Arizona Thanksgiving Road Trip

-
Leah, Rachel and I
Monday Nov 24-29, 2014
All day cruise down an icy I-25 over Raton Pass to I-40 with aborted plans to visit El Malpais National Monument due to cold and windy conditions. Got to Dead Horse State Park to camp by 8pm. Blackhawk loop, site 111 tent site.

Early morning walk up Lower Raptor and back via the new Bones trail. About a 7 or 8 mile loop with awesome views. Scoped it out for tomorrow's mnt bike ride. Leah hooped at the camp site. Afternoon visit with the P's and Dennis and Kelly and Andrew showed up for late afternoon drinks and grand Pastetlie dinner.

Wednesday: Road the outer loop trails at Dead Horse. Bones to Rusty Bucket to Upper Raptor to Thumper to Lime Kiln. Awesome trails! Excellent grading on the newer trails with a some rough loose stuff on  the older ones. But well worth schlepping the bikes down here. Leah hooped at the camp site.


Afternoon at the P's for an awesome Gschnatzlets dinner.

Thursday: Rachel wandered around the park trails while I cleaned and groomed the bikes (swapped my rear brake pads). Leah hooped and got the attention of a polite young lad who couldn't resist letting me know how impressed he was with her skills. Over to the P's by noon to make lots of sauces for our holiday Fondue Bourguignonne dinner. With sauces made, Rach and I rode up Mingus "Avenue" for 40 minutes. The road starts way east over in Cornville, crosses town, and then becomes a rough dirt road as it heads uphill past the airport, the Humane Society, and the last new development before it enters the very prickly high Sonoran desert landscape. We reached a nice high point on a ridge looking down into a draw with an old ranch house before turning around and for a quick ride back into town. Leah hooped. Kelly and Andrew joined us for another awesome dinner after their day of hiking up Bear Mnt off of Boynton Pass Rd. After the eats, we all said our goodbyes the holiday visit.

Friday: broke camp early and headed up to Dry Creek Rd out of Sedona to hike to Vulta Arch. Blah. the road is rough 4x4 and not suitable for the bike rack hanging off the Xterra's hitch.  Headed up 89a instead and tackled the hike to the arch via Sterling Pass. Nice trail that climbs 1200ft or so then drops 1000 ft or so to the arch. Turn around and repeat. Leah hooped. Off we drove to Canyonlands Needle district. Camped in Loop B, site 17. Very nice. Got there around 8pm cooked and crashed. 

Saturday: early am breakfast to awesome views of the Needles district landscape. Sunrise from the top of the slickrock above our tent. Hiked the Big Spring loop. Leah hooped. Got back to Boulder by 8pm.  



Popular posts from this blog

Great Divide Mountain Bike Route 2020 - Gear List

-
Image
The summer of covid, the summer of people avoidance. Thus we spent July riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) from Boulder to Helena, Montana. Here's the route we took: (view the route details on RideWithGPS) It was super fun to start from home and catch a bus up to Nederland to kick off the ride. From there, a big ride up Rollins Pass and a day of dirt roads heading west from Winter Park brought us to the GMBDR near Ute Pass. A mellow pace, 1,152 miles and 82,373ft of elevation gain got us to Helena over 28 days. We spotted bears, moose, golden and bald eagles, a couple of badgers and a couple dozen fellow GDMBR riders along the way (all heading the opposite direction, north to south). And loads of wildflowers everywhere! We're so very privileged to have so much open space and beautiful landscapes to explore - and the time and health to make it happen. Here's my gear list: Bike Salsa Fargo Apex 1, 2020 edition ( details ) 1x32 with 11-42 in rear for me and 1...
Read more

New bike: 2020 Salsa Fargo Apex 1

-
Image
With the world closed off by corona, it's a good year to stick to the Rocky Mountains and ride the Divide. So we bought a pair of matching Salsa Fargo's to handle the dirt riding. Should be a good replacement for the old Vaya for future world travels. Wish I would have had it for Patagonia. More specs at  https://www.salsacycles.com/bikes/2020_fargo_apex_1
Read more

Bikepacking gravel roads around the Cloud Peak Wilderness in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming

-
Image
Here's a 7-day gravel ride we rode in early August, 2021. Yet another fine escape from the crowds! Stout climbs, smooth gravel, diverse ecosystems, undeveloped camping for all but one night.  We started and ended in Shell, Wyoming, parking on a side street after getting the OK by the cook at the Trapper Creek Lodge to leave our van there. The route took us all the way around the Cloud Peak Wilderness in the Big Horn Mountains. This mountain range is surrounded by fairly dry, high desert sage country. We yo-yoed up and down, into and out of the dry sage to the piney alpine three times over the 250 odd miles. Big, stout climbs and long, steep descents!  75+% of the route is on hard-pack dirt and gravel. There's a short 6 miles or so of more rugged riding past Medicine Lodge Lake on Forest Service Road 344, which is more of a motorcycle/ATV trail. And a mile or so of sandy single track just before dropping into Medicine Lodge Archaeological State Park. Both of these stretches wer...
Read more