Back from the North Rim

Anne and I finally got on the road Saturday after a bike rack fiasco that engulfed all of Friday. We headed for the North Rim Saturday morning to ride the Rainbow Rim trail located in the Kaibab National Forest. The Rainbow Rim trail is an 18 mile singletrack trail along the rim of the Grand Canyon that was built primarily with mountain biking in mind. When we got up there we quickly set up camp along on of the access roads located close to the middle portion of the trail and got on our bikes to head to Timp Point which is one end of the trail. At about 4 miles into the ride I managed to slice a .5 inch tear into the sidewall of my front tire. We began to think that our trip was doomed but with the help of a Clif Bar wrapper and a couple of tubes I managed to stay riding for the rest of the weekend. The second day was marked with more riding as we rode some FS roads to access Parissawampitts Point which is the other end of the trail and we took that back to our camp to make a loop out of the days ride. When we got back we decided to move camp over to an area by the Arizona Trail so we could ride a section of the AZT before heading home yesterday morning. The section of the AZT that I rode (alone because Anne decided she better study for her Board exam coming up) was along the East Rim which was amazing as the views exploded before me not to mention that the single track was pretty fun getting to the National Park boundary. On the way back we pulled over in the Warm Fire scar to snap a couple of photos because the colors contrasting was pretty impressive. It is amazing to look back at the blood, sweat and tears that went into working that fire and to think that effort will always be locked into the rebirth of that area. It is also amazing to think about how minuscule we really are in relation to the natural cycle. Weather takes so much more of a role in the suppression of these large fires (and the growth of the fires for that matter) than we give credit. As we got back to Marble Canyon we decided to stop at Navajo Bridge and have a bit of a picnic by the mouth of the Grand Canyon before b-lining it back to Flagstaff.