So we camped Friday night in our "usual place". The weather was fabulous and no one else was up there so it was sublimely peaceful. So much better than the campsites you pay for with noisy neighbors.
We got up early Saturday and went into Flagstaff for coffee and breakfast - a great way to start a big ride day off. Met up with the crew at 7 and was surprised to find a group of 11 willing to attempt to follow Ray around the mountain.The weather was nicely cool - a great change for us valley dwellers. So, we set off cruising up Schultz.
Pics of some of the crew. The pace started a little too fast for me to get everyone.
So we rolled up to the top of Schultz pass and folks took care of a little business, then it was off again.
Oh look, there is our ride leader. I had to sneak off from the pack to get a picture of him.
Onward to more climbing. Up waterline we went. This is a nicely gradual climb. Great for sightseeing and singlespeeds. Sadly, only Nancy and I and Ray were rocking one gear. Where are all the SSers??
The climb up waterline takes you through burned areas and eventually into a riot of Aspen. Yeah, it is a dirt road climb - but really scenic. Kurt explained some of the geography of some rock formations we saw on the way up - very cool. Eventually we reached the intersection of the Inner Basin trail. Haven't been up to the inner basin, but it is on our list. From there we rode the amazing singletrack down to Lockett Meadow. I would have had way more pics of this section (it is beautiful and a great trail), but my camera was being very bad. Here are a couple that I did get:
This trail eventually dumped us in to Locket Meadow campground. Then we hit the dirt/gravel road down the mountain. That's about 1000 feet of elevation loss on a road that has developed a whole lot of washboard since we were on it a year ago. It was tough just hanging on going down that. Sadly, Gil discovered at the bottom that he had lost his phone on the way down. He headed up to find it. So we were down to 10.
Onward to the glorious climbing up 418. More dirt road and more uphill. I always struggle here. Nancy and most of the rest of the group took off and left me behind. John was also having a less than stellar day, so he was back there with me. A little bit of light rain started to fall. I was digging it. Haven't seen rain for months. However, thunder announced that this may be more than a little light rain. As it started to get heavier and look like real rain, my chain broke. John stopped for a second, but I told him to go on. Put on my rain jacket and got out my stuff. The manner of the break meant that a quick link wasn't going to work. Fortunately, I carry some extra links and fixed it the old fashioned way. By the time I was done, it was raining quite insistently. A bit of small hail mixed in. Continued up the climb on 418 and saw Nancy - she had talked to John and came back to keep me company. However, she can't resist the call of an uphill and quickly dropped me.
G'bye
She eventually felt sorry and waited for me. As we approached the AZT, the rain stopped and the sun sorta came out. Maybe this rain was just a thing on the other side of the mountain and the rest of the ride would be in glorious sunshine. Right? Anyhow, John was at the intersection to AZT having a snack and trying to dry off a bit. We stopped and did the same.
We turned onto the AZT and started climbing (again). The sunshine turned to dark, then to some wicked thunder, then to rain again. So much for the sunshine. We continued to roll up and up the AZT. The rain eventually tapered to fairly dry. Then about 30 seconds of sun, then dark, then a little rain - rinse and repeat. Fortunately, the trails held up quite well to the rain. No death mud.
When we reached the top the rain had stopped. Ahead of us lay some sublime sections of downhill singletrack. We ripped it to the best of our abilities.While the downhill to Locket Meadow was really great, this was even better - and much longer.
As we neared the bottom of this section and it hadn't rained for a bit, I realized that I had pretty much dried out. Awesome.
But wait - more wicked thunder.Then the skies opened up.
But wait - more wicked thunder.Then the skies opened up.
From here it was about 4 miles of moderate up and down, then a couple more miles of some really nice downhill trails that were new to Nancy and I. These trails held up well to the intermittent rain that we experienced for the remainder of the ride. We got one burst of hard rain with about half a mile left in the ride - just mother nature asserting her dominance.
We got to the parking lot to find Caroline and Kurt as well as Ray still there. It was really nice of those folks to wait for us to bring up the back of the back. As we loaded our stuff up and tried to somewhat clean up, it started raining again - then it poured buckets. Good thing we weren't 10 minutes later.
Despite getting soaked multiple times, this was a great ride. After rolling into our place, where it was 107 degrees, I was fondly recalling being wet and cold.
Monsoon has begun in Flagstaff - can't wait till it gets down to the desert.
Full set of my pictures can be found here: My pics
