Chill of an Early Fall

Well, maybe fall's not early, but after the lackluster monsoon season and a somewhat late starting spring/summer, it sure feels early this year. This week, the air had that bite to it, the reminder that old man Winter's on his way back up from the south, yadda yadda.

In short, all this means that, as Fatty pointed out, the best time of the year to ride is here.

So, I set out to do two things today. The first was find, and take pictures of trees just beginning to change colors. The second was to make it to Marshall Lake, atop Anderson Mesa, via the Arizona trail. A good challenge, I think.

The first changing trees I saw, at the bottom of Sandy's Canyon, from a spot I seem to stop at every time I'm on this trail.

An oak just starting to change.

Another one.

As I got closer to Marshal lake, more trees were turning color.

A stand of oaks trying to decide if they want to change colors or not.

Imagine coming around a bend and seeing this fiery tree. I love the different ones.

I made it! (it's a dry, marshy lake, I swear...)

A trail for another day...

Upper Lake Mary from the road dropping off the mesa.

Hey, I was up there about 15 miles and 2 hours ago!

And the parting shot, dropping down into Sandy's Canyon to head home.

The next two weeks are going to rock for riding.

Mileage: 30.6

Slippery Lockup.

Around Flagstaff we don't have headless parking meters or construction scaffolding, but that doesn't stop people from locking up like idiots.  Spotted this jewel on my way to work this morning:

 

So lets see... In order to steal this bike one would need to undo the quick-release seat clamp, slide the bike out of the lock, and put the seat back in?  Might as well just drape your lock over the top tube.  It does seem like they like the chain lock on the top tube, though.  They locked it up nice and safe to their bicycle.

Mileage: 61 (Two weeks of backlog, sorry.)

Loop trail day!

Thunderheads in the distance Friday evening.

Under rumbly dark skies...

FBO organized a loop trail building day today, and TC and I rode out to volunteer. The loop trail is a 42 (or so) mile loop of trails around Flagstaff. Or rather, it will be, once we're done building it. Not much to really write about, we moved dirt and rocks and pine needles around, had fun, talked, and had pizza, all while listening to the sky talk. It started to sprinkle right at the end, but just enough to cool us all off.

Oh, and on the way out of the private community we had to go in to get to the staging area, I got clocked at 33mph in a 25 by a your-speed-is sign on Henry with a pizza box bungeed to the front rack. *zooom!*




Good times.

Mileage: 8.7

Highland Trails

There's a trail that forks south off of the Soldier's Loop Trail, and I've never been on it, until today. The Forest Highland trail runs south from Fort Tuthill to Kachina Village/Forest Highlands area, winding through a couple washes and the Kachina wetlands. The trail is fast and none too technical, with some steep sections and switchbacks thrown in on the hills, and eventually lets out in a residential area. All in all, a great ride.

Looking out across the (dry) Kachina wetlands, with A-1 mountain in the distance.

However, people that let their dogs take a dump in the middle of the trail, and then don't pick it up need to be keelhauled behind an Australian cattle truck for 400 miles across the Outback. There's nothing like cruising along and suddenly getting sprayed with fresh dog doo and rocks covered in doo. Revenge is sweet, though, as I ran into said dog and it's owner. I informed him that he needs to pick up after his dog.

Then I flicked a piece of his dog's poo at him.

Mileage: 18.9

I think her jersey was red.

So, in my latest trend of insanity, I bought 9 Sobes at Safeway after work, then proceeded on a longish ride, instead of going straight home. Because we all know that riding a 45 pound fixed gear mountain bike with ~20 pounds of Sobe, and all my work stuff = strength training.

I'm not a masochist, I swear.

So, I was on the return leg of my ride home. Just starting, really, and I was pretty burned. I had just crested a hill, and was building speed and momentum to try to carry me up the next one, when I saw a pack of roadies on the other side of the road, coming the opposite way. I was tired, and was feeling rather impish, (Or maybe the word I want is annoying.) and so instead of the typical cylist "wave," (4 fingers raised off the bar) I gave a full on let-go-of-the-bar-and-wave-with-the-entire-left-arm wave, while smiling big and wide. They all started laughing. Then a woman from the group on a Trek Madone peeled off, did a u-turn and proceeded to race me.

And completely dusted me.

What, were you expecting a classic underdog comeback story?

Mileage: 18.2

Busy morning!

So my morning started off quite well.  First, on my way to the grocery, a yellow Miata (which I hate, by the way), turns left and nearly clobbers me.  Finally stops as he is across the bike path and waves me on.  My standard response of "Open your eyes, then drive!" actually got a unique and new response.  "I can't see!"  Brilliant!  Why didn't I think of that?  Cop pulls me over, "Why were you doing 150mph in a 30mph zone?"  "Officer, I'm blind and couldn't read the speedometer." 

