Old Man - South Mountain: Phoenix, AZ

My father passed away this past week, so I've pretty much been under a rock the past few days. I jumped on the opportunity to hang out with friends for a ride up a familiar trail, and then eat up some gnar on the way down. Durtgurl was also doing her shakedown ride on her new Lenz Lunchbox 29r. We met up at Durtgurl's house at 6:00 and road over to the Pima Canyon via Desert Classic to meetup at 6:30 with some more peeps.

Our plan was to ride up National, and then make a decision for a decent. I hadn't put much thought about how to get down; I just wanted to ride. Somebody mentioned 'Old Man', and it just seemed particularly fitting my current situation.

I hadn't been on 'Old Man' yet, but knew it was uber sketchy. And yes it was super technical and loose, but it was really fun. It is similar to Corona De Loma, because of the trail composition and pitch. To me, I think there are few more big drops on this trail though.

We had a nice breeze that kept us from overheating most of the day, but nearing the bottom we began to roast. Of the three flats our group had today, I was responsible for one of 'em. I had small side wall tear, that forced me to drop a tube in.

Big time fun.

Here's a vid of the day:

Click to play

A high res Quicktime version can be found here: Old Man - South Mountain