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After eight years in the valley, I finally rode the infamous Goat Camp Loop in the White Tanks. All those years I lived on the west side and was riding the competitive loops… all the while Willow, Mesquite, and Goat Camp were up there just laying around waiting for me… Sure I’d heard about them but when I asked the park rangers years ago, they said they were too rocky for bikes. Rangers.

Sure, Goat Camp is a rocky beast but it’s not too much for the adventure-hungry semi-insane or skilled rider. You’ve only got to be one or the other, but both doesn’t hurt at all (unless you fall). I made it out today with just a couple of scrapes, no hard crashes. Pretty happy about that. My first day of Christmas vacation and I have one epic ride under me.

Photo by Kathleen

Today’s ride consisted of a group of seven MTBR riders, including one Mike Curiak, the famous big wheel builder and Lenz rider. Left to right, DurtGurl, Mikesee, AKA Monkeybutt, Salty Dog, tonloc08, TheBarqsMan, and Cactus Joe. Scott and Chad were going to ride today but bailed.

There wasn’t as much HAB as I thought there would be, a lot of the tough stuff in the beginning was rideable. Once up above the initial buff stuff, the climb was incredible. For the most part, it wasn’t techy but, but it was at a pitch that motivated me into a sweet climbing groove. Around every bend seeing the next climb was inspiring. I could do this.

While Mike C. was taking pictures like crazy, I was enjoying the groove of the climb too much to stop and play photographer. Even with all his stops, he was back on the bike and climbing like a madman ahead of me. So not many pics from me on this ride, but I’ll link to some shots from the group later.

The descent is almost indescribable. With one adverb and an adjective I’d say it is dangerously incredible. If I want to keep riding this trail, I’ll have to consider a couple of things: body armor, a couple more inches of travel in front and back, and about 3 more inches of wheel. Watching the 29ers roll through the chunk was a treat. The combo of skills and bike (Mike C. + Lenz, DurtGurl +Lenz) made riding this stuff look easy. Christmas is coming up in a couple of days, I wonder if it’s too late to order a Lenz from Santa?

I was also amazed at the skills of Jeff and Cactus Joe. They nailed all the big stuff on their 26ers, a Turner and a Nomad. Spiral Staircase, Jackhammer, they rode through it like butter. I need to ride with guys like this more often. Thanks all for a great time.

Goat Camp MTBR ride 12-23-08 from DurtGurl on Vimeo.

Mike C. photos in Picasa

Mike C. mtbr report post

My good friend and new riding buddy Nate gave me a giant tub of Powder Lemon Lime Accelerade. He said it makes him puke so he pawned it off on me, one who is always willing to try new sports drinks.

I mixed up a batch in the kitchen to give it a shot. Now I understand why Nate gave it away so easily. Not only is there a gag reflex in the aftertaste, but when I gave some to my neighbor who happened to be over, he said immediately upon consumption, “this tastes like toilet water,” and I concurred (so did my 7 year old daughter).

So that was my initial impressions along with those of the innocent bystanders in the kitchen with me. With 55 servings left in the tub, I thought I should give it a go in action, you know on the trail… I will tell you this: When you are out in the wild all food tastes a different. I say different, but what I mean is better. Instant oatmeal is nothing but a slop of tasteless mush if you eat it in the comfort of your own home surrounded by a fridge full of bacon and eggs. But when you are miles and miles from civilization, camped out on a plateau in Escalante, and you wake to an unexpected bone cold snow covered desert, with nothing but 2 cups of water, a couple of instant oatmeals and a 15 mile hike ahead of you, those precious oatmeals taste like heaven. You see I’m setting you up for the taste of Accelerade on the trail..

Now I won’t go as far as saying that on the trail Accelerade tastes like oatmeal in the wild, but I will say that out on the trail Accelerade does deliver as promised in energy, hydration and recovery, and the taste…is bearable. Nowhere on the tub does Accelerade boast taste as one of its strong points.

So I’m down to 52 servings left. (I used a couple more out on the trail). This morning as I was tossing and turning in and out of sleep crunching work numbers in my head, I had a vision. Why not add some cherry Kool-Aid to the Lemon Lime Accelerade to enhance its flavor factor?

So there you have it, new and improved Kool Accelerade. I’m still working on the proper mix ratio, but 16 oz water, 1 scoop Accelerade and a half scoop cherry Kool-Aid is a compromise that I can swallow.

Whenever someone asks me what my favorite trail in Phoenix is, it doesn’t take too long before Pass Mountain falls from my lips. It’s always in the top three, once we come to terms on what the definition of “trail” actually is… Are you talking about my favorite climb? Favorite downhill, or cross-country trail? Singlespeed trail? Destination trail… I have a ton of favorite trails, one to suite every riding mood. But Pass Mountain, is near the top of every category. Why? Because it rocks. Figuratively and literally.

