AZ Trip-Day 5 Quadruple Bypass (MacDowell Mountain Preserve, and Park)

I have found my favorite ride in the Phoenix area! I had read about this ride, and had gotten the intel on how to put the trails together to make this ride happen. I started up the Windgate Trail, and it also turned out to be one of those trail systems that has a ton of hikers on it. I must have passed like 50-60 hikers and only three bikers—compared to Black Canyon where I passed two hikers walking together. Everyone was pretty cool, so that was nice as well. As I was going up Windgate I was a little worried cause I was already walking my bike though a good number of sections. I did this mostly to save my strength since I knew it would be a long day. I was a pretty happy man at the Windgate pass. Had a great view, I knew that the Bell Pass wasn’t as big of a deal to climb since you did not go all the way down then back up. At the top of Bell Pass I saw the downhill and was excited and little apprehensive with my brakes having gone a little squishy (I think I need to bleed them). The downhill off of Bell Pass was fun, and I was only white knuckled on this 50 foot section near the top where the trail really dropped off. After getting down this trail I took the Paradise Trail. I would have liked that trail more if it did not go so close to the neighborhood, but beggars can’t be choosers. I stopped before tackling the Sunset Pass. I was not a fan of the first ¼ of this trail with its blown-out huge rock jeep track nature, but once it really started going up, it was nice. I really liked the ridge ride at the top, and the downhill was one of the funnest of the trip.

The next part of the ride was the part I was the most worried about, as you have to go through a gated community to get to the Dixie Trailhead. I went up 145^th Street, and saw a bike route sign, so I followed it. As I was riding this Jeep road, I knew I had made a mistake and I should be biking in the neighborhood. From the topo map, it looked like the jeep road would meet the Dixie Trail eventually. I think I saw a sign that I had entered MacDowell’s Park (Fontana Hills). There was a map on the sign that I had not seen anywhere on the net. This map made clear where the trail head was in the neighborhood, and that you can take the P (trail name), and the S (trail name) to get to the Dixie trail. So seeing the map I was happy because I had confirmation I was going the right way. The S (trail) was a tough trail in places with very steep switchback where I had to walk. I was rewarded, though, with a really sweet downhill to the Dixie Trail. I was tired, and was happy because I knew that the hardest parts of the ride were done, and that I just needed to do one more big climb. I was riding the Dixie Trail, and saw that there were two ways to get back to the Windgate Pass. I came to Prospectors Trail, but it wasn’t marked, so I decided to stay on the Dixie Trail. Once I saw the Coachwhip Trail I knew I missed the trail that was on the topo GPS I was kinda following, but knew the Coachwhip Trail would take me to the Windgate Pass. I got to the Windgate Pass, and was very happy man again. The Windgate downhill was fun, and as I was going down I realized whoever came up with this route was smart. The Windgate hill was the hardest to go up, so it was best to be tackled first. I came down the mountain and took a wrong turn somewhere, ending up at a bigger trailhead and the equestrian area. When I got back to the 104^th St. trailhead, though, I had done 36 miles over 6,500 ft. of climbing, so I was pretty proud.

Thoughts:

• The MacDowell Preserve, has had a major over-haul, with several major trail heads that have water and and parking(so you don’t need to park at the grocery store)
• This kind of riding reminded me of the East Coast riding I like—where you do some major climbs with the reward of long downhills. The trails where not overly technical like South Mountain and some in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve can be, but they still had some rocks and other bits added in to keep it interesting.
• I can see the Sunset Pass being a great test to get up the whole thing without dabbing.
• Even though I kinda messed up the Fountain Hills area, I think doing the more trail version is the way to go.
• I know this will be one of the rides I do next year.

AZ Trip-Day 4 South Mountain

After the big day I had on Monday I decided to take it easy and do a shorter ride. I had ridden the Coast to Coast on South Mountain at the spring fling before, but wanted to check out the dessert classic, since I had not done it before and it would be an easier ride (also since I was alone I didn’t want to chance it with crashing too bad). I enjoyed the ride, ended up doing a little more hike-bike then I thought on some of the side trails, but was rewarded with some nice down hills. I wandered around past the Helo pad trails and then decided to head on back directly on the Dessert Classic trail. After getting back to my car, I had more in me, but I decided to just save it for my ride the next day.

