Things are looking up

Today I rode out to the Forces of Nature Trail and it was in great condition with very little snow on it. I believe that the rest of the trails will be soon to follow. It had to be about 5 to 7 degrees warmer over there so I can see why that trail has cleared first. On the home front, we will be getting gutters installed soon with rain barrels catching the water so we can use it for the garden and various plantings in the yard. We also received our tv stand/cabinet and assembled it which is nice because we can get the dvd played and the receiver off of the floor now. I was working a bit on the area for the garden and also measuring and planning a walkway around the perimeter of the house that I will be putting in with flagstone. The only thing with that is that flagstone is pretty spendy so we are going to have to think about that. I know blah blah blah. Good night.

Happy Easter

Today I celebrated Easter by watching some college basketball and going for a short ride to check out some FS road conditions and see if the AZT was clear to Fisher Point. I rode out FS 303 to FS 301 which was really nice with only a bit of mud then I hoped on the AZT a little over 2 miles east of Fisher Point and with the exception of some downed timber the trail was in pretty sweet condition. I snapped a photo out at the Point itself and then picked up the ol' bottlecap at the Campbell Mesa area to continue my One Ride One Piece trash pickup plan. Hope everyone enjoyed their Easter.

Whoa that's brisk...

Lately I've been trying to get in some good bicycle rides and I've been feeling better and better everyday since about Thursday. I rode out FS 303 from the Cedar Mesa trail area to the I-40 Cosnino Road exit in some pretty gnarly wind on Thursday and my piece of trash that I grabbed was a Miller Lite can. Yesterday I went for a road ride and decided on the Sunset Crater, Wupatki, 89A loop which is 50 miles and has 3200 feet of climbing on it. It was pretty good but I have to say that riding on 89A is not my favorite thing in the world. I didn't grab any trash yesterday so I grabbed two today on the Forces of Nature trail and some other trail on the southeast side of Elden which are in pretty sweet shape right now and super dry. I had to wonder who in the hell drinks Steel Reserve but I did chuckle thinking back to those Brisk iced tea commercials with the claymation Sly Stallone. We realized that Yampa is not supposed to be running with Anne until she gets a bit older so we took her out for a bit of hiking. I took today off of riding and will hopefully be able to get in a big week coming up this week. We ran some errands and purchased some rain barrels that will harvest water for our garden and plantings in the front yard that will be going in this spring. We will be getting gutters on our house that will feed the barrels and keep the water from falling right next to the house where it can seep in under the slab. It is getting to be pretty nice during the afternoons here thus making for good riding to come.

Warning...Warning...Soapbox Alert to Follow

To get my ranting out of the way first I am going to have to bring up a couple of things that bother me to no end. The first one has to do with mountain biking and bike handling. The trails obviously are out there to be ridden which is a great thing but riding off of the trail, except to avoid injury to self or other, just should not be done. If you are going to ride in the spring after a very snowy winter you should expect mud and snow to still be on the trail. Ride through it for Christ's sake and DO NOT go off the trail and around it. I have news for you, repetitive actions of this nature turn awesome single track into double track into a freeway. That is why some forest roads are about 300 feet wide. People want to drive on them but refuse to get there vehicle muddy so they drive way around the mud off the road and it just gets wider and wider. If you don't want to ride in the mud and snow then ride on the pavement or wait until summer. Along the same lines is the topic of crypto-biotic soil in desert areas i.e. Sedona. I was in the Dry Creek area yesterday and the trail goes through a huge patch of this soil. I noticed two huge sets of mountain bike tire tracks going right through this area off trail. The ecosystem where this soil exists is very fragile and foot prints and tire tracks can last many years. The agencies that manage these areas are very aware of the damage that occurs in these ecosystems and when there is not a single foot print or horse hoof print in this soil but two sets of tire tracks I can guarantee that mountain bikers are going to be the first group banned from using the trails in this area. The second topic has to do with the general outdoor visitor no matter what they are doing. There is a ridiculous amount of trash in the woods. Is it that hard not to throw your trash out the window and hang on to it until you can throw it in a garbage can or recycle it? NO!!! I know that sometimes people miss there pocket with a gel wrapper or plastic bags blow out of the car but you can make up for it next time out by grabbing one piece of trash off of the trail for the one that got away and an extra piece of trash for the next guy. I decided yesterday that I was not going to ride the trainer any more until next winter and every time I ride I am going to grab one piece of trash whether it is interesting or just the run of the mill aluminum can. It is pretty easy to pick up a piece of trash and stuff it into a pocket or into the camelbal. Think about it. Now off of the box. I rode in the Dry Creek area in Sedona yesterday and Dry Creek is not so dry. I took a photo of the Girdner Trail across Dry Creek. The Dawa, Cockscomb, OK, and Arizona Cypress trails were all much more fun (and drier) than the Girdner Trail. Today I went out to the area of the AZ Trail and Continental Trail and found some mud and snow but lots of ridable single track. The Continental Trails being drier than the AZT. The AZT is not quite in good enough shape to be any fun without tearing up the trail pretty good. Anne ran an eight mile section of the AZT though and definitely had a good time because the trail was in great shape for running just not for tires. I took a couple of shots one with the bottle cap I picked up yesterday and one with the bundle of happy birthday balloons I found in the woods today.

