Thursday, 4 December 2008

Sedona (Arizona) MTB Trip

I had been looking forward to a trip to Sedona for biking for ages. I have known of this classic Mountain Biking area for years. It was great to hear that Russell, Margaret, Colin and Karen normally head to Sedona for Thanksgiving for a Mountain Biking Trip each year. All up there were seven of us.

Anyway the riding was all that I thought it would be. The tracks are many and varied. No big climbs, just some short ones with short downhills and flowing flattish singletrack. The rocks and dirt even with 2 days of rainy weather were still so grippy. You could rail flat corners like they were banked and as for slickrock its amazing.

Submarine rock which we biked to and on, on the 4th day is awesome. You can bike up ridiculously steep grades of sheer rock. A very cool feeling and then bomb down the other side.

The number of cactus especially on one track called the "Chapel Trail" was very cool. You are literally guiding yourself and your bike between huge cacti just wanting to tear you apart on your first slip up. Though for the most part everything I found was rideable downhill wise though there are some very fun techy bits I really enjoyed the challenge of the technical climbing. Be in on single track or slick rock due to the grip you could manage to get up some pretty steep pitches. Though they took it out of your legs it was wicked fun. Especially when the at the crest of the climb you knew there was some sweet singletrack for bombing down on the otherside.

So other than the biking we has a few good meals, checked out the tourist spots while some of the others who did not ride as much did some great hikes. The area is stunning, never seen an area like it. The rock really is that red. You can even buy locally made T-Shirts stained with Sedona Red Dirt. Anything for a few bucks aye but they were unique. I give them that.



The weather was mixed. The first couple of days were overcast and rainy with some good downpours and lighting. The 3rd day saw the weather getting better and on the last day of riding it was lovely and sunny. Of course the best weather was on the day we left. Still it was wicked overall. We drove back through Flagstaff and Williams. We stopped at Williams (a classic Route 66 Outpost). Had a great lunch and then continued the mega 460 mile (740km) trip home. For the most part through Arizona it was good. 2 lanes, slamed the Camry onto cruise control at 84mph and let her roll. As soon as we crossed the border into Cali it got busy and the road worse so 84 was no longer possible. Once we got onto the I-15 at Apple Valley for 25 miles we were in a massive jam. Never seen anything like it and it was a pain in the butt. Well actually the foot :-) Still I was happy I was was not way further down the I-15 towards Vegas. It was taking people on this day 12hrs to drive the 4hr route from Vegas to LA. The smart people figured this out, turned around and went back to Vegas.

Anyhow enjoy the picture slideshow. As normal never enough riding pictures but I will also be attaching some shaky videos from my new headcam when I get round to making them.

Later,
Kurt


Sedona Mountain Biking - Lhama Trail from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.


Sedona MTBiking from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

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