came through a double rock roll onto about a 2 foot drop, didn’t go into it so smooth cause of the double rock, but had the front wheel on the ground and thought I was good. Next thing I know, the bike gets tugged from behind as apparently the rock had a funny upwards lip on it, and I’m badly surprised and going OTB. Nowhere to fall in the rock slot, and me and the bike get squished up against each other and the rocks. Bad scarring on the new bike, very bruised ribs for me Took me a sec to get my shit together and determine that no, my ribs were not broken. You can function almost completely with bruised ribs, they just hurt like fuck. Onward I say! But first, went back to get this slot again, and the second time knowing about the lip I just gave my back wheel a little boost and it was easy. Gotta know the trail, or you and your bike will pay the price.

oww, my anus

oww my fork!

aww fer crissakes! its only the 3rd ride!!!

The rest of Ricochet and Secret made me pretty upbeat again. Secret still had its ungettable climbs, but I was mentally in the right place for them. And I got log roll that ate my wheel in June. The big bike let me go between the big log and the little one. Sweet.

Happiness has returned

Then I got sorta lost and took the old Supermoto (big stupid bouldery pitch) instead of the new Supermoto (awesome flowy technical). Then the storm broke and I got hailed on. Then my mp3 player died in the rain. Finally I ran across a trail, which I followed down a few hundred yards and realized was the new awesome Supermoto.

the best way to pull out of a slump is to ride out…

29er guy climbed it, so could I…

And I did, and it was good. Onward I say! down new Supermoto from the top, and it was very very good.

Pipeline to Little Gnarly was short but crappy stupid steep rocky jeepy down and then pushing back up. But it ended soon. Up Little Gnarly and tired though I was the Heckler ate and chewed and soon I was at the top. Jedi was a hoot – much better my 2nd time on it, got most of the uphill off camber stuff I didn’t try last time. This is such a fun spur, and so easy to get to off the main Elden loop, I think its going to quickly become my new favorite Flag trail. The technical, followed by the easy fast whoopdees of Schultz feels so right.

meadow on Jedi, before the gnar

Schultz was faster than ever before – new bike smooths everything out. The rhythm gave me the balls to try the rock drop about a mile from the end of Schultz. It won’t make SportsCenter, but was a nice personal accomplishment to end the day.

Oh My God! I left the baby and the dog in the car!!!!!

I got to the campsite, about 5 minutes from the parking area, somewhere around 6:15. Unloading, flailing, cracking a beer and a party hat, flailing, laying out stuff to dry , turning on the truck for music and putting my mp3 player in front of the fan…and then bathing. This was a cold washcloth-based mexican-shower experience. The shiver would have been good in Phoenix, but was really just gratuitous and unpleasant in Flag after having spent the last 2 hrs riding wet. Some warm fuzzy clothes, cook up some food, more beer.

Life was good

So then I spaced, and zoned out with my pictures and my book, and at some point realized that the music had stopped playing. Oh Fuck! Yes indeed, I drained the battery. Stupid Stupid Stupid! STUPID!!!! Some panic, some reasonable thought, some self-flagellation, followed by more panic. Finally, I realized there was nothing to be done then, and maybe if I let it be it would start in the morning, or I would listen for cars and ask for a jump while getting ready in the morning, or I would ride and then sit on the road with my beer and ask for a jump until it was time to go.

Plan made, I drifted into an uneasy sleep. Mostly because my ribs hurt like fuck.

7am, up and in the car and lo it started. Now it was 7 and I was up way too early, with no prayer of returning to sleep. I had some tea. I packed my belongings. And I decided to lovingly caress…er, clean my new bike. It was beautiful dawn, a beautiful morning, and I would get a glorious early start to another long day. But something was rubbing my brake, and I began to worry I bent the triangle when I endo’d, and I fugged someting up with the hydraulic disc brakes (of which I was completely ignorant) trying to fix it. and after an hour and a half of farting around on tailgate of the truck, it was time for bike shops in town to open and me to get professional help, though the bike was clean and shiny again . Coffee Pedalers blew me off, but I begged the guys as Cosmic Cycles to tweak my brakes and get me mobile for the day. They were just opening, no one was in the shop, and I was ready to pay fat cash or drive back to Phoenix. $15 for 10 minutes of adjustments and a tube, and I was mobile — seemed like a very fair deal. Thanks Cosmic Cycles!!!!

