Flagstaff and Sedona

Brother-in-law Tim and I met up in Flagstaff last weekend to do some mountain cycling. We had originally planned to go to Moab, but the weather forecasters thew us off. Cutting 6 hours off of my drive time and a couple hours off Tim's was a bonus too. From the looks of everyone's Fall Moab pics, it seems like we went to the wrong place.

Nonetheless, we found ourselves in Flagstaff. I rolled in around 9:30 in my Arizona clothes: t-shirt, shorts and flipflops, and proceeded to make camp in 35 degree weather. Luckily it wasn't raining while making camp. Once again, Ashleigh and I registering at REI when we got married paid off, as I slept warm in my 0 degree bag and our nice tent kept us dry. Who needs pots, pans, and linens right?

It rained off and on throughout the night. Just enough that the trails were damp but not soaked that morning. We rode up Mount Elden that day. We realized that it's probably more of a hiking trail after that last turnoff... we were rarely on our bikes for more than 20 yards. But we did get a good 2500' climb in, in just over 8 miles of riding. We literally rode right up into the clouds above Flagstaff. Coming down it started sleeting and raining, and the trails got wetter and slicker. There were some fun sections coming down, but we were ready to be done by the time that, uh, we were done. Some gross chinese food and a movie later, we turned in for cold and wet night number two.

We decided to break camp and ride in Sedona on Saturday. Then we'd both drive home that afternoon, rather than camp another cold night and drive home in the morning.

The weather was warmer further South and closer elevation-wise to the sea. We had a good time riding Cathedral Rock trail in Sedona, and only added about 5 miles of riding by getting lost repeatedly. Of course, we were the only ones on the trails that missed turns. (Apparently I'm good at taking wrong turns. Just ask the pro women at 5 mile pass...) Sedona is Moab like with some steep ledge-laden climbs. Super fun riding. We ran into the Crank Brothers crew, there were like 15 riders all with CB wheels. We stopped one and asked them why they all had those wheels? Did thy know something we didn't? Well, they knew someone we didn't, the owner and product manager of CB, who were also in the group. I told the guy to tell his CB buddies that I have fallen out of love with their pedals and am switching to Shimano's, and we went our different ways.

We ended the ride and had a good late lunch at the Blue Moon Diner, and headed home. A good weekend, except for the cold and wet.

Tim was constantly trying to talk me into getting a suspension fork and some gears for my bike. I kept trying to talk him into buying his own bike so I could ride Ashleigh's (geared and suspended) bike instead of him. I'm caving into the suspension...will he cave into a bike? BTW, Tim, Ashleigh says you can't borrow her bike anymore coz she's riding it from now on.