Anniversary Weekend

We went to Flagstaff this weekend...what a blast! It's been a long time since I've ridden out there, so it was an especially nice treat to be there. This was the anniversary celebration for Matt and me. What better spot to go? The weather was beautiful! Plus, there had been rain the past couple of days, so the trail conditions were superb. Nice, moist, tacky soil...perfect for mountain bikes! No pics from the Flag ride, but lots from Gallup...

We took off on Friday and stopped in Gallup to ride the trails out there. Matt took me on the loop used for the Dawn Til Dusk race, and then a little more.

Wow, these trails were really fun! Fast swoopy stuff with some small little technical challenges every once in a while, and views you wouldn't believe! There was a lot of TLC that went into building this trail system. Nice little details you wouldn't expect to see, like decorated cattleguards, custom-made trail signs, and miscellaneous trail sculptures/art. The town has taken a lot of pride in this area, and I'll definitely come back to ride this again! We got in about 20 miles in just short of 3 hrs of riding. We went at a pretty good clip (for me)...enough to make the legs tired!

The next day, Matt and I hit the trails in Flag. We had planned on doing a rather long 50-miler, but with pending storms brewing in the sky, we took an alternate route. We started from the hotel, took the road to Buffalo Park, and did the usual climb up Oldham...painful for me, I've done much better before. We rode Schultz Pass Road up to the top and climbed some roads out there before deciding it was time to head back down because of the storm clouds. We flew down Elden (fun, fast, swoopy, with rocky stuff here and there) and continued down Little Bear. Then came the climbing up Shultz Tank and Brookbank. That was a leg buster! After yesterday's intervals in Gallup (I did 3 rather hard intervals while out there), my legs were jelly...but I digress...we headed back from whence we came through Buffalo Park and back to the hotel. By that time, we were hauling on the road. I think we got up to around 27 mph in a couple of places. Not bad on a mountain bike! We ended up with about 40 miles today and 5000 ft of climbing...a new max for me. More pics and another write up on the trip are on Matt's Blog.

After the ride, it was time for a nice soak in the hot tub, then dinner at Alpine Pizza and beers (of course) at the Pay 'N Take.