Brownie

I finally made it out to Brown Mountain. Self-imposed ride length limits have prevented me from venturing far enough west. But no more.

I met Tim and Zach at the golf course lot. It’s the SDMB ‘single shuffle’ ride, but it was only the three of us. Zach had work, so he peeled off after we rode up Acupuncture Trail.

Climbing Golden Gate I passed a mountain biker, who Tim and I would later learn was the guy who sold us our county-issue trail work boots, and proceeded to attack the stairs of death. Never cleaned them before, even with the Behemoth. But this time I had another secret up my sleeve. Not saying what that secret was, and it also may have just been luck. It was ‘touch and go’ to say the least, but I emerged still astride the bike.

After talking to the boot guy at the saddle we proceeded down Golden Gate proper. I dabbed. Those two left turns still give me trouble for whatever reason — it’s mostly a mental thing.

We hooked over to the fab new Brown Mountain loop trail along the north/east side. I much prefer this approach to the trail over the powerline on the other side of Kinney. It allowed me delay facing my fear of descending out of the picnic area for another day.

I know I can ride all of Brown Mountain, so I had a good mental focus going throughout. The climbing didn’t really seem challenging, and was almost effortless. Sometimes technical climbs are just like that. It’s so engrossing that you completely forget you’re going up and should be “suffering.” Not a second of suffering out there today. Then I began the descent.

Some of the switchbacks are a real hoot. Solid rock platforms. Sometimes a hop or two is necessary, but I wouldn’t call them ‘too’ tight. I had zero dabs until I got to here:

Those stairs are new within the last year. For whatever reason I couldn’t get over the last hatchet stair. My front tire would stop, I’d try to hop, but the spacing on the stairs was too tight. It can be done, but instead I rode a daring (for me) line down the boulders to my right (in the pic). It rolled out well, but was most definitely a cheater line.

We then cruised out into the west desert, searching around the maze of trails out there. Eventually ended up on some good trails before heading back down the wash and out to 36th street. I then went over the rock house since I haven’t been up there for years. Might have to go there more regularly — it was a good challenge.

Six hours of fun in the sun.

Starr Pass Trailwork on Friday, followed by Bug Springs (Mt. Lemmon) on Saturday. Can’t wait to see how things are shaping up on the latter!