Day 2 – Rocky Ridge-Lower Brookbank-Upper Brookbank-Hobbit Forest-Wasabi-road-Red Onion-Little Bear-Little Elden-Schultz. 3:45 spin time, 20 miles, about 3500 feet of climbing.

the 2 of us before Day 2

Rocky Ridge was fun, a lot of fun and the Heckler loved it and so did I, but you could see the effects of the monsoons on it and most of the other rutted climbs just like Weatherford. It was slow. Brookbank is penance for your sins, especially after 40 minutes huffing up Rocky Ridge. I was blown and stunk up climbing Hobbit Forest. This route is fun, but not, as the magnitude of the 1:45 climb and your difficult decision hangs over you: up to the towers, or down double-black Wasabi, or back down Hobbit and being a weak little girl. A storm that had been threatening was now closing in; I was not climbing to the towers. And I was not retreating back down Hobbit. Though this was not the best rhythm for my first time down Wasabi.

WOW WOW WOW! Wasabi was white knuckle. It was not a technical black run – this was a DH run. It started with a couple of big rock rolls right into a slot, and just kept getting scarier. I got about half of it – the easy half. But still was pretty psyched as it was a step up for me hitting some of those trials – one roll at the bottom went BUMP roll BUMP roll, turn and rollity-bump SHOOT. You had to hold enough speed for an 8 foot steep rollout, but control it enough to make the turn and not fly 10 feet off a rock. I begged off some of hardest stuff, and the trail was nicely set up to have go around. Some of it, however, was just steep and rutted and you simply had to stay off the breaks. Even these buff sections were scary scary fun, and I stepped up for sure in this one run. There was one time on a rutted slot the bike simply saved me, ida been hurt badly on the Blur. And again on a jump where I was way too nose down, the monster plush and tread and stability of the Heckler pulled me out of it. I don’t know how to jump, and I need to learn. Not a lot, just a bit. I don’t want to jump, I don’t want to get hurt. But my bike and my riding and my trail selection are hard enough that if I don’t learn to jump I’m gonna get hurt.

Short road climb from Wasabi to Red Onion, which was a perfect transition to let me burn out some adrenaline and settle down. Red Onion is a pretty, heavily wooded, steady but buff climb up mostly a drainage through thick wood — beautiful. Little Bear with the storm starting to hit me – the new bike is a big confidence builder on the steeps and chum and switchbacks of Little Bear. But lighting crashing around you is even more motivational. Climb out Little Elden, another faster smoother more confident unpopulated balls-out bomb down Schultz. And then home.

Good days. Some crappy stuff and bad weather, but I’m focusing on the good! Probably the 2 hardest back-to-back days I’ve done, the bike and I are bonding, my head got right, I am stronger for all the climbs with brake rub, and WASABI!!!!

Flag is, again, a super environment, full of friendly people, everyone says hi on the trails even the kids.

Heading home, I thought about the other cherry on the bike that needed popping: the rear drop out which doubles as a bottle opener. Bill, a usually taciturn fellow, gushed and said I would not really bond with her (he used the term her, not me, I see my bike as asexual) until I used the bottle opener. But no, that is the one thing I will share with Beckie. She did after all pay for half of it, and I think after almost 15 years if you want it to last you need to work to find things that are special to share. But now I think I understand what a man who believes in abstinence feels, on that night of his bachelor party at the strip club, thinking about his white wedding. “It’s going to look like the Helman’s factory exploded.”

Tired and weary, and having trouble breathing comfortably, but very happy I arrived home. G missed me, she wanted to help me wrench.

Dropped the bike at the shop the next day, and indeed the triangle was slightly bent. The awesome guys at Adventure got me back to pretty-good-enough, and I brought them a nice 6er form Trader Joe’s to say thanks for putting up with all my bullshit over the last few weeks. Its good, its getting back to the level of service I got before they moved locations. Somo is calling for next week. The final cherry is National, which should belong to Byron.

PS: Today, September 2, I taught G to say “bike.”