I rode in Flag last weekend. Beckie had a conference, a free hotel, and a need for a babysitter. Thurs afternoon and Sat afternoon were mine to ride, the rest of the time split between hanging out with G at the hotel, sponging food off the conference, and some work.

the goal for Thursday was to ride Jedi as part of a big Elden loop, and make it back to the hotel by 6:30 so Beckie could get to dinner. i was going to climb Schultz en route to Ricochet on Saturday, so I figured this time for variety I’d take the steeper shorter route up Rocky Ridge to Lower Brookbank. i knew that would suck, but it really sucked worse than I remembered. so much summer powder on the trail i was getting totally bounced around on Rocky Ridge, which I thought was pretty easy last time I had done it. I let a little air out of my tires on the way up Brookbank, continued to suffer, and was at the bottom of Hobbit Forest in about an hour. i love Hobbit Forest but again its a different trail in powder. Last year at Rancho Relaxo II i got the whole thing but one spot climbing, this year it was like I’d never seen a rock before.

“wow, i’m out here from the midwest, we dont have anything like this here. Like this rented Specialized?” said by tourist as he\she wipes blood from elbows.

that is what I felt like anyway, except for the blood. Some days you’re just not riding so well, better to accept it than fight it. a well-deserved break after 7 miles and 1:15 of climbing, then down Hobbit Forest, down Little Bear will cure any feelings of inadequeacey. A deer or something about that size bolted off the trail right in front of me, i really got into carving the turns, and then after skidding out on one I realized I had a pinch-flat…letting the air out on the climb…it figured.

I had fallen off my pace to get back in time for Beckie and also hit Jedi (3:30 hr), so I tried to decide if I should bail or hit the road to save time or what? I was having such a disappointing ride from a skills perspective, I really needed the newness of Jedi as a pick-me-up. So, whatever, Beckie could wait a little…I waited for her to get on the road earlier this morning, compromises had to be made! Going up Little Gnarly and i was feeling all that climbing and it hurt, but figured if I was standing my girl up I damn well better be riding and not pushing, and soon enough Little Gnarly topped out in Dry Lake Hills and I made my way to Jedi based on some guidance from a rider earlier in the day (thanks bro!). At first it was pretty ho-hum, mostly flat with an ocassional log obstacle. They were constructed and had 1-2 feet up\down each, but were pretty easy. i started to get a better feel for these types of obstacles which I never get to hit, and that was quite fortunate cause soon enough a genuine tester appeared. It went 3-4 feet up by means of a thin – maybe 6-8 inch wide – board propped up against the obstacle. First time I went up tentatively, and got up top ok but off balance with no momentum, which led to an awkward get-out. Next time I went back and focused and zero’d in on the board…up, over, down…sweet! The trail got much harder as it traversed and descended back around to Little Gnarly. I got all the downs but some of the up-slope obstacles i passed on; i was alone, loose conditions, end of the day…it was the smart move.

Back down on Schultz I flew down, flew down 180 into town and called beckie to learn she had left all of G’s clothes at home, so was at Target, buying G a new wardrobe including swimming pants for about $35…its nice to be a tinyHuman. Back to the hotel!

That night, Friday, and Saturday am I got to spend lots of quality time with G. We swam, hiked, played, and she helped me clean my bike. After the conference ended and we checked out, it was back to the base of Elden for another ride. Again Beckie ran with G, this time I was exploring a new route up Schultz, Weatherford, then Ricochet to Supermoto.

Schultz was a fun, slow climb up for 4 miles until intersecting with the road and the Schultz Tank parking lot. I found Weatherford, and this is where the exploring began. On the map, Weathorford looked to be about 2 miles and 800 feet up, and that was basically the deal. What the map didn’t show was how loose the trail would be…it was 30 minutes of mostly unredeeming blue-color work, a long grind to the top. There were a few moments of nice passages through lines of trees, but mostly I gave a sigh of relief when I got to the National Forest boundary and the turnoff.

A quick downhill with some whoopdees, then a mostly-hidden turn onto the much-ballyhooed Ricochet. Ricochet did not disappoint; it was tight and twisty singletrack through the woods with an ample helping of rock obstacles, staircases, and log obstacles. Not a lot of elevation change, but a gradual downhill over a great variety of challenges. I faced another BIG log crossing, and was pleased to see myself making improvements on each tough challenge — hit it hard, go up with confidence, find the line down before you crest the top. Ricochet ended too soon, but with some map help and instructions I quickly found more sweet singletrack on the Secret trail lower down the ridgeline.

