Monday, December 29. Mountain Biking at Fantasy Island. This is State Trust land; AZ allowed MTBers to create trails on it. They also graze cattle here, which strikes me as a recipe for disaster. This part looks like the dark side of the moon. It had rained recently and the area was full of mud and ruts. The ruts are interesting, they dry hard, like concrete. One shall stay in the rut or face the consequences.
We rode the Res Loop with no dismounts required. It's very benign. After coming back to its start we saw a sign for the Fire Loop and decided to try it. It was more challenging. This whoopty-do (MTB terminology for where the trail goes down and up abruptly) is called the Goal Post. It was not terrible and Jim rode it and liked it.
Then there was this.
It goes straight down into a wash full of big rocks and pot holes, up and then back down and then really up.
This one was just really really steep.
I was very glad to see this sign because it meant we'd reached the turn around point (all trails are one way) and that we could get back to the car without incident.
It was fun. We need to find a few more benign loops so we can increase our mileage sitting on the bikes instead of pushing/dragging the bikes. It's trial and error because all the maps are old and wrong.
There's a company here called SW Trekking, we met one of their guys up at the fabulous J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa. They take guests out for rides, most of which are older people, so you know they aren't taking them on really scary stuff. So I inquired as to how much it would be to hire someone for 4 hours to show us the benign places and provide some instruction for riding rocky stuff. We don't want their transportation, bikes, food or water, just a person. They guy quoted me $150 for one person, or $125 a head for two people. Does $250 for 4 hours of a person's time seem like a lot to you? It seems like a lot to me. I countered with $150 for both of us (which still seems like a lot), but he has not emailed me back. I don't really expect to hear from him. I think they're used to dealing with people way on the other end of the money spectrum.
We will be traveling in March. March 12 we depart for the Great Pacific Northwest, returning March 19. We'll be getting shoulder botoxed, having the physical, seeing the podiatrist for orthotics, tooth cleaning, and all of that. Hopefully the climate will improve just for me.
Yesterday we toured the Davis-Monthan airplane boneyard. Pictures will be up soon. Hope you are all well.
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