Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Roadtrip Part 1 – Flagstaff

So I am on three-week MTB vacation.  These posts are quite a bit time late as I typically have the choice of riding, enjoying tasty beverages, chilling or posting stuff on the internet. Guess which one gets bottom billing?   Here is a quick recap of the events of the first part.

Day 1 – The MTBBILL Mobile Command Module moves to Flagstaff
Day 2 – Fort Valley Goodness

Day 1 was the transit to Flagstaff with the travel trailer.  The first ride was on day 2 in the Fort Valley area.   I climbed up Chimney, Lower Moto, a bit of the AZT, connected up with Secret and then descended Schultz Creek.   Schultz Creek was ever bit as good as I remembered it

Day 3 -The Flagstaff MTB Skills Park

On Day 3,  I checked out the Flagstaff MTB skills park which was right next to where I camped at Fort Tuthill.   This is an impressive skills park with access to the regional network of trails.   After playing around at the park, I hit up Soldiers Trail and The Bridge trail to loop right back to camp.

Day 4 – A good chunk of the Walnut Creek segment of the Arizona Trail
I also did a side trip to check out Fisher Cave which is down in the valley shown in the previous picture.

Day 4 was Chicken Noodle Soup for the MTB Soul.  The Walnut Creek Segment of Arizona Trail is simply amazing.  I did about an 18 mile loop that included the AZT, the Flagstaff loop trail and other tasty singletrack.   Later that evening my lovely wife and dogs arrived to join in the vacation festivities.

My lovely wife joined me for MTB vacation time.

For Day 5 I cut my wife some slack and we did a shuttle up to the top of Schultz pass.  We then did the half of the loop I climbed in day 2 as a descent.  Secret to AZT to Moto to Chimney and the the lower bit of Schultz Creek.   She was most appreciative of not throwing a beat down on her out of the gate.

Day 6 The sunshine before the storm

For Day 6, I did a 24 mile dumbell looking route from camp that included Highland, Soldiers, Flagstaff Loop, Rogers. Gold Digger and Two-Spot. It was a glorious morning when I started.   Pretty much at the apex of my ride the thunderstorms rolled in.   I had 10 miles with a hill in the middle to get over.  I arrived back at camp a waterlogged mess.  It was kinda awesome in its own way.

Day 7 – MBB Mobile Command Module Underway

Day 7 was move day.   It sucked having to pack up all the stuff that got caught out in the storm.  Everything has “its place” with our little house on wheels and stuff being wet meant stuff had to go in different places.   I managed to get rolling by 10AM enroute to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Now I have been to Locust Point a handful of times but I had never traveled those 20 miles of dirt roads towing a trailer.  A handful of miles down the main dirt road.  I parked my truck and trailer and hopped in my wife’s Outback and we drove the rest of the way to access the remaining roads and potential spots.   After a successful scouting mission in the Outback (Dubbed the Lunar Lander), I was back in the truck with the Command Module in tow.   We got a primo spot with the Rainbow Rim trail about 30 feet out our door with the canyon a few feet beyond that.

The End of Day 7 – Our Campsite

The adventure continues…

Flagstaff Sampler Pics

Got back from Arizona last week and I have a ton of pictures from this awesome trip to sort through.

Here are a few pictures from the first half of the trip in Flagstaff.  All of our riding was done above 7,000 feet of elevation so there was plenty of huffing and puffing on these rides.

Aspens and log rides…There is a combination. Jeff showing how it is done.

Cowboy TV and board meeting to plan out singletrack domination

Dell checking the air pressure in his tires.

Art23RockPile enjoying the finer things in life.

I’m such a sucker for Apsens. Art crusing through.

Bill O’Neil rolling along.

Steppie telling us again that he would be surprised if there was a 1000 feet of climbing on this ride.   (It was more like 2-3000 feet)

From campsite most of the rides started with a cruise down the Schultz Creek trail. It is like having ice cream for breakfast.

Craig enjoying the thin air.

Art playing on the Washabi trail

The was some sessioning done on some doubles. Jeff

Dell

Craig

Art on a nasty section of Private Reserve

Craig also playing on Private Reserve

Dell on Pickle.

Bill O’Neil on Pickle

The full story to follow…