Sedona Trip

An early spring mountain bike trip!  Yippee!

Lynne and I went to Arizona to meet up with Matt and Vanessa Puffy Cheeks, and spend a few days riding and hanging out with them.  Very fun!  Prior to last fall's White Rim trip to Utah with Mom, I hadn't seen Vanessa for almost 20 years.  And just met Matt for the first time on that trip (hi Matt!).

Sunday
The trip started by committing to meet Dad in Paso Robles for breakfast on Sunday morning, to ensure that we'd get out of the house and on the road at a reasonable hour.  Yes, Dad, you were used, but it was for a good cause!

 

Mission Accomplished!

(Yes, you'd think I was a former president... though we actually *did* accomplish our mission)

Then we headed east in hopes of making it to Death Valley to camp for the night since neither of us had been there.  Hard to believe for a couple of native Californians...

 

Lounging beside the Kern River below Lake Isabella.  (Hey Vanessa, I'm going to dunk my head!)

 

Seriously good looking stuff at the back end of the truck.  Yes, that includes Lynne.

 

Among the Joshua Trees!

We made it all the way to Death Valley even with our river lounging.  Got into Stovepipe Wells a little after 5pm and it was 91 degrees.  But (and I kinda hate to say it), it was a dry heat.  Really, it was super pleasant.

We set up camp (meaning we threw down a tarp), and rode our bikes all the way ...... across the street to the Badwater Saloon where we had a very delicious meal.  Really good burgers complimented ("why you look very nice this evening") by a Bulleit Rye and a Stone IPA.  Perfect!! 

 

Burger? Check. Rye? Check. IPA? Check.

Seriously great company? Check and double check!

 

Here's a lovely view of the campground.  

Not much... let's see, what's the word...? oh yeah, shade.

Monday

Got up in the morning to a strong cup of coffee (JetBoil!) and a hot bowl of oatmeal (sorry, no cascading brown sugar here...), and drove toward the lowest point in the Americas: Badwater Basin at 282ft below sea level.

 

Some cool dunes in the middle of nowhere.

 

Zoomed in a little.

That sign up on the left says "Sea Level".  And the road keeps dropping...

 

Sort of hard to see, but that white sign on the cliff up there says "Sea Level".

Luckily we can hold our breath for a long time.

 

Minus 282 ft.

 

The flat is at -282, and the peak with snow is at 11,049.  

That's a difference of ... um ... a lot!

 

A little scale.  

A lousy picture, but you can see the white sea level sign above the bus and cars in the parking area.

 

A little down the road.  Or up the road.

Again, the white flats to the left is -282ft, and the peak is 11,049ft.

After hiking and looking around Death Valley for a bit, we started driving east, and made it to Flagstaff that night where we... saw Mom.  Mom?  Mom.  Really, she was driving to Long Beach from Albuquerque (in the voice of Bugs Bunny - "I knew I shoulda hung a left in Albuquerque") with Jeanne in a U-Haul.  Perfect timing!

Tuesday

 

Morning pre-departure picture.

So we got to sip a little Jameson in the eve, and have breakfast with them in the morning before they headed west, and we turned south toward Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek where we were actually staying.

 
Spent four very fun days hanging out and riding with Vanessa and Matt.  Rode in the afternoon on the first day, and then went out to dinner before coming back to the motel to