Round 42

Steve A. blew into town which means it’s time to ride.

Round 1: Elephant Head. I rode my full, which was fun for a while, then annoying. I missed the hardtail. This ride has destroyed quite a few fools, but Steve A hops into it after three to nine months of not riding (somewhere in that range), and has no problem. In fact, true to form, he blew me away on almost every descent. I have no hope of ever descending like that.

The trail features plenty of loose rock, numerous climb challenges and awesome views, but epic it is not. We tried and retried the one difficult section on the singeltrack over to the TV tower climb, much to the humor of two hikers. On my fifth ‘this is the last try’ attempt, I made it over the large rock, through the rut, then ran out of momentum at the very top. I should have had it, which would have meant that the whole climb was cracked.

The climb back on the Elephant Head singletrack is nice. I had a solid rhythm going for a while, pedaling with some power around corners, through rock gardens and across washes. If only this trail were closer to my house, even within riding distance. I knew this wouldn’t be the last time this thought would come to mind during the week.

Round 2: Steve and Shane did a Redington Milagrosa loop the next day while I met up with Mark Flint and Bernie to finish the AZT layout on the north side of Colossal Cave park. It was cold on the ride over to meet Mark for the standard La Salsa burritos, but by the time we were walking through the desert looking for routes the sun was shining and it was warm. The flagging is all done in the Rincon Valley; I am going to miss these trail layout sessions.

Round 3: Brown Mountain. From the press release:

[i]AP NEWS WIRE
Ahlgren, Morris deliver 1-2 punch on Brown Mountain
12/03/04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Tucson) Cycling fans worldwide have reason to celebrate. Brown Mountain is one step closer to being cracked.

Despite early predictions of double digit dab counts, Steve Ahlgren pulled off the impossible, riding the trail coast to coast with but a single dab. His dab was reportedly so stooopid that ESPN analysts adjusted their predictions into the triple digits, mid-ride. But Ahlgren dug deep and pulled out his X-Factor ™. The X-Factor ™, according to Gatorade spokesman Carl Carlson, is that extra edge that comes out when no one expects it.

Scott Morris, the former dab record holder and locally known as one of the worst downhillers in the state, trailed behind Ahlgren with two dabs.
Upon completing the trail, both agreed: “that was some sick chaka gnar gnar nectar sweetness we just sessioned.”
[/i]

Brown Mountain was the final challenge in our tour of the Tucson Mountains. With the exception of John Krein, we rode every difficult trail out there. First was the ‘Sentinel Challenge’ climb and subsequent descent. Then, ‘tech pass’, Golden Gate, and finally Brown. Things weren’t looking so hot for us as we headed into Brown, but we set our mental dab counters anyway and destroyed all previous records on it. The trail is just too much fun to ride. At the top, near the pink rock section, Steve stalled on an easy turn, and almost took me out in the process. He hopped, grunted, then rode it out. I rolled out of the track stand, wondered what was so difficult about it, then proceeded to stall almost as bad as he did.

Coming into the final descent (perhaps the hardest part of the whole trail), we each had a single dab. I was almost certain Steve would clean it from there, while my fear and lack of confidence would yield 2-3 dabs minimum. Amazingly I only put my foot down on one righthand switchy, and this was the same turn that Steve unclipped on, danced with his leg outstretched, then continued on down the trail.

We rode pavement back through the park, feeling the high from besting a difficult trail, then rolled over Gates and through town back home. If only Brown were closer to my house (3 hours by bike to get there).

Round 4: Charouleau Gap.

I’ve ridden the climb without unclipping before, so all I could do was match or do worse. Of course, I did worse. But it didn’t matter, it was warm, clouds rolled into block the sun, and the sarcasm was running thick amongst the three of us (Al flew in and joined in on this fun). I had a dab or two, but we were all serious about trying to clean the upper section (from the left hand turn into the rocky wash to the top). Steve and I were pedaling slowly along, stalling for the climb, when Al cranked it up, flew around us and dove right into the rocky wash. It was definitely an impressive show of the X-Factor ™. (Does sarcasm work on the internet?) But he ran out of juice at the rut section, then, no one could have predicted how difficult the upper ledge was. Usually this is the key section — after it there is nothing more of challenge. On my ‘no unclip’ ride I thought for certain I would get hosed here, blowing almost an hour of flawless riding. That day I made it through, but today none of us even put a tire on the last ledge. Even after a dozen attempts and four different lines no one was able to ride it out. Some motorized users had brought rocks to the ledge in order to build a ramp, but that ramp has obviously since failed, leaving large rocks all over the lead up to it. The result? It’s much harder now. Sounds good to me — with trails getting easier all the time (sanitation) it’s nice that something is getting harder. I just heard that the Red Spine on Waaaasatch Crest (dood) has been getting easier. Take out the only hard part on the trail–good thinking.

Round 5 was trail work out on the AZT. One of the crew leaders was sick, so I was called into action late Friday night. I fumbled through the safety talk and my crew got split up all over the place, but the end product turned out very well, I think. I got compeltely engrossed into doing one bench cut that crews in front of ours walked by, and suddenly felt myself working alone. I could see plenty of red shirts and yellow hats tending to my crew, but I did hurry up the bench, working myself to near exhaustion. Sean from AOL did most of the work before me, but clearing the dirt and fine tuning it took some serious grunting.

Rain started falling, but it was only a drizzle until we started walking out. By the time we were eating our food at the lunch site it was getting very wet and people were getting very cold.

Round 6 – Agua Caliente to Milagrosa. Despite a day and night of solid rain, the sun peaked out just enough to dry trails and allow a three hour ride on difficult trails east of town. Paula came along, running the Agua Caliente climb much faster than Al and I could ride it. She was at the saddle waiting for at least 5-10 minutes before we pushed our bikes to the top. She wasn’t too far behind on the descent, either, and once again had to wait for us on the hike-a-bike-ish climb to gain Milagrosa ridge. From there we enjoyed the fun that is Milagrosa. I rode everything to the climb out of the wash, which has long since been declared impossible (for anyone I know, that is). Several of the lower sections of the trail are always chicken out spots for Al and I, but the walking is minimal and the fun factor high. This is definitely a world-class trail.

We rode around on the pavement, reaching the car before realizing that Paula had the key. I rolled back out to Soldier’s trail to find her, then noticed that the wobble in my rear tire was not from the spoke that broke earlier, but from the bubble of tube sticking out of a growing sidewall tear. Crap. I kept both hands on the handlebars in case of a gunshot style blowout, but I rode the 3 miles back up to the car without incident.

Rain continued the next day, so I took a day of needed rest. The house is now empty, so it’s time to get some work done, I guess. Either that or it’s time for even more riding. Lee and I are planning to continue north with our AZT exploration. I can’t wait.