AZ Tip-Day 3 Black Canyon

The Black Canyon trail I had done 2 years ago at the MTBR Arizona Spring Fling has grown (65 miles) and is expected to be 85 miles when complete. I really liked the trail because you could ride it without worry about breaking your arm falling in a bunch of rocks. I decided to start from the southern area where I had finished 2 years ago on Table Mesa Rd. I had wanted to ride south for a bit then back north to the Black Canyon Trail head parking lot and back. I didn’t see the trail going south off of Table Mesa Rd. I ended up going on an ATV trail that dead ended, but got back to the trail I knew. I went north and was amazed at the amount of spring vegetation and the wild flowers in bloom. The biggest disappointment in the ride was the middle river crossing. With the winter rain Arizona had gotten, the river had become wider and the crossing just). I had another first on my trip after the earthquake—an encounter with a rattlesnake. I have experienced snakes on trails, usually as they slither away, and one or two times I’ve bunny hopped over them. I came around a bend and was about to do a dip in the trail when I saw a snake curled up in a striking stance. I held up and when I did I heard the telltale rattle. I backed off and threw some rocks to scare it away, but I still heard the rattle when I tried to ride on through the dip. The snake was under a bush hiding, but when I threw more rocks he eventually went on his merry way.

By the time I got back to the Black Canyon parking lot I was already tired—but I was only a little over half way done. I then went back and took the western option. I got a little confused and the river was really washed out. I had to walk around in the sand to figure out where to pick up the trail. I ended the day with my first long mountain bike ride of the year.

Random points;

• The southern trail continues, but you can see it a lot better coming from the north, not coming from the southern trail head.
• The gates on the eastern trail were a little annoying, mostly because I was very tired. Not sure why they are needed.
• I do like this trail, but I was amazed yet again, how slow your avg. speed is because of all the turning.
• Next time I do the trail I might start even farther south and just ride to the river and back.

AZ Trip-Day 2 Phoenix Mountain Preserve

For Easter Sunday, I wanted to be able to have dinner with my aunt and uncle, my two cousins and their families. I knew I couldn’t spend all day on the trails. I had ridden the Phoenix Mountain Preserve more than any other trail system in the Phoenix area, so I knew my way around the park. Plus, it was only about seven minutes from my cousin’s house.

I got up early and was on the trail by 8 o’clock. As usual when it comes to Phoenix, there were tons of hikers. I must have passed 70 throughout the day; everyone was nice and courteous, which was always good to see on a shared use trail. I started at Dewey Dream again, which is the middle of the park, and decided to do the eastern half, which has more trails and variety. As I went along, I was never lost, but sometimes I wasn’t quite sure which trail I was on. I ended up going on the 302 toward the south end of the park, which has some pretty steep drop-offs that caused me a scary moment or two. I had to walk down two of them—better safe than sorry. I went up the 8A trail, which was where I dealt with the most hiker traffic. I got some encouragement from the hikers—or was it just strange looks?—as a mountain biker going up a really steep climb. I did pretty well, but I had to walk some of the rocky stair steps. After that I worked my way to the eastern end of the T100 trail, turning around when I realized I needed to get back soon after. I took the fenced trail that parallels the T100, which I think is the smoothest in the park. I ended up trying to do a rocky cut-through, where I had my only wreck of the day. I got hung up and couldn’t unclip—and the park boundary fence made a nice purple tattoo on my ass. I got back to my cousin’s house within 1 minute of the time I said I would be there—go me :)

Side note: At Easter dinner, I experienced my first earthquake. It was in northern Mexico and was a shallow quake, which I guess reverberates more and allowed it to be felt all the way in San Diego and Phoenix. It felt exactly like the effect of the ground “swaying” when you get off a cruise ship. At first I thought I had low blood sugar from the hard ride, but then the pool had water sloshing out of it.

AZ Trip-Day 1 Dewey Dream Park

This was my third trip to Arizona to get some good mountain biking miles in before spring came to the East Coast. Usually, I go in February or early March, but this year since I was attending a wedding in Vegas April 10^th, I moved my trip to coincide with the wedding. In 2009, I had to forgo all but one day of riding since I got the flu and ended up with a temperature of 104 degrees. This year I was hoping for a better trip.

Day 1 Dewey Dream Park

After getting to AZ late on Friday, I leisurely put together my bike Saturday morning, got the bike rack set up on the rental car and decided to do a shakedown ride with Kennedy, my cousin’s daughter. I had ridden with Kennedy two years prior, but we rode on the street and a paved trail. I decided this year to try to take her on a light foray into mountain biking. We went to Dewey Dream Park, which is part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. We did some of the trails, which were harder than I thought they’d be, and considering that her bike did not have low gearing or shocks, she did fairly well. We rode a little bit on the trails and the paved bike trail that goes along the park. All-in-all, it was a good little spin—I got to spend some quality time with Kennedy and make sure that the bike was working well after being taken apart fully and then put together again.

First Long Ride of the Year

From March 20th

I hadn't ridden with the PPTC crew over the winter cause of the snow and whatnot. This was to be the first big ride of the year. The ride that was chosen was ZapMan. This ride starts from Marshall, VA and does Chester Gap before Front Royal. The big monument of the ride is the 6 mile climb up Blue Mountain with the last 2 or so miles being dirt/gravel.

