The final flight

First, some background:

For the last 19 years Jim Wilcox and his wife Kim have put on an event called "Flight of the Pigs". It happens on the day after thanksgiving and is a bike ride that hits the major dirt trails around Phoenix - in a 75 mile loop. The ride is pretty diverse. It includes a very tough end-to-end traverse of South Mountain as well as spinning on relatively flat roads in the city. This ride is not for beginners due to it's length and difficulty. However, over the years the Flight has a attracted about 80 people each year who are willing to spend their entire day riding around the city.

Jim and Kim moved to Utah during the last year. So they were no longer around to run the event. However, due to this being the 20th year, they conned some friends (The Bingham's) into hosting the start/finish festivities and came back for one last Flight of the Pigs. This one was was a bit different since there would be a special finishers award to all who finished and everyone would get a special run of FOTP XX socks. To cover the cost of all that Jim had to raise the usual price by almost 250%. He was worried that he wouldn't get the 80 folks needed to sign up so he didn't lose money on the deal. On race day 157 people started the final flight.  

One more VERY important component of the day. It was Nancy's birthday. For some guys, this would mean they had to skip the ride and stay home to do all those things you do on a birthday. But not with my gal. When asked if she wanted to spend her birthday riding around Phoenix she said "heck yeah". I'm a lucky guy. 

On to the day.

As always the flight starts very early with the weigh in. Each person is weighed with their gear. The heaviest one to finish gets a special recognition.

The weigh in

It was a rather cold (for Phoenix) morning. Fortunately there were a  few fires to keep us warm until the sun came up. As people arrived, it started to get pretty crowded. 

One of the mainstays of the Flight in recent years has been Beverly Rogers (The Bevinator) and her very tasty chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately Bev was out with an injury - but she still brought cookies. Awesome.

Better than a Clif bar any day

Keeping warm by the fire

Sun is coming out. It is go time.

Our hosts for this year live right off the Desert Classic trail, so we were able to hit dirt right away. 

On Desert Classic

Here comes the sun

Up Pima Canyon and onto Mormon. 

The first big challenge of the morning. I hear that there are people who can clean this climb. I've never seen it done. Time to practice hike-a-bike.

Near the top of that first tough climb I took a picture and put my camera back in the harness on my pack. Or so I thought. A couple of miles later at the "waterfall" section I stopped to take a picture. No camera. Oh no. This was a new camera and not a cheap one. However, I had written my phone number and email address on it. If an honest person picked it up, I'd likely get it back - hopefully. At that point there was not much I could do but continue on.So, no more pics of South Mountain for a while. 

Last pic on SoMo

When I got down to Telegraph pass I stopped to wait for Nancy. Took my phone out in the hope that someone had picked up the camera and called or emailed. Sure enough there was a phone message from a guy named Gerald - a fellow Pig on the Flight. Oh joy! We arranged to meet up at the gathering at San Juan. I'm so happy that there are good folks like Gerald out there. When Nancy lost her GPS a year ago, it had her contact information on it - but was never returned. So, not everyone is as honest as Gerald - I wish him much good Karma. 

After Telegraph is a nasty climb/HAB section, but it gets you up to the ridgeline - which is spectacular. All of Phoenix is laid out below you. This trail is really quite fun, until the end when it heads down the mountain. Then it turns scary. Lots of loose skree and pointy rocks on very steep downhills. This is where you make decisions about how much risk you can tolerate. Once you get down the mountain it is a shortish ride over to the San Juan trailhead for the first gathering stop. Time to chill, eat, talk, and wait for everyone to catch up. Here I met up with Gerald and got my camera back. Much joy!

We headed down to the pavement and prepared for the next section which would be canals and pavement to Sacks for lunch. 

Lets go, Lunch is waiting.

South Mountain in the rear view mirror

Canal riding

Getting ready to do the sprint up 7th Ave

Once we hit 7th Avenue it is a brisk ride straight north until the turnoff for Sacks. This is where the pace is usually the fastest and us singlespeeders get dropped. It was still fast this year, but we did manage to not be the last ones there. So that was nice.

