Retirement Tour Off to a Great Start

Sovereign Trail in Moab
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Matt and I have been having a great time during the first two days of our riding adventure. I flew into Phoenix yesterday, and we headed out to ride the old Cactus Cup course. This is a short loop, only about an hour, but mildly technical, and fun. Of course it was pretty damn hot, but that's par for the course in Phoenix. We'd met up with Fletcher, a friend of Matt's, who was in full racer mode during the ride (we saw him for about the first 15 minutes). After that, headed back to Fletcher's house for lunch, showers, then we jumped back in the Sportsmobile and headed to Flagstaff.

In Flag we returned the Niner RIP 9 I had rented, and I requested a refund on my 2nd day rental fee (Matt picked up the bike two days prior), as they were idiots and put what was likely an 18" flat handlebar on the bike. Seriously, no, really, I mean, I felt like I was riding with my hands on each side of the stem. Oh, also, they'd thought to replace the shift cables the day before, but negelected to stretch the cables, and so I had to re-adjust the rear derailleur. It doesn't end there... about half the threads in the pedal hole of the cranks arms were stripped/gone, and I actually had one of my pedals unscrew on the trail. Nice job guys, way to ensure your demo rider has a good experience on the bike!

Grand Canyon
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

Anyway, grabbed a quick espresso and sandwich and hauled ass for the Grand Canyon.

Unfortunately we arrived after dark at the GC. But, thankfully I had my tripod and DSLR, and managed to get some shots that make it look like we were there during the day! Pretty amazing place - I'd never been before, need to go back.

Camp outside Moab
Originally uploaded by Christopher Bailey

After that we drove late into the night to 30 miles outside Moab, and found a clearing a ways off the road to spend the night. Nice and quiet and dark, perfect. Asleep before 2am Utah time (lost an hour). Up the next morning to a nice sunrise, got the espresso/moka flowin', and headed into Moab.

Click the photo to play the video

In Moab we hooked up with Michael and Sylvi, and four other friend's of Matt's, and rode Sovereign trail. Absolutely great trail. About a 2hr ride, on prime Moab terrain - very rocky/slickrock, sandy, technical stuff. I rode my rigid Niner, which was brutal at times, but actually quite nice at others (really nice for rolling up and over ledges). We had the helmet cam in full effect. Should have video avail, once we get a chance to edit down the couple hours we have. Matt wore the camera to chase Nicole (former pro DH racer) down, which was sweet (this woman can fly!). I am renting a full suspension bike for tomorrow, as we're doing a mega downhill shuttle (as long as it doesn't snow at the top).

Finally, back into town, had some food, hung out, then a great dinner with Michael and Sylvi at Buck's. Massive double pork chop, wine, stories. Now, back in the Sportsmobile, calling it a night soon, early shuttle ride tomorrow morning.


For all the pictures, check my Retirement Tour tag on Flickr.

My Retirement Tour 2007

Matt and I have finally settled on some dates for what I've nicknamed the "Retirement Tour 2007" (in hopes that there will be more in the future). Matt sold all his houses (yes, multiple), and picked up a small place in Silverton, CO, and a Sportsmobile (SMB) and is now traveling around, doing a lot of riding, traveling, and this winter, chasing powder. He's Living The Life. Since I recently quit my job, and am only now working part time, I'm temporarily, and partly retired. So, I'm joining Matt for about a week to do some good riding. Matt will start off in Silverton in the SMB, visit some family, and then we'll meet up in Flagstaff. We'll do some riding around there, Sedona, etc., then likely head up to Moab for a day, then to Fruita and Grand Junction for more riding, where I'll finally fly back from Junction. Here's a map of Matt's SMB route.

I have chosen to bring my Niner full rigid on the trip, but will be renting a Niner Rip 9 for my time in Arizona, thanks to Absolute Bikes in Flagstaff. I plan to get a full suspension 29er next spring, and it's down to the Rip 9 or Specialized's new Stumpjumper 29er. This will be a great way to get in some serious test riding on the Rip 9. I'm waiting to find out about any full suspension 29ers that Over the Edge Sports has in Fruita. If they have something, then I may rent there as well.

The flights for me, flying from/to Eugene airport, are pretty crappy (i.e. the only flight out of Eugene to Flagstaff on the 13th, departs at 5:40am!), but it's a small price to pay for should be a great trip. During the trip, we'll "live" in the SMB, as we did at Mountain Bike Oregon. This should give us great flexibility in where we want to go on any given day, and we don't have to worry about hotel reservations, etc. We are also thinking we'll take a short side trip to the Grand Canyon, since essentially neither of us have been (Matt was there when we was too young to remember it), and we'll be right in the neighborhood.

While my family is a bit bummed that I'll be gone for six days (especially since I'll have only been home for two after the business trip I have right before this, and then we leave for Hawaii a day after I get back :), it's really something I need to do at this point. I would even like to turn such trips and experiences into more than just something I enjoy, and have been scheming about how I might actually turn this into part of what I do for a living. I give it a pretty outside chance right now (especially since I've been used to the nicer lifestyle afforded by being a software developer), but who knows - passion can take you far!

Also, if you have favorite trails to recommend for Flagstaff in particular, as well as any of the other places I've mentioned, please do tell. I can't wait to ride in some of the new places, as well as revisit places I've ridden, but not for at least a couple years. I will be blogging the trip every day once it's underway.

Two Great Rides This Weekend

Matt was visiting for a few days, and we rode on Friday and Saturday. Friday we did Brice Creek, and Saturday Larison Rock. Both were good rides, even if I screwed up and had us do the Falls loop portion of Brice backwards (we probably had to hike 3/4 of the climb).

Matt did a good job with the photos and blogging of them, so check these out:

Brice Creek

Larison Rock

Make sure to check out the photos page - you'll see we rode under the waterfall, and so on.

Also, as Matt said, we know now that we'll almost for sure want to try to get in the Larison Rock shuttle while at Mt. Bike Oregon. I was absolutely hating life on the climb, but the descent was superb, and will be a great shuttle. It's not real long (3.5 miles), so we will be able to tack that on to whatever else we do say on Saturday. Probably a good Saturday will be to shuttle Alpine and shuttle Larison Rock. We may be knackered after Friday's epic, so a couple great shuttle runs will be sweet (Alpine has a few climbs during the descent, but it's probably 17 miles of descent and 1 mile of climbing :)

It was harsh having been off the bike for a couple weeks, and just getting back from traveling, but what a great couple days we had. Matt had also scoped out this great hidden hot springs (we soaked in water up to 108 - or Matt tried the 108 pool, the 106 was plenty for me, and the rather chilly river was fun too).

I also found that that Sport Legs stuff is quite effective (thanks Matt). And, that damn if the lemon-lime Sport Beans aren't awesome tasting (and I think working) when you are seriously bonked out.

I rode my Niner at Brice, and the Reign at Larison. Have the Lyric fork dialed in fairly well now, liking that. Wished I had the Niner on the climb up Larison, but was glad to rip the descent on the Reign. I've upgraded to 8" front, 7" rear rotors on my Reign now (and may go
to 7/7" on the Niner as well), for the long descents here. Makes a really nice difference, as I was getting some fade and such out of the dual 6" I was running before (especially somewhere like Alpine or Crawfish where you're into 5+ miles of continuous descent).