Well Bill I realize my adventures are far from the most important thing in your life. However I thought we had talked about the fact that Shane is transporting four of our bikes via stopping at a bike fest in Texas and will arrive Monday in Scottsdale with our bikes. That pretty much means that if I want to ride a bike in Sedona I have to rent one. Randy told me I would be happy to get back on my own bike after using a rental bike because for one thing my bike is set up for me. But to the contrary this is the best bike I have ever ridden and I would right now give my bike and $1000 for trade. All we did at the shop was set the seat height, adjust the rear suspension sag pressure, the air in the front fork and the rest of the geometry fit me perfectly.
I was just getting ready to get a report out to the group. I was in the saddle five hours today, most in my life. I was able to successfully mount the Garman which was not actually a good thing. I had a little boo-boo and the Garman now looks far from new – the display is a bit scarred. (Excuse the mis-spelling of Garman but I am dictating) I also need to stop by the Ace Hardware and pick up a little black paint to fix up the handlebars before I return my $5,500 rental machine. The Garman was worthless anyway because there were no trails loaded into it. On the other hand the “Mountain Bike Project” App that was loaded onto my cell phone with all of the Sedona trails was indispensable. Instead of pocketless cycle shorts I wore a chamois liner with regular shorts on top. The iPhone was very safe in my front pocket and easy to get to. I came across numerous people both biking and hiking who were wondering where they were and sometimes looking at big maps. So I just whipped out my cell phone and was able to show them exactly where they were standing on which trail.
These trails are different from any kind of riding I have ever done so there is a learning curve. From the get go I was very discouraged because I thought I was on a blue trail as part of a four hour course they had drawn out for me at the bike shop. I felt a little better about things when I found out I had taken a wrong turn and was on a black diamond.I thought I would be more intimidated about the additional exposure on the trails out here but being forced to keep your eyes straightahead means you don’t notice what’s to the left and right so much which is a good thing.I feel that I have made good progress and after three hours I was riding semi technical rock sections that I would not have attempted when I started.
I am giving up on the blog bullshit for now since it sounds like it is not that easy for people to access. I will attach some photos from today to this email instead. There is a photo that someone took of me that I am trying to edit however I have not been able to save the edit. I am sure Debbie will solve that problem for me. There is another photo that looks like a pile of rocks. It is a section of trail that I was getting ready to climb I was not successful. It is a bit steeper than what the photo depicts.
blobsbogin 