This is living - lunch, sunshine, friends. 

In the past this little sandwich shop has seemed a bit overrun with 80 hungry mountain bikers. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle twice that number this year. However, they were super efficient and got it done quickly. Clearly, they have gotten this down to a science. That meant less time in line for us and more time recovering and eating.

Lots o bikes. 

All good things come to an end. Back on the streets to start working off those calories. Again we headed north on 7th Ave. This is a very busy street. But, given our numbers, we occupied one of the three lanes.

Pavement ran out and the T100 trail in the North Phoenix mountains began. These mountains are smaller and less challenging than South Mountain, but there is still plenty of work here. 

In any big group like this you'll see lots of interpretations of mountain biking. Fat bikes, full rigid single speeds, etc. However, this is the first time I have seen someone on a ride of this length on a BMX bike. Just watching this guy made my back and legs ache. And yeah, he finished the ride. Hard core for sure. 

On the T100 trail there are usually a couple of stops. This year, some kind soul had a case of PBRs at the top of a climb - mandatory stop for single speeders. 

Break time

Carbo loading

I've seen folks on tandems in many different rides, but this one kind of amazed me. South Mountain is a challenging trail on a regular bike. I can't even figure out how these two got that thing over the mountain. Fortunately T100 is a bit more open.

This trail was not without it's challenges. This climb is a tough one. Good for practicing those bike pushing skills.

Random Christmas tree in the background

In the last couple of years, the wife and kids of one of the regular FOTP riders has set up a lemonade stand by the side of the trail. This is another excellent stop. Especially since there is an option of "hard" lemonade. And this year there were piggie cookies. Another chance to stop and chat and enjoy the day. Thanks to Doug and his family.  

Tasty lemonade and cookies

For the rest of T100 I rode with some folks keeping a pretty good pace, so didn't stop for pics. Besides I knew that the trail ended at the "grassy knoll", where various treats would likely be waiting. 

Sure enough, there was ham, cookies, beer and other consumables. None of this was part of the fee for the race and none was organized by Jim. This was all just various folks pitching in to make the Flight extra fun. To all who did that I say thank you. Most excellent.

Tasty, tasty ham

The "grassy knoll"

Chill time before hitting the road

After a nice long rest we were back on the streets again.

Jim was giving Nancy a push down the hill

At the front of the pack - a rare thing. 

Shadows are getting long

Jamming up another intersection

On through streets and canals to Papago park. We did a quick circuit through there and then on to the Pyramid for the final gathering spot. Time to put on lights. This is the tomb of a former Governor or something. Very odd. 

Sun going down.

The tourists were wondering what the heck was going on

I brought a string of  battery powered Christmas lights for my bike this year. They don't look like much in the pic, but they looked great when it got dark. 

From the pyramid we made our way to Tempe and rolled down Mill Street. This is the main drag near ASU where there are lots of restaurants and such. Lot's of folks out walking - surely wondering what we were all about. 

From there the pace picked up and Nancy and I tried our best to spin fast enough to keep some folks in sight. We were semi-successful and eventually made it back to the finish. 

Hot barbecue, kegs, and warm fires were waiting. Oh yeah. We ate, drank and swapped stories. Of course there was the awarding of the FOTP XX finishers awards. Jim decided to do the awards in weight order this year, lightest first (remember, that includes rider/bike/gear). First name announced - Nancy Gray. I wasn't surprised. Super light single speed, one water bottle, no pack. and that little dynamo of a rider. Yep. Lightest piggie of the ride. 

About the finisher's award. We had gotten little pig's wings in past years. This year Jim stepped it up by having a local jeweler (Hoss Rogers) do a special sterling silver medallion that could be a pin or could be used as a bike stem top cap. He did a really nice job - as you can see below 

It was an excellent end to a really outstanding day. I think that everyone agreed that they were happy to have been a part of this event and sad to see it end. But at least it went out with a bang. 

Thanks to Jim and Kim for many years of fun flights. It's been great. 

Big loop around/through Phoenix