The day was a great spring awakening with a high of 75+ so that shorts and even a short-sleeved jersey could be worn. There were around 8 of us at the start. I had carpooled with Chris and it was good catching up with him on the way there. We went out of Marshall at a leisurely pace, with me going off the front a couple of times on some of the rollers. Once on Chester Gap, Jonathan took off on his own with the rest of us following. Rudy set a good tempo that was right around where I needed to be up this gradual climb, terrain that doesn't really suit my talents best. Once at the top, we started this descent with Glen trying to catch Jonathan, followed by Rudy and me. With my winter weight, I was able to plummet down the mountain at sixty pounds over Jonathan's 135, passing and catching Glen in the process. The five of us bridged up together and rode into the rest stop at Front Royal. (At the rest stop, I tried to talk Ed out of getting the Hostess cherry pie while I got the Dutch apple danish. The cherry pie would later not feel so good on the Blue Mountain climb.)

We then left Front Royal, going through a neighborhood that has two streets "named after" two of the guys on the ride--Ross and Cook. We went along the railroad, then the Shenandoah, to the bottom of the Blue Mountain climb. The Blue Mountain climb is around 1,600 ft. vertical but doesn't really bite until the last four miles. We started up the climb, which is some uphill rollers, continuing until the first switchback--from then on everyone is going his own pace. I wish I would've talked to some people a bit more about the climb. I had done it once about four years ago and remembered that it was pretty steep and gravel at the top. Beyond that, I couldn't recall much else. I started off going at a pretty high cadence, distancing myself from the rest. I wasn't trying to be first as much as just trying to keep a fast candence and keep it smooth. Jonathan and Ed were around me, with Jonathan creeping closer to me. We hit the gravel, where I started distancing Jonathan again and really began to feel the climb. I was happy that it would soon be over, since the crest was just ahead. DAGGER--that was only the first crest.

Jonathan caught up to me on the slight downhill, as I lamented the fact that no one had told me there were two summits. Nonetheless, the short downhill and flatter section helped me get my breath back. I had to accept the fact that a man who weighs 135 lbs is almost always going to be faster going up a big climb than someone who weighs close to 200. I then got into my own rhythym with Jonathan slowly distancing himself from me. I finally hit the pavement, which signals the top of the climb. I had lost sight of Jonathan completely and Ed was a ways behind me. There is a county sign that's at the bottom of the downhill. I thought maybe if I could see Jonathan, I'd be able to catch him on the descent. Yet again, my lack of knowledge of the climb prevented me from being aware that there were two more big rollers on the ridge. With Jonathan nowhere in sight, I decided to just go down the mountain at a comfortable pace, practicing my techniques on the switchbacks. Unfortunately, I was riding the Michelin Crylons, which are very durable but don't have the best grip--so I wasn't as confident as I could be on the corners. As I came out of the last corner, lo and behold, Jonathan was in front of me. I thought, "shit--I might catch him," so I started speeding up. He still had not noticed that I was getting closer to him. I ended up passing him and gaining the county line by 20 ft.

We then waited for everybody else to finish the climb and I put down a double shot espresso gu and had some of the tasty throwback Mountain Dew (new retro Dew made with sugar cane, not corn syrup). People headed out, and I ended up with the second group since I was still messing with the bottle. The first group was really charging along, while my second group was a little slower. Rudy was not on his best day, as he had not gotten a chance to eat at the bottom of the climb. I decided to try to bridge the gap solo. I jumped out of the group and was going about 30 mph, which only lasted about a minute or so (I guess all that caffeine really kicked in). With the first group up ahead, I continued to whittle down the distance over the next couple miles. I finally caught them about 3 miles from the finish. We completed the ride totally dead, knowing and feeling that we had done our first long ride of the year. I ended the ride with a good meal at home of meat, pasta, and vegetables.

Friday with the Boys

I went on Friday for a quick ride with Kevin and Leland. I wanted to go do a Mt. bike ride since I was riding road on Sat. My back was not in the best of shape since I had taxed it a lot during the week, riding a little too much. Leland and I got there in time, then Kevin took his sweet time even trying to fix his front brake. Out on the trail I wasn't really feeling it, and it might have also been I was running too low of a gear ion the SS cause I couldn't really keep up with the boys. After one lap Kevin and I went and did another 1/2 a lap and ended the ride around dusk. I am looking forward to riding with Kevin at 12 hour hours of Lodi in the SS class. I will see him next weekend at the Ride the Ridge Race down south.

