It's just a BIG Ditch...

Jen and I needed a rest day soooo we headed North a short 80 or so miles to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. This is of course, "just a big ditch" as stated by a Flagstaff local on my 1st visit many moons ago. It is a very diverse, unique landscape carved over millions of years by the Colorado river. The south rim is a more desert landscape with small pines and sagebrush. It differs greatly from the north rim, which sits at a higher elevation and more vegetation such as ponderosa pines and aspen. I prefer the north rim over the south but...I don't enjoy the 5 or so hour drive to get there.

At the south rim, we acted like the tourists that we are and tried to fit in w/ all of the foreigners? We visited all of the overlooks, went to several of the lodges, walked a couple hundred feet down the Bright Angel trail, and even got to see some wildlife!!!!

Here is a link to some of yesterday's ride photos:

http://s495.photobucket.com/albums/rr318/tnmtnbkr/Flagstaff/

I'm a Climbing SPECIALIST!!!!

Today was our 1st real day in Flag. We hit the bagel/coffee shop x the street from our hostel. We entered w/ to a warm "Welcome" from Tyrus, a worker @ the hostel, who had informed everybody there we were from TN and here to mtn bike! We were introduced to a local, Keri, who rides SS and gave us several good ride ideas. We took off to do the FAMOUS Little Bear trail. Well, in Jay fashion I gave Jen an option I knew would be more difficult than the standard ride....She bit on the DUMB idea. The standard was supposed to be in the neighborhood of 18 miles, elevation (climbing) a lot; We ended with 30-31 miles & a BUTT load of climbing!!! The other element to this ride was cruisin the woods w/ really dark clouds and thunder all day. Jen wasn't really sure about it but I reamined calm and optomistic about not gettin' rained on. We made it to the car just as it began to rain and proceeded to rain for the next 4 hours. All in all a GREAT day of ridin' in Flag...thankfully tomorrow is a rest day @ the Grand Canyon.

We made it!!!!

We finally made it to Flagstaff on Monday afternoon. We got checked in to our Hostel, the DeBauex. It's right downtown and very convenient to everything. Jen and I went out for a quick ride on Mt.Elden. We promptly got twisted and turned around b/c I didn't take a map. We rode several of the secret trails and of course, they were all black diamonds on the map when I checked it out l8r!!! Jen was a rockstar and did very well; ridin' strong for the 20 or so miles we did. She really liked the trails and the TOWN! We had dinner last night @ the Beaver street brewery...FANTASTIC food and beer;) So far so good...
Here is a link to check out more photos from our ride in Gallup:
http://s495.photobucket.com/albums/rr318/tnmtnbkr/Gallup/

ENJOY!!!!
Trip totals:
Drivin' milage 1700 or so..., Ride totals 70+
I'm already feelin' the effects, seein' as I am not a x country rider:)

Ridin' Gallup

Sorry for the delayed post...we've been busy ridin'!!!!!!

Soooo yesterday, we got up and wasted some time to allow the temps to go up a little before we rode. We headed out to the Hgh Desert Trail system north of Gallup. It basically parallels the northern side of I40. We parked @ the west trailhead (Mentmore) to begin our ride. This trail system is a series of 3 connecting loops over 3 different mesas w/ one side close to the interstate. I chose for us to ride the Dawn 'til Dusk race course. Of course, I chose the most difficult route possible!!! We ended up riding about 22-24 miles in about 3 hours including the photo shoot. This trail system lived up to the hype featured in BIKE mag about a year ago...It far exceeded our expectations!

