Good morning. I was long overdue in sending my riding friend Randy an update which took a long time to write. So I am just going to forward that to you. Some of the earlier paragraphs might be repetitive. The file was too large to send the photos in their original size. I hope there was not too much resolution lost in the downsizing.
Bob

Hey Randy,

First let me express my sympathy for the weather you have been having.  Thinking about my friends suffering back East has taken some fun out of my vacation ( OK that’s a lie).

I need to catch you up on some stuff.  Once I came down to Scottsdale on Monday afternoon things were kind of busy for a while getting situated in the house, figuring what we were doing, co-ordinating with the other house, etc., so I didn’t do much mail for a couple days.

Yesterday’s ride was the most significant experience in my mountain biking life – the 40 mile PicketPost Trail that has been on my mind for a couple months.  But first let me bring you up to date on the end of Sedona.  I think I told you that last Friday, my first day in Sedona, I rode for 5 hours, then Saturday, which was going to be a recovery day, I rode another 4.  So Sunday I started to do my last ride.  30 minutes in my back went into spasm.  I got off the bike, I was dizzy  and I was bent over like Quasimsoto.  I realized riding was less painful than walking so I continued the 7 mile loop but couldn’t do any hopping uphill.  I was still in bad shape at the end of the loop so I had to call it a day.  I took a massive dose of Aleve and iced the rest of the day and evening.  I found a chiropractor a short walk from my room.  It turned out he gave me a fantastic adjustment.  At least Monday was a good rest day but I didn’t know if I would be able to ride for the coming week.  Tuesday was a fairly easy ride at McDowell Preserve.  We met up with the Jackson house.  My back was ok riding but it was still painful to walk.

So the next day, yesterday, was Picket Post.  We were being guided by a couple, Jeff and Nancy who used to live in Downingtown but moved to Scottsdale for jobs – early 40’s, old friends of Chris.  Very cool people – she teaches at ASU and Jeff works for Oracle.  We got up at 4:00 AM – got on trail at 8:00 AM.  The ride was not only 40 miles but required heavy backpacks because we needed to carry lots of water We still had to stop at a river to take on more water with filtration.  It was an hour round trip car shuttle.  This place was isolated in the middle of nowhere with no support.  So we made some plans with car keys etc. where I could bail out, say after 12 miles or less because if my back seized again it would be a bad situation.  The irony was my back was perfect but throughout the day the rest of my body was destroyed.  Potential cramping everywhere.  It was 4,000 feet climbing.  After the river it was a 2,000 foot continuous climb.  At points I could only walk 100 feet at a time without stopping to rest – a hard way to make 40 miles.  My calves wanted to cramp from walking.  There was constant on and off ledge exposure throughout the entire day.  Within a half mile from the start I ran into a cactus and took on three cactus balls the size of squash balls lodged in my calf and ankle.  Nancy, our host, stopped in back of me and stepped right onto the same cactus group.  Then Ben got nailed by the same cactus. Nancy got out pliers for extraction.  I had fortunately packed a mini vice grip.  I wedged it under the cactus, closed my eyes, and flung it out.  It shot straight across into and through the glove on my other hand.  I still had to use the grips to pull out all the needles still sticking out of my leg.  They are all barbed.  Then I repeated the process for the other two cactus balls. Several hours later I came straight up on a small rattlesnake in the middle of the trail – no time to react. He was coiled, then rattled and squirmed as I bounced over him.  I had been totally exhausted at that point but I went into the fastest 10 second sprint of my life.

All in all I finished at 4:45 PM, 8 3/4 hours, rationing water to the end. The big boys came in about 52 minutes earlier, but they had also waited for me to catch up earlier at the pass at the top of the 2,000 foot continuous climb.  Shane, Joe Bothel and Ben (who hadn’t slept for 3 days due to a breakup with his fiancé) came in first.  C-jack was close behind, then Yip-yip and few others including our guides.  Dave Schindler was also fairly destroyed and came in 20 minutes before me.  He had offered to ride with me but I told him to go  on because we had cell phones except they only worked at higher elevations.  I was actually surprised there was not a larger gap between me and the others – but everyone was suffering too.  I was lucky.  If it was 10 degrees warmer I might have needed a helicopter extraction.To me it was one of those two or three “rights of passage” I have experienced in life, maybe topping the stormy 5 day Bermuda race.

Others are doing a supposedly easy ride today.  I have to take a full lay day.  I am only 8 miles from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West which I plan to visit today.

Here is a you tube link to Picket Post Trail. There are many others.  Starting about 2:00 minutes in and especially at around 2:40 it gives a glimpse some of the rocky sections and the exposures.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F_NiwK8_65g

I’ll put in just a few photos for now.  the one after the ride are of Jeff and Nancy our hosts.  I only took 2 or 3 on the ride for obvious reasons.  Also with all of the exposure I tried to lock in 30′ feet ahead on the trail and not let my eyes wander off the ledges.
All photos below are after Picket Post ride except 5th one – at a restaurant.