I think part of it has to do with the warning sign at the trail head. “Not recommended for bikes.” But I do understand why that sign is there. Pass Mountain has sadly claimed riders in the past and injures just about everyone who dares approach it. If you are a casual rider, Pass on Pass Mountain. If you are up for a hefty set of challenges, aerobic, tech, drops, all the while avoiding exposure… clip in and ride this 7 mile loop (but make sure you can clip out fast too).

So you can imagine my surprise when I looked back at my ride log and found that I had not yet ridden Pass Mountain this year. How do I go a full year without riding my favorite trail? Simple. I have no idea. Maybe I was to excited to explore new trails this year that I forgot about my favorites. So for lunch yesterday, I set out to rediscover an old friend.

I usually start at Crismon and McKellips to tack on a few warm up and warm down miles, but since lunch is only so long, I parked inside Usery and made the traditional clockwise loop from the Wind Cave trailhead. I’ve always wanted to ride up Wind Cave (a hike-only trail… I guess I should hike it first to see if it would even be worth the punishment.) They’ve made some waterbar improvements since last year. New logs and rock bars to wheelie over. The west side of the trail is so scenic I catch myself admiring all the Saguaros instead of focusing on the trail.

It’s a steady climb all the while dropping into washes and back out until you get to the north lookout. At this point you leave the sun behind rolling into the cool shade of the mountain. This section of trail twists and turns, as you climb east to the saddle. There is one spot here, wait, no, two spots. OK, three that I haven’t nailed yet. One of them I call big gnarly (only because there is a little gnarly in Flag already). It is a relentless and rocky climb that bucks me in the same spot every time. At least I have three reasons to return.

At the saddle I like to chill, refuel, and occasionally make some phone calls. I once had a business call that came up on a day I had a planned ride. Instead of cancel the ride, I was speedy and made it to the saddle by call in time. No one ever knew how “out of the office” I really was. After the break at the saddle, I psyche myself up for the sweet mind clearing descent ahead.

The sign of a great trails is one where I start talking to myself out loud while descending. It starts with just a few woooo whoooos and ends up being a full on conversation with the trail. This unavoidably happens on Milagrosa, parts of National, and on sweet sections of the Highline. I start talking to Pass Mountain about 100 feet over the saddle as soon as I start to pick my line on the slickrock that stripes the mountain.

Yesterday I got caught conversing with the trail by a couple of hikers. …Crazy mountain biker… is what they probably said to themselves.

When it’s all said and done, the XC climb back to the Blevins lot is where I like to kick it into speed demon. It’s a great workout finishing off the ride pedaling hard. The first few times I rode Pass Mountain (years ago) I was too worked to do anything but finish the ride. Since then I’ve spent the past few years building up an immunity to the mountain.

When it comes down to it, if Pass Mountain were the only trail left in the valley, I would still be a happy rider.

The LIVESTRONG Challenge is on. I’ve joined Team Fatty Austin and am accepting donations at:

http://austin09.livestrong.org/arizona

I’ve made the commitment to call on my family, friends, fellow Arizonan bikers (roadie and mountain) as well as all readers of this blog to dig deep into their couch cushions and donate to Team Fat Cyclist: Fighting for Susan. The goal is to raise $500,000. I think we can raise twice that.

Donations of as little as 5 dollars can be made. Please take some time to read about the Livestrong Challenge and donate to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. If you’d like to do more than just donate, join Team Fatty! There are four Teams to choose from:

Seattle | San Jose | Philly | Austin

Keep up with how we are doing by visiting my Livestrong Challenge page.

Someone, please make the first donation! I can’t stand seeing that big “I’ve raised $0″ over there on the right.

McDowell Park post T-day ride

Goat has my goat. I spent lunch out under the cloudy sky today. I wanted to give Goat a second go, and a third and a fourth… After almost cleaning the trail last week I thought if I adjusted the tire pressure, seat height and played around with gearing I could sail up the loose stuff and glide over the tech.

I was wrong.

The only sailing I did was on Desert Classic. It was the maiden voyage for my brand new Specialized Captain Control 2Bliss front tire. My Roll X blew a sidewall while it was just sitting in my office… you gotta love the Specialized tire guarantee. Credit 40 bucks, slap 5 down and I’m sailing with Captain Ned Overend. I’ll give a proper review for the Captain later, but for now, all I can say is this tire sticks to the trail like no other front tire I have owned.

Back to Goat. I cleaned everything up to the false summit except for the last bit before the saddle. That’s where I rode into Trouble spot #1. Five tries and I nailed it.

Trouble #2 came right at the top of the real summit. I made a silly slip, lost my groove and then couldn’t find any way over the last two sets of steep tech. It’s not lose there, just tricky. I sessioned this spot a few times before giving in to the “I gotta save something for next time” excuse.