Hope the rock doesn't fall on her head!!!
Jen cruisin' the tech descent on Mesa 3

Jen found some little friends

Now off for ride #2 of the day. I had emailed Bill, the President of Gallup trails 2010, to try and ride together @ the Quaking Aspen trail. This time we could just sit in and ride...no stoppin and tryin to figure out where in the heck we are? Bill invited us up to his cabin in the NF to eat, drink, and ride. He had a really cool, rustic cabin right on the edge of the trails!!!! Our ride was set for 16 miles w/ Bill and his life partner, Albert and his wife who own High Mesa bikes, and another guy. We set out on the loop @ pretty moderate pace. Jen and I had skipped lunch as to make our scheduled meet time @ Bills cabin; Sooooomid-ride I was feelin it. The camelbaks were runnin low on H2O and no food was found in them. The group got split w/ Jen and I amongst the fast kids???? We descended the Quaking Aspen trail we'd climbed the day before and MAN WHAT A BLAST!!!! Once @ the rode Albert said it was only a couple of miles to the car...We made it. This poor fat kid was whipped. I had nothing left in the tank.

Instead of following our original plan, we opted to crash in Gallup for the night and killed some GOOD 'OLE Cracker Barrel!!!!

After all was said and done; our ride total for day #2 was right around 42-43 miles for the day while riding @ about 8000' avg elevation. Can u say Acclimate?!? We can't...

Day 2:

Well...we did some more driving 2day. Jen and I were both almost over the trip before we even got to the good stuff!!! Sure am glad we stuck with it.
We made it to Gallup with enough daylight left for a quick ride. Having picked-up the Gallup waypoints guide book earlier in the day; I scoured through the book and found a short but oooohhhhhh sssssssssooooooo sweet 10 mile loop w/ 100% singletrack! The trail we rode was called the Quaking Aspen loop. It's located in the Zuni mountains of the Cibola Nat'l Forest. Only minutes off I-40, this is truly a hidden gem. I don't know if those DirtRag guru's who wrote the ride guide for I-40 got this or not. But this is a MUST ride if you're ever in the area. This trail is AWESOME!!!!!! It is a gradual climb through lush meadows, pine and aspen groves, through dry creek beds and washes, over slick rock to a pond, and then a BIG RING downhill run w/, just enough tech rock features and ruts to keep it interesting, back to the car. This was just what the doctor ordered for Jen and I to get fired up about being on our trip.

Road Trippin' 2k8

Well Jen and I are on our long awaited "Ultimate Road Trip"...
This trip will take us on a journey to the Southwest where the mountain biking is epic! The trails flow like silky dirt ribbons of singletrack down steep mountains, through aspen groves and ponderosa pines, mountain meadows, high deserts, across creeks and streams.
We began our journey from Nash-Vegas this morning rollin' out @ 6am. We made GREAT time flyin' across 40 West in the X w/ minimal stops!!! Jen's probably the BEST co-pilot I could ask for on long trips: 1) she slept at least 7 hours of our drive, 2) ate 2 of B.Davis famous cookies+2 bags of m&m's+ Wendy's taco salad+ ?# drinks+ a sugar covered bagel+ Venti 6 pump xtra hot skinny chai+ a gas station hot chocalte= no wonder she rides soooo much to stay soooo damn skinny!!!!
We did have a succesful day of driving to put the trip off to a good start. We are only 30 miles from Texas hold up in a little town in Oklahoma. We stopped in Oklahoma City for a short break. While there we saw the National monument for the Federal building bombings from 1995. It is the 2nd time I had been there and remember getting the same creepy feelings all over again. It is a very peaceful place, despite the remaining signs of destruction. There are 2 huge walls, one on each end of a 100 yard long rectangular reflecting pool. On one wall 9:01 and the other 9:03 representing the last moment of peace and the first moment after this life changing act of terror. There are chairs down one side of the pool; one chair for each person that perished in this tragic event. The irony in the chairs is that some are adult sized while others are smaller representing the children who died. There was a daycare in the bottom of the Federal building for the employees working there. The children had little to no hope of survival. After our visit, we went to an area of town they call "BrickTown". This was, I hope, a vision into what Knoxville should do...It was an amazing revitilization project with countless bars/resteraunts, new basketball arena, baseball stadium, and many unique boutique shops. We of course found the brewery; The Bricktown brewery. Excellent beer!!!!