Sedona Cirlce Tour

Just got back from my first bike tour since moving to Arizona. Burly would be the best word to describe it, as well as a lost of fun. The landscape (obviously much different than what I'm used to having grown up in coastal northern California) on this tour was very new to me. Even after four days of riding I am still excited to see cactus and yucca. The Sedona area itself has an amazing and interesting geology. On day four we started in white chalky limestone and within 30 miles ended up in iron rich red rock. The climate is insanely dry (although we had a little rain our last day) and warm which allowed me to ride in a t-shirt for most of the trip. The whole time I had to keep telling myself that it was the middle of December and not July. Our focus on this trip was to explore the area but to try to avoid riding on paved roads, or busy roads at least. About one half of the miles were on dirt roads of varying conditions. The second day we rode Perkinsville Rd. which I would definitely rank as one of the top 3 roads I've ever pedaled. For having gone into it completely naive and for the most part relying on google maps (not recommended) we did pretty well. There were some hike-a-bike sections for sure, but only one instance when we abandoned our planned route for an alternative which was recommended to us by a USFS employee. Having only brought one forest service map (non-topo) I realize the usefullness of good maps and GPS units. But nevertheless we had no issues and had a blast. Here is a link to the route and below are some photos.

One of several rad canyons to rode through on Perkinsville Road

This rock formation reminds me of Turkey Tail mushrooms

one of the hike-a-bike sections

Perkinsville Road carved out of the hillside

more photos

Put some fat tires on the bike and went for a ride today. Instead of being a hassle, the snow and mud were fun to ride through. Checked out a little park just a few blocks from the house that has exercise stations, yeah that's right I was that weird guy doing sit ups in public.

Greetings from Arizona

Elk season is in full swing

Well it's been a week since I arrived in Arizona. The first couple of days I was here the temperature dropped down to single digits and snow fell rather relentlessly from the sky. A good break in time in my adjusting to another climate and landscape. It wasn't too bad, and I've heard that it shouldn't get too much colder than that. Either way I'm happy to have picked up a balaclava before heading out here, cold mountain air stings the face when you're riding your bike. Speaking of which I've been able to do a little of. Although there is still too much snow for any kind of dirt riding in Flagstaff, as I learned the hard way. On Friday I headed north to do some dirt road riding when I stumbled upon a section of the Arizona Trail, eager to ride some of it, I decided to ride it back into town. Well a few miles later and I was hiking more than biking so I headed back. Saturday Lisa and I headed down to a county park just south of town where we found more snow.

 Flagstaff urban trail system

Lisa and her new Rawland

 So today we drove 30 miles south to Sedona where you could ride in a t-shirt (as I did) in December. We rode the Bell Rock Pathway, a nice easy trail that wraps around some incredible red rock mountains. The terrain is so different than the Pacific Northwest, and the mountain biking is insane. Riding atop massive red rocks, blazing by huge cactus, you can't help but be in awe of the incredible surroundings. Whatever may be said about the spiritual energy of the place, there is something definitely special about Sedona. Here are some photos (hopefully enticing enough to make you come visit!).