I think I did everything right except warm up enough. Three circles around post marker 59 just weren’t quite enough. Maybe next time I’ll do four.

The ride down Helipad was true bliss. If only the trail was longer. Then I rode back up Helipad. Even truer bliss. Down Goat is a blast. As U2meetoo says, “it’s a hoot” and I fully agree. He rode up Helipad and down Goat a couple days ago. Here’s his sweet vid.

I’ve ridden Desert Classic as an out-n-back from Pima plenty of times. But how far “out” I go varies…since I’ve never made it out all the way, I decided to shake up the normal routine. With a hankering for fresh, steep, and technical Goat, I set out yesterday at lunch from the Telegraph Pass lot and rolled through the west end of Desert Classic.

The west end of DC out to the Corona Loma loop is awesome. It’s more technical than the heavily trafficked east side. While the east side has Secret and Warpaint alternate loops,, the west side has Goat and Helipad. I’d heard stories of these two trails…so actually riding them after so many years was nice.

Goat: It’s name says it all. If your name is Billy you’ve got a good chance of staying on your bike. It’s been a while since I got worked by a hill. I got bucked twice but got back on the Goat and kept climbing. I’m certain the entire trail is all rideable. I guarantee Ill be back again and again until I clean the Goat. From DC post marker 59, you climb south. Only a half mile, but 400 feet elevation gain.

Helipad: From DC marker 54 head south down to the wash and then comes the climb. Steep and loose at first but then the singletrack appears carved into the mountain, steadily climbing the ridgeline to the namesake helipad. I climbed Helipad first, descended Goat, then turned right around and climbed Goat to descend the glorious Helipad singletrack.

U2metoo took some video footage coming down Helipad last year. It’s a great climb and a really fun downhill. South Mountain continues to amaze me.

From Goat-Helipad

I picked up a sample of Squirt chain lube at Interbike after a nice conversation with Larry Grossman, the marketing guy there. His spiel was good, he named names of racers using the wax lube like Ned Overend and Travis Brown and I knew I wanted to give it a spin.

Right out of the bottle Squirt smells great, and by “great” I mean doesn’t smell at all. Although the smell of classic petroleum based chain lube is a nostalgic smell I’ve grown to love over the years, not smelling the lube on my bike while it’s inside my office all day is a good thing.

My first test was on the singlespeed running a SRAM singlespeed chain. The Forte tensioner does its job adding tension to the chain, but a side effect is friction. After cleaning the chain, lubing it and letting it dry I actually felt less friction turning the cranks by hand. Hammering on the trail is now smoother, quieter and cleaner. I rode some pretty dusty newly cut trails and SQUIRT lived up to its claims. It leaves the dust on the trail where it belongs and not clinging to your chain. A quick wipe down after riding and I was ready to go again. Squirt is ideal for Arizona’s dirty and dusty trails.

The next test was on the geared bike. I again made sure I cleaned and degreased the chain well before applying the Squirt lube. Then let it dry overnight. I tested it first down National Trail on South Mountain. No problems. Clean and clear shifting. Then I wiped the chain clean, re-applied for good measure and took it to La Milagrosa in Tucson to give it a lengthy test of durability. Four and a half hours in the saddle, treacherous and dry conditions all around, and my shifting was butter, smooth as can be.

From one to 27 gears, Squirt lube will get the job done and keep you chain happy. A happy chain is a happy rider. Don’t just take my word for it either…read what others are saying about Squirt in the links below.

Squirt Lube Reviews | bikeradar.com review | bicycling.com review |
Squirt for Cyclocross CX Magazine

Chris. It’s open season on slow.

http://gtcatchandrelease.com/

Wednesday I had lunch on Desert Classic: It consisted of a Power Bar Berry Blast Fruit Smoothie, Cherry Kool Aid and 14 miles of dessert. Kool Aid’s not your traditional performance hydration choice, but when I’m thirsty on the trail all I have to do is yell out Hey Kool Aid and you know what happens next…

It’s been almost one year to the day since I rode Desert Classic last. Why don’t I ride it more often? This year was the year of exploration. I spent my time in the San Tans (no return on my investment) the Goldfields (very profitable…I need to post up my maps of the primitive singletrack up there) and the base of the Superstitions on Lost Goldmine.

Back on Desert Classic it felt like I was riding it for the first time. See, I was on my singlespeed. The trail takes on new character with only one speed to propel me in-n-out, up and down over and under. I still have yet to complete the entire out-n-back. I ran out of time (again) but I got a couple miles past the Corona Loma jct this time. I was surprised how the tech steps up a notch in places way back there. I’ll have to try riding DC backwards from the Telegraph TH to Pima. Throw in the climb up National to telegraph and it sounds like a Double Double animal style.