Secondly, I stopped to take a picture of a bicycle I had seen yesterday:

It is free locked (u-lock through the rear wheel is kind of hard to see).  Way to go, eh?

Mileage:3.5

A day of odd experiences.

So my day started off rather oddly.  On my way to work at around 6:30am, I felt a light mist of rain hitting me in the cheeks and chin.  Looking up, there were a few clouds, but they were pretty far off.  Looking around, it was nice and sunny.  "Wonder if there is a sprinkler broken somewhere?"  Can't see it in front of me, it is too fine of mist.  Riding along, it felt like it was raining just for me.  Awesome.
On the ride home, it felt like I was racing the rain.  Had small droplets of rain on the backs of my arms and neck, but nothing on my face.  It rained this way all the way home.  Flagstaff has the oddest weather.
Then there is... The oddest experience of the day.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

It's called, Sporkenstein.  Built from spare parts:

And an old road bike frame:

I think he finally lost it.

Mileage: 7

K.I.S.S.

Imagine my surprise on Monday, when, as I sat ~two miles from home, taking a break and enjoying the scenery, I glanced at the B-52 and this caught my eye:

One, two, three chainring bolts, and a hole where the fourth should be...

Now, I wasn't terribly surprised, as I had romped on the bike pretty hard that day, and my reaction was "...Huh. How 'bout that?" followed by "How long has that been missing?" So I shifted to the granny ring and (slowly) finished the ride home.

Now, I'm a big fan of keeping things simple. Naturally, a single speed fixed gear is the ultimate in simplicity, but I don't have one to hit the trails with yet. (Even though I do it with Bi...) So, after thinking about it, and reading up on it. I decided that, instead of simply replacing the missing chainring bolt, I'd remove the big ring, little ring, front derailer, front shifter, and make the B-52 a 1x9. One ring up front, 9 gears in the back. So I did. Then I took it out on a test ride.

I hope I don't get rained on... or struck by lightning... or both...

I think the better rides are the ones when people ask you "So, where'd you go?" and you just laugh and say, "I have no clue!" That's where I went today. I picked up a dirtbike trail by the airport, and wound up on Lake Mary road several miles later, with thunder rumbling overhead. I may need to re-visit the trail, either on the mountain bike or the KLR.

Oh, and the 1x9 setup rocks. Test ride success on all fronts.

Mileage: 14.8

Way to go, eh?

So there I am, cresting the biggest hill on the way home when I spy this little jewel:

Way to lock up your bike. Erm, your rear wheel. Erm, your front wheel. Erm, both your wheels... But not the bike. If only they had a Brooks locked to the seat stays.

Mileage: 7

Random after work ride

Opted for a long ride after work... didn't go where I planned, but had fun anyways. Bi's current gearing is way too tall for some of the hills I forced myself up, but meh. I felt like suffering.

One workhorse meets another.

Mileage: 23.6

So, about that epic ride.

So, a couple weeks ago I alluded to the fact that I had defined my "Epic Ride." Today I got the chance to complete my epic ride as planned, and even go further than I planned on. The recipe for my epic ride is simple: It's got to be pretty, it's got to be fun, and it's got to push me to the limits of my endurance/skill/sanity. Today's ride did that, mostly.

I started out along the Flagstaff Loop Trail, and wound up in Skunk Canyon. The sudden change of scenery, from younger pines and grass to old growth trees and ferns made me think I'd made a wrong turn, and I wound up at the bottom of Walnut Canyon. I took some pictures, realized where I was, and hiked/rode through and onward to Fisher Point, and the Arizona Trail.

Skunk Canyon ahead...

...and behind.

I managed to roll along the Arizona Trail pretty quickly, and was coherent enough by the time I got to the toughest part of the trail to take a picture of it:

Yes, that's the trail. and I have to go up that. (I carried the bike up it.)

Almost out to the Cosnino underpasses, I had to take a picture of the mountains.

Made it!

The field of sunflowers that the trail cuts through... my allergies kicked in overdrive from this.

This ride wasn't my longest mountain ride, but it was one of the more intense ones, as far as the variety of terrain. I think I rode on everything but snow, ice and mud. Lots of climbing, and descending, and in the end, I felt like I could keep going.It was one of those rides where everything seemed to go right. I'll attribute that to the ride strategy I came up with. Drink Sobe while riding, and take a 15 minute break under a friendly looking tree every hour or so. While stopped, drink plain water, and eat cheez-its. I never felt like I was out of energy for the entire ride.

It was a good ride.