First Hard ride of the year

On Sunday I went out with the DCMTB boys(Kent, Tom, Mike, Jonathan, and Mike) and we did this 45 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing. The weather was to be nice, so it was a good day for a hard ride. In hindsight I would of done my "The Good, the bad, and the Hilly" ride out of Riley's since Frederick was about 10 degrees cooler and over the mountain was even colder. I rode up with Kent, and we ended up parking in snow at the ride start at the bottom of Gambril rd.
The ride started rough right away going up Grambril park road. I had put on a 11-28 cassette and I was happy I did. The Gambril climb was definitely a wake up call. I rode the climb mostly with Tom and I would ride most of them with him. We re grouped and then went down the mountain, where Mike K. really seemed happy with the ride, compared to the uphills. The next climb was Harp hill, and Mike K. was giving me a hard time so I went at Harp hill, and I think I blew a gasket on that. I went up the climb a bit faster then the rest, but at the same time I was just trying to keep the pedals moving. I had to tack to keep any kind of cadence going.
After Harp we regrouped and then went to Catoctin mountain park, there was climbing as well, but more gradual. We did a lollipop and the climb coming back, I almost had to give up and have Tom go on his own. Once on the downhill Mike K. came out of nowhere, showing his great descending skills. The last climb on the agenda was I believe something School that we had done coming down. The climb was a little broken up which helped. I went up on my own and Tom yo-yoed with me. I almost wanted to get off the bike at one point but 20yds later I saw the stop sign ahead sign so I knew the top was close. That was it for me I did well on the climbs, but the endurance was gone. So when we regrouped I rode fine for a bit until I got the leg lock on my quads, so Mike K. and Mike S. and Tom fought it out on the ridge to down back to the Cars. I think Tom would of had it if we both just kept on going after the climb.
Observations of the ride:

• Jonathan does this route a lot, well it isn't a shocker he has a triple!
• Mike K. Showed some good descending skills and that he kept some of his condition in the winter.
• Mike S. seemed to riding a little better this year then last.
• Tom seems like the person I should try to train with we were around the same speed.
• Kent get the Iron Man reward he was riding a 39-23 while I was riding a 36-28.
• Don't go so hard on Harp hill
  

Snow riding before Snowapocalypse

f


Sat.
I went out riding the last weekend of January in the snow on Sat. and Sunday. The Sat. ride had promise, but turned out to be not that good. I went riding at Wakefield. I had been at volleyball and was going to get some more of my workout on with some riding in the snow there. By the time I got there the snow had gotten too deep. I like to ride in snow that is like 3-4 inches. The snow was closer to 5 or so. With my SS I couldn't stand on the hills so I was slipping. I had an ok time of it on the flatter stuff. The snow was slippery and not very good at cushioning the fall. I was hating life going down the bermed downhill where I fell twice hurting my knee and arm.










Sun.
I was to ride with some folks on the CCT and Fairlakes, but after Saturdays's adventure I decided to just ride the C&O canal. I rode the SS and the canal had a fair number of users walking and CX skiing. I was able to ride fairly well with my SS, I had a leaking ft. valve so I had to run the front tire a little higher then I would like. It was sometimes faster to ride in the fresh powder and hit real ground then to ride in the ski tracks. I started from chainbridge, and then by the time I got to 495 I decided to ride with a Bike Doctor rider who I be playing leap frog with. He was bolder then I riding a CX bike in like 6 inches of snow. We rode together with me gaining on the rougher sections, and Eon gaining when going through fresh powder where he could get to the real ground and use his gears. We rode to Great Falls, and I then turned around. Ended up doing like 2 hours of non-stop pedaling(and I really couldn't stand up). I am glad I ran into Eon, who I found out was on the rain ride I had done the week prior with his teammate Evan, and the DCMTB crew. He gave me the extra motivation to get to Great Falls, cause once I was there I had to ride back to get to the car :-).

Arlington Hills

Well I have found myself in the bad situation that many cyclists see themselves in. I am out of shape and heavier then I would like to be. I had hurt my back doing the SM100, so didn't do CX but did running instead. I was doing well with the running then I got plantar fictitious- corrected kevin Plantar fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) ! To add insult to injury I was sick most of December. This added up to me being the heaviest I have ever been. At this rate I can race the clydesdale class!
I play volley ball through out the year, but in the fall and winter I play on the weekends as well. I still need to get some biking in so what I have been doing is a afternoon Saturday ride. I did my first one, and it ended up being a DCMTB west ride with Tyler, Vince, and Mark.
Tyler had never biked in Arlington so I decided to give him a tour of some of the hills I do. Mark was running late, so Tyler, Vince and I did the double banger of Walter Reed and then Oxford. We then went to Mark's house which was harder then I thought it would be top find.
After Mark's we did Wilson, then up to northern Arlington for the hills there. One hill we did I call it Jim's hill after Jim York who showed it to me, Mark had never done so that was a little treat for him. We finished the hills with mini Alpe d'Huez then took George Mason back home. I will try to keep these rides going if the weather is good enough, and hopefully people can join me.

Tyler Arlington Hill Tour

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