Rancho Relaxo 4, September 12-14: Alex put it on the calendar several months ago, and its always one of the best weekends of the year. Great Flagstaff trails, the end of summer, Alex’s awesome pad in Williams, friends who have known each other for a long long time, and most of all that Alex really loves entertaining and throwing a great party. The boy has talents.

This year was Matt, John, Ray, Kathi, Gary, Kevin, me, Alex and Byron. Its been four years in a row for most of us, 3 out of 4 for Byron and Gary, 2 for Matt and this time he drug John along from Santa Fe for his first trip.

I am more-or-less the strongest of the group and typically want to do more mileage than the rest of the crew. Last year, without my own car and proper planning for our differences, I got a little frustrated. This year, I drove up alone in the Acura, rode Prescott on Friday, and was more pro-active about getting what I wanted out of the trip. I had a much better time hanging out with everyone and enjoying the group rides.

I left Phoenix about 1:30, heading to meet my buddy Helimech in Prescott for a fun ride through Granite Basin. I’d only done it once during the Prescott Monstercross and hardly remembered the trail, so was looking forward to some flowy, swoopy technical singletrack. Mike’s route started up Trail 37 – an immediate 15 minute, tough climb full of waterbars. I dabbed twice, but am pretty sure I could get it all with more practice. Right as we crested the top, a bee flew into my mouth, and I distinctly felt the stinger pinch my inner lip just as I spit the thing out. Over the next 30 minutes, my mouth swelled up like a grapefruit. I kept wondering if the swelling would stop, and kept counting how many teeth it extended over to insure that I wasn’t having an allergic reaction. A painful distraction, a steep descent on Trail 40, and some sneaky waterbars that went from manageable to funnels within half their breadth, and I took a slow stupid endo that gashed my knee pretty good. 2 weeks later I realize I shoulda gotten a couple stitches. The blood just added to my ridiculous appearance, and if it weren’t for Mike having crashed equally-foolishly on my home trail, he probably would have dropped my stupid ass and headed home. I tuned out the pain, and it became a fun ride that reminded me a lot of Hawes – the terrain was different, but the fun and the flow and the effort was just as good. We finished late and Mike had to join the family for dinner…so no time for beers, and I was off to Williams via the scenic Rt. 89.

I picked up some first aid supplies and some cold beers in Chino Valley, and liberally applied all of them while waiting for the train to pass at Alex’s exit off I-40.

the gang’s all here, and I am stuffing my face

The Day1 route this year was going to be an All-Mountain Fest: up Schultz, up Little Gnarly, down Jedi, up Superfly, up the road, down Ricochet, down Secret, down Supermoto. It would combine the best of our two rides last year, minus the crapfest of Weatherford to get to the top of the mountain. Everyone bought into the route, so we were able to stick together and have a lot of fun.

Elden Profile

Jedi was easier than i remembered it…the steeps not so steep and the log obstacles not so intimidating. I had to take a few turns at some things, but got all but one trial. I tried to tell everyone my secret for the log rolls of staring at what is there and not what isn’t, but I think that is just one of those things you can only learn from experience. Some new trials on Jedi and a relatively un-rutted descent made it a great time.

Superfly and the road still gained about 700 feet in around 2 miles, but they got us to the top quickly and fresh enough for Ricochet. Alex found a new line through the rock trial on Ricochet that took me down badly my first weekend with the Heckler last year. You lifted up onto one big boulder, nosed down it and turned 90 degrees in about a bike’s length, then another immediate 90 degree turn down an narrow step. He got it first time, took me about 5 tries to get the motion of moving your weight all the way forward then all the way back then all the way sideways then all the way sideways again then all the way back.

I am not walking, I’m checking out the line on drop #1

drop #2

The Heckler rocked the descent, I plunged through everything in a great rhythm. We sailed right into the short climb up Secret, I was right on Alex’s ass and Byron right on mine, and somehow we lost Ray in the process. That sucked, but was the only downside to the day – everyone made it and no carnage. The last hour of the ride was a flowy, fast technical playground. And we got home early enough to have a great evening of partying.

cleaning after Saturday

who wants a half?

Sunday was going to be Bill Williams Trail in Williams. I’d never been, didn’t know what to expect out of the 3.5mile\1500 vf climb or the 2000 foot 4 mile descent. Alex led off, but I took over after about a mile, and slowly pulled away from him and John. The climb was burly, with many rocky stretches and about 40 switchbacks. But it only took abotu 1:10, and the climb gave enough breaks to make it mostly gettable.

almost ran this dude over, but he gave me a good excuse to catch my breath

you could see Mingus Mountain from the top

At the top, Byron challenged us to ride the 20 foot bench and then drop in to the trail. It looked tough, and while we were hemming and hawing he jumped on and nailed it. Alex and I followed, and diving into the steep descent I did not look back to see what occurred behind me.

The downhill started a lot like 6 Shooter Canyon – steep, tight, full of waterbars. After a few white-knuckled minutes, the grade eased and it became tight trail filled with cantaloupes and soccer balls. The last mile was a gnarlier downhill full of steps and boulders.

Alex led, and I followed. Between poaching his lines, and all the downhilling I’ve done over the past year, I felt totally cool and at ease.   It seemed like Alex wasn’t going fast enough, which was weird since the day before on the bottom of Supermoto our positions were reversed and I felt like he was climbing up my wheel.   I wanted to go faster, but was in such a comfortable zone I just hung on behind Alex and got the entire downhill without a dab.   Ray and Gary had gone back down the way we came up with the intention of getting the cars and shuttling everyone, but I knew that would take a while and I wanted more than the hour and a half we’d spun, so I stripped off my pads and hightailed it on the road 30 minutes back to the cars.   It was a nice end to the weekend cruising the mostly-flat 6 miles through the peaks back to the cars.