Winter has returned

This past weekend saw the winter weather return which is not a welcome sight to a lot of people who want to be outside in the warmth cycling or running or sitting out drinking coffee. The winter weather brought some stellar road conditions on the interstate to the west of Flagstaff as there was a pile up with some ridiculous amount of vehicles involved. All of the injured were transported to Flagstaff Medical Center where Anne just happened to be waiting because she was working all day yesterday. Busy, busy at the ol' hospital. As for me I am still trying to fend off a cold that is just barely hanging on. I am trying to get some good trainer rides in and not make myself worse. Today there if was sort of clearing up but with a good wind and cold temperatures so I decided for some therapeutic kneading of some dough. I made a experimental loaf of oatmeal bread and it came out looking good. While I was doing this Yampa was living the dog's life half asleep under the coffee table. I am going to attempt to ride the trainer this afternoon while watching the Paris Nice race that we recorded from yesterday's broadcast. My plans for later in the week include some fun in Sedona on Wednesday and then to Black Canyon City on Thursday for some warm weather on the new Black Canyon Trail which is supposed to be an awesome trail. It has just recently be rated as one of the best trails in AZ by Bike Magazine and since it is supposed to be 78 in BCC on Thursday I am heading down.

Road bike???

Today Anne and I spent the afternoon running errands and not doing much else. I was going to ride today but I don't feel quite right and wanted to give it a day to ensure that I do not get sick. This morning I took Yampa over to the Schultz Creek/Rocky Ridge Trailhead so that she could do some adventuring off of the leash to see how she would behave. She was really good while we were alone, my only concern is when people and other dogs are around she runs straight for them and won't come back to me if I call her. The Rocky Ridge Trail is in fair condition some sections are bone dry but others are still under a couple feet of snow. Hopefully this weekend's weather does not add to the existing snow cover in the lower areas. I have been exploring some local road riding the past couple of weeks and yesterday rode out the nordic center which was pretty fun with a good grade out there. My road bike is aging gracefully at a little over 3 years old with a few thousand miles on it but this year it is needing some attention so I bought a new cassette and chain and decided to upgrade to a better wheelset which I just mounted a new tire on the front wheel today and rode it around in front of the house. I then took it off, put it back in the wheel bag and put the old one back on. I am waiting until I get a tune up and then the new stuff goes on the bike. It has got to get warm for good soon. Think sun.

Back from a trip to the Homeland III

Anne and I returned home from NM on Sunday evening and we enjoyed the four days we had in the homeland (my homeland). We took Yampa and she was introduced to my parents dog Sierra and my brothers dog Tele. Sierra is about 90 pounds and Tele is 110 pounds so little Yampa at 30 pounds was sure tuckered out by the end of each day of playing. We went to the local ski area in Los Alamos called Pajarito which is closed during the week and hiked up and got a great run down in about 8 inches of fresh powder. The rest of the trip was more glutenous as we relaxed, hung out with family, drank a couple of beers and had a good time. Yesterday I took Yampa to the vet for her last puppy vaccines and her rabies vaccine and then rode the trainer. Last night as I was looking at Garro's Coconino Cycles blog I link to epicrider.com and read about a ride up O'leary Peak that was pretty much clear of snow and a good 2000 feet of climber over about 5 miles so I decided to get out on the mountain bike and check it out. It was a grunt up the hill due to the elevation gain and more so because of the cinder roadway which was on average about 2 inches deep and felt like riding in sand for the whole ride. The views of the entire area were spectacular from Humphrey's to Elden to Sunset Crater to the Painted Desert even out to the Grand Canyon. I also enjoy seeing the different fire lookout towers and how they were built in different area of the country. I included some photos from today and one of Yampa and my parents dog after a rough day.

Can your dog jump on the trampoline?

I was on the way to the bank this afternoon and the neighbor 3 year old Niko was outside playing and he asked me, can your dog jump on the trampoline? When I told him that dogs weren't that good at jumping one trampolines he asked me, so your dog can just go around and poop anywhere? I had to tell him that yes the dog could pretty much poop anywhere as long as it was outside. Before I found myself in this conversation I was being soothed by the red rock desert of Sedona where I rode up most of the Munds Wagon Trail to the Schenbly Hill Road which I took to just past the Vista Point. The road up was pretty good except for the section on the north aspect which only had about 1 foot of space to ride in the mud and the rest was about 2 feet deep of snow. The Munds Wagon Trail was pretty fun in portions and one section of slick rock was just neat looking and fun to ride because it was off camber and the creek was right next to me and then at the end was a steep little section that took some commitment to tackle. All in all a good day.

Old photos and some blah blah

I decided even though I don't have any new photos I would post a couple of old ones. Last week I made some wicked vegan banana bread that is sweetened with brown rice syrup and has apple sauce in it as a binder so no butter. I usually put chocolate chips and walnuts in it but this time it got chocolate chips and peanut butter and came out great. I figure I would put the before and after photos in since I am still working on the second loaf. The other photo is of Yampa on February 9th after we got home from Grand Falls and gave her a bath. Thats about it from the plateau.