Secret was not quite as technical, but still had its share of short, hard ups and a few technical downs. More log obstacles as well. There was one giant one not long after a hard, fast up. I was just barely recovered as I rolled up on it, but was feeling good about my prior success and figured “all the others have been well built…just hit it strongly and look for the line down!” Turns out the log on the downside had a giant rotted hole in the center. I did such a good job spotting the far side when I came over the top, I saw that gap the whole way as it swallowed my wheel. Fortunately I reacted enough to pull back and just have a bad sideways dismount — a prong to the groin from the saddle, but otherwise a damn good save.

Secret gave way to Supermoto, which had been the talk of mtbr for the season. It lived up to the hype and then some. The top half was flowing tech riding over a rock strewn lava field. The slope was perfect, and for 2 miles you worked the bike around all manner of rocks large and small to earn every few yards. It then opened up into a swooping, track-like downhill to the bottom of the mountain. Probably the best run end-to-end I’ve done yet in Flag. Except I got lost by heading right and not left at the bottom and came out on the wrong side of a neighborhood. i worked back to the Rt. 180 and a couple mile spin out back on the road. i can totally handle that with the payoff being the rest of the ride. Can’t wait to go back again this summer after some rains wash the trails.

Byron had to cancel last night on our AM ride. He is incontrovertibly weak and has his priorities wrong, but its crucial to our ongoing jockeying for bragging rights to determine if he flaked or if he simply bailed.

The Facts:

1. he waffled all week, but committed to the ride Thursday night
2. he took an ugly spill on National on Thursday, PRIOR to committing.
3. he sent me 2 emails asking for directions and clarification to the parking area on Friday
4. his cancellation occurred just outside of the 8 hr window for a decent night sleep.
5. he has a longstanding reputation for being wussy about getting up early
6. he is a better technical rider than me, so had at least one huge advantage in his pocket for in-ride heckling.

The Analysis:

1. In for a penny, in for a pound. Once you commit, the door to second-guessing has been opened.

Verdict – flaked

2. He said the fall was no big deal.
   • Point: a spill on The King can have lingering physical, equipmental, and psychological effects only discovered later much like a concussion. One must be respectful of this power.
   • Counter-Point: Byron said the wipeout (which I did not see, but only heard and shit it sounded bad) was a long extended save and really resulting in nothing but broken rhythm.
   • Point: Byron lies to show how tough he is.
   • Counter-Point: Byron is tough

Verdict – push

3. The emails indicated a clear pattern of commitment.
   • Point:One might say they were necessary to the information gathering required for a competent ride decision to be made.
   • Counter-Point:While he might not have known the exact trail head, he darn well knew mostly where he was going and could not claim it was soooo much further than he originally thought.

Verdict – flaked

4. 8 hours is 8 hours.

Verdict – bailed

5. Byron’s prior sleepy-headedness can not be held against him, since he did give fair notice. But we know he is a soft little meatsack about crack’o’dawn. hmm…stupid fair notice trumps all, grrr, stupid fair notice.

Verdict – bailed

6. Cancelling a ride where you can whoop-up on your buddy’s skills is poor strategically, but actually to my benefit. Byron would never miss a chance to acknowledge how he got something that I did not :-).

Verdict – bailed

The Conclusion:

As much as I hate to acknowledge this and not be able to lord it over Byron on subsequent rides and \or siteeations, this was a clean bail.

I was supposed to ride Pass Mtn. today, but some mtbr hookups fell through and then Byron bailed at the last minute.   Karma for this ride was bad so I would do my roadie.   No overhead, to make up for all the planning for naught.

Got up at like 4:15 and puttered around, got rolling at 5:15 and it was just getting light. I hit 39 going down the hill on Power, and then ran into the sweetest blast of cold air coming off the river. for almost 10 minutes until the short climb out of the riverbed it was like winter! the sun framed perfectly behind 4 Peaks, it looked like the AZ license plate. Some point into this 10 minutes of bliss something darted across the road about 100 yards in front of me…hard to say what it was, but it moved like a bobcat. Before I could reflect further on what the critter was, I got smacked in the face by 5 minutes of near-blindness. It was only a question of when i’d be riding into the sun, but the actual event was so much more tangibly unpleasant than the idea of it, it was like a physical blow. it hit me like…like…like staring straight into the sun…orange wave of squint and burn everywhere at once. Eventually the angle improved and I could see again, and noticed a dead skunk in the road that was hit but not run-over…hoped it would stay that way until I returned.

Worked my way up to the B-line, down to Butcher Jones Beach, and then down down back to the river all still in shade! An hour and a half of great weather so far…and the skunk was still intact! Had a good climb up Usery managed to stay above 11 most of the way, and a workmanlike finish to the ride in 2.5 hrs for 44 miles.