Trip Report

We’re back from our trip to an Arizona Sky Island. The temperatures were cool–even cold at night. The riding was even cooler–spectacular in fact.

We went for a short, ~2 hour ride in the evening upon our arrival. No one else was out there.

The next morning we got off early and headed for a 4000 foot drop on singletrack with unknown trail conditions. I am still willing to bet we are the first to ride a bike on this trail. About 0.5 miles from the bottom I taunted Odin as he dabbed a section that I rode. Rolling ten feet further I wasn’t paying attention and my front tire slipped unexpectedly, flipping me off the side. I tried to get my foot down first to land it but a 3 foot tall boulder was waiting behind a bush. My foot had no chance on landing on it and instead my cheek went straight into it. It was a strange, strange feeling. It wasn’t really painful, it actually just felt soft, like it should have been worse. I was immediately furious and frightened. I just kept saying, “no, no, no, I hit my head” as I started bleeding onto the ground. Fortunately Odin was there to tell me it didn’t look too bad, just an inch wide gash on my cheek. I couldn’t believe that it didn’t bleed profusely. It actually quickly stopped bleeding. Odin had his trusty first aid kid and was able to cover the wound up. I figured it wasn’t bad since it didn’t bleed and strangely, didn’t hurt.

The trail plopped us out on the highway, where we turned upwards to being the ascent back to our campground. After climbing 1000 feet on the road it was time to climb singletrack. It started off innocently enough and we enjoyed the shade and cooler temps of the trail. Soon we hit our first dismount and Odin began checking in to a local town we call hoytsville. We pushed onwards and the technical granny gear climbing ensued. It was a pure rush and a sheer challenge. I loved it.

At times I forgot I had even injured myself. At other times I was angry because I thought we’d be heading back to Tucson because of it–and I didn’t want to leave.

Odin’s state deteriorated to non-stop bike pushing as I waited for him every 10 minutes or so. We climbed through endless switchbacks and eventually attained the ridgeline. We were then rewarded with several dozen downhill switchbacks back into our campground.

Here hottie freaked out at my bloody state (which I was blissfully unaware of). I grabbed some food and drink then undressed my wound to take a look. It was far deeper than I imagined and I knew we had to head to the nearest emergancy care.

The DR was a real pro, joking all along. He did a fine job of stitching me up–we were out rather quickly. I asked him my burning question: could I continue camping or should I head back home? He laughed and said, “You guys are camping? Hell, that sounds great to me, there’s no reason to go home!”

So it was. The next day we went for a short ride then hiked to a forest service lookout tower. We lounged around reading and playing gameboys before hitting another short ride on our way out.

What would we do with out Arizona’s sky islands? Without them I wouldn’t be living here.