Schnebly and The Hogs

We are staying at the base of Schnebly Hill so we rode out the door and took the singletrack. Munds Wagon trail is a sweet singletrack climb. Its got some really tough bits, but not tough enough for Collin and Tim. Its amazing the things that they and Nate and even Jennifer and me are riding up. We couldn't find Hangover, so we did Super D training back down and that was exhilerating.

Then lunch and an afternoon ride with our guide Tex. Tex did us Texas right showing us the Hogs. Damn fine, technical riding. By the end I was spent and it was dark. Another mexican dinner and another amazing day in Sedona

Sunday ride in Sedona

The locals are real friendly and pretty much rabid about their mountain biking. That devotion doesn't necessarily translate to speed, but it can. We were wanting to experience some of the locals rides so we joined the Mountain Bike Heaven Sunday group ride. The boys had taken a liken to Rama Jon, the owner. He is a NOD( gnarly old dude) and has lived in Sedona over 20 years. We've heard he knows all the vortex doors and we believe it because he would be riding behind us and then appear in front of us.

Rama and the rest of the crew were worried that we were racers into a fast training ride. We tried to say that we were on the ride because we wanted some socializing with the locals. The ride did start out pretty mellow and then we got to Special Ed trail. We told them that we had actually already ridden Special Ed, twice, so they generously offered to take us on something else. We were excited.

We crossed 89 and headed over to Ledge and Airy(Ledgnedairy) Wes was amazing showing us the lines over fun rock jumps and up steep little grunts. We loved this trail because it had crazy exposure, tiny loose tread and big rocks. It was gorgeous and gave me some good adrenaline. There was a crazy steep roll in rock that was an awesome view spot.

The mbh crew then took us up Tim's wash. This was the most technical trail that we have ridden because you had to keep it rolling and do step ups and gaps. The trails was mostly flat and some sand spots. The boys did great, playing around on tough spots and session spots they just found fun. Wes played around a lot and Johnny and crazy Dave liked to do some hucking.

We had another great day in Sedona. It feels so good to riding daily again...like a pro.

89B on the outskirts of Sedona

We made it to Sedona and our entourage has been camping out in National Forest on 89B. It is a beautiful spot. One morning Tim walked up on the hill with Ruby and saw some hot air balloons flying over head. It was a magical moment. Craig "mountainbiking in all 50 states" Bierly turned us on to the camp spot. The moon rise over camp and the stars have been real "out west" moments.

Craig took us on a good ride in Carroll Canyon, Pyramid, Special Ed and Ridge. He has GPS tracks of all his rides, so he has the cool trail beta. Collin, Tim, Nate and Jennifer are a blast to ride with. We have adapted quickly to the ledge and drop riding, as well as the exposure combined with the cactus. We are loving mountain biking in the warm weather and meeting fellow bike riders.

We have moved in to our new diggs down by the river. We are at the base of Schnebly Hill by Oak Creek. We are missing our sunny spot in the wild, but we can ride right from here and get on singletrack. And that is one of the best things about Sedona is that there is so much singletrack that is all accessible from town by bike.

Pics from Syllamo, Arkansas

We had a ball in Arkansas with great trails, some tasty food, interesting thrift stores and friendly folk. Mountain View is pretty far out off the beaten track, but worth a stay or do the NUE race there in May.

15 hours of Syllamo

We are in Arkansas! Syllamo to be precise. Say it like Sillamo. It is the Folk music capital of the world. We must be encountering our first vortex of the trip. The pull to get here was strong...driving 15 hours through the night on lots of straight roads. We made it and met with Andrea and had a good breakfast at Country Time. There were photos of Folk Music heros and me and Nate had a country Bologna Sandwich Platter. The bad road burn continued.

Andrea dealt with our bad road burn and let us sleep for a couple hours and then woke us up to ride. When she knocked on the door, I got a flashback of being in Europe at a race and having our manager wake us up to go training. Jet lag is for real and the pull of sleep after a sleepless night on the road was strong. But getting to see a bit of the Syllamo MTB trails was the right thing to do.

Situated on the banks of the White River, this is a mountain bike specific trail system. Andrea was on her Niner singlespeed and is a good rider. The rest of us were brought back to life with the first downhill on the Bald Scrappy loop. That orange blaze downhill was awesome. Its been too long, and it felt awesome to be back on the bike.

There was a nice mix of rocks and smooth singletrack. There were nice short climbs and fun downhills. There were some rocks and what made them so difficult was if they were wet, they were like ice.

Andrea made us some homemade mac and cheese with sweet potatoes and the sleepy eyes are on. Time for bed to get ready for tomorrow's adventure in this part of Arkansas.

7 degrees felt like 15

There was a good group of daytrippers over to White Grass today. It felt so good to get a long day of skiing in. We got second tracks(thanks chagakhan!) on the slope and warmed up with 5 or 6 up and downs. Then off to the pipeline for some nice powder runs and xcing up the Nordic National, over to the Breakfast bowl Flatrock Bow, Springer Meadows, and more slope turning.

I recently saw an ad for Madshus skis that advertised for their cross country downhill ski. I love that term because even tough I love to make tele turns, I still consider what I do to be cross country downhilling...kinda like super d or all mountain.

Its amazing how warm going up hill can keep you and then the thrill of going down keeps me warm, too. So when is 7 degrees out, it really feels like 15!