Mileage: 36.1

Catch-up post. Or is it ketchup?

So yeah. Post dealing with a couple of the bigger rides this weekend... Saturday evening Josh and I went 'round Soldier's loop a couple times, since he had never ridden he loop or the bridge trail. I think he liked it, though it was rather odd leading, since for once I knew the trail and he didn't. But I had fun.And we came across a guardian pine cone in the middle of the road at a trail crossing, warning the cars of crossing bicycles, under penalty of flat tires.

A very regal pine cone, I think.

Then Sunday, we all went on a nice ride around the heart of Arizona. The plan originally was to go to Prescott to get ammo boxes from a gun store, but I ruined it before we left when I asked if they were open on Sunday. Exegete plotted up a nice loop that took us to Clint's Well, through Camp Verde and Cottonwood to Jerome, where we had dinner at The Haunted Hamburger. Then we returned home via Sedona.

Stretching our legs at Clint's Well. (Photo credit: Josh Zamor)

The post office at Clint's Well. (Photo credit: Josh Zamor)

Looking over the Verde Valley from the Haunted Hamburger. (Photo credit: Josh Zamor)

Same thing. (Photo credit: Josh Zamor)

Waiting for dinner. (Photo credit: Josh Zamor)

A while ago, Exegete and I talked about how hilarious it would be to have a loud motorcycle horn on a bicycle, because sometimes, a bell is too... tame, especially when there's someone walking in the bike lane, and they can't hear you for whatever reason. On Sunday, while we were in Cottonwood, we swung by Exe's parent's house, and I mentioned this to his dad, who gave me such a horn. That night, I mounted it on Bi.

I foresee many people being scared off the bike paths with this setup.

Mileage: 8.5

Ride Music Deux

So, with some mild prodding from Exegete, my ride tunes solution he mentioned.

I enjoy having music playing, I really do. and more than that, I like good sounding headphones, not earbuds. (Don't get me wrong, Apple's earbuds rock. I just like better sound quality than earbuds are currently capable of.)

Now, my old iPod is a second generation beast, and the only practical place for it is either in a pocket, or a backpack. And since I only wear a backpack when I'm doing long-ish mountain rides, that leaves the pocket. As a result, I tend to kill headphone cables, due to the fact that they are constantly in motion while I'm pedaling away with an iPod in my pocket. This wasn't a problem, until a few weeks ago, when I killed another pair, and went to buy replacements, and found that not only have all the local stores stopped selling my favorite pair of 'phones, (Phillips SHS5200) but most of them don't sell any decent neckband style headphones. Bummer, so I went without tunes for a week. Rides weren't as enjoyable.

At this point Exe had already bought a shuffle, and was trying it out on his helmet. I liked the idea, and decided to see about repairing my favorite 'phones, and get a shuffle to clip to my helmet as well. So I cut an audio cable with 3.5mm plugs in half, and popped open the headphones and replaced the entire dead cable. I went from a 4 foot cord to a 14 inch cord, with the intention of keeping the shuffle clipped near my head. When all was done, just for fun, I clipped the shuffle to the headphones themselves, because that would just be cool if it worked out well enough to have my favorite headphones and the iPod shuffle all buttoned together in harmony.

A little experimentation and tidying work later, and this is what I ended up with:
Great sound, good comfort, and a new ability to control the iPod with ease that I never had before. The weight of the cord and iPod does pull the neckband down a little, but not enough to be an issue, especially on a bike. The lack of a cord hanging out to get caught on stuff is amazing, and I find myself looking for excuses to use it now.

In fact, I'm wearing them right now. *jams*

Mileage: 3 so far.

Ride Music.

Listening to music on my rides is something I rather enjoy.  I had been using my iPhone for music for quite a while, but now that I'm riding without a backpack this has become a little unruly.  I tried putting the iPhone in my pocket, but the headphones cables were too short.  I pondered getting an armband for it, but that could be very bad if I crash.
Then, Polar Bear, pointed me over to a blog post on FatCyclist about the Arriva headphones that Fatty uses.  How awesome are those!?  But, alas, they don't sell them in stores.  With my big head, I tend not to buy hats, helmets, and other head-related products, without trying them on first.  So I got to thinking, why not just attach an iPod Shuffle to my helmet (somehow) and use the already awesome headphones that Apple includes with the iPods?

The result:

 

Super easy to use, adds almost no weight, is still detachable for non-helmet uses, and can easily be controlled on the bike.  While not nearly as elegant as Polar Bear's solution (hopefully posted later), I like it.

My only concern is winter riding.  I don't know how well this little thing will handle the snow and ice that hits me in the back of the head in the winter.

Mileage:~45 (making up for missed posts)