Black Canyon Trail Building - Arizona

Yesterday the equestrians, hikers and bikers all got together to continue the work on the Black Canyon Trail system north of Phoenix. We had about 20 people show up to bash on rocks and lay down some really great trail. We added about 1,300 feet of new buff trail.

Not the most exciting way to spend a day, and the cramps in my arms weren't all that pleasant. But truth be told it was a great day. The cooperation and guidance leads me to believe we are creating something very kewl.

The most interesting part was routing the trail around an archaeological site that contained pieces of broken pottery.

Here is a vid that shows the pottery, and some other hi jinx.

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Pass Mountain & Hawes: Arizona

I met up with a couple other MTBR riders to ride Pass Mountain (Usery Mountain Park) and the Hawes Trails system. Shaker came down from Vancouver B.C. and was rolling on the his heavy all mountain bike, and CSTuttle is visiting from Moab, Utah.

We met up at the Wild Horses entrance at about 8:30. We headed out on and up Usery Pass Road for about a mile, where we entered the park to climb and circumnavigate Pass Mountain. The wash we came in on had deep sand for about half mile, but then we tied back into the main trail. The climb up took no time at all, but as we neared the top the trail composition changed from fast cinder to dirt and head sized rocks. We took a little brake to put our crash pads on, and then we bombed down the highly technical top section of the trail. This was a blast. Way fun.

The rest of the trail flowed nicely, as we casually finished up the loop. After exiting the park the way we came in, we headed back to the cars to fill up our camelbacks. Shaker called it a day at the point, and CSTuttle and I rolled into Hawes. The kewl part about where we entered was that is starts off downhill for about 3 miles. The trail here is fast and flows nicely. We made our way around to the Hawes Trail, and at the about the 22 mile mark I was feeling pretty fatigued. Knowing I had about 9 to 10 miles back to the car I wished CSTuttle the best of luck and headed back to the car. I took it really slow as I began to feel the twinges of cramps settling in on my quads.

About 100 yards before the last major wash (Power Road Bailout)out of the corner of my eye I spotted a big white mass climbing up a rock. I hit the brakes and it blew my mind to see a silvery-white horse grazing in such a inhospitable spot. I'm hearing from Chollaball that there is a group of about 10 horses that inhabit the area near the Salt River, and frequently meander into the area I was riding.

Anycow, heres a short vid of the day:

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Grand Canyon - South Rim

We've been here about 18 months,and we hadn't taken the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon. So my wife, mother-in-law, and her friend from N.Y. decided to drive up there and see what this place is all about. I can truly say that I was amazed.

Our first destination on this road trip was a quick stop to Sedona, where we visited the Chapel of Holy Cross, and then we hit up a couple of shops and grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was a little over cast and hazy, but the rock formations were remarkable.

From there we continued up scenic 89 and interesected with 40 at Flagstaff.

We pulled into the Grand Canyon (Mather Point) at about 5:00 pm, anticipating that the sun would set about a half hour later. Unfortunately, we had high clouds and it was hazy from a controlled burn on the other side of the canyon. So no amazing sunset, but the view was still incredible.

We stayed at a hotel back in town (just outside the National Park), and the next morning we headed back into the park, for day of awesome views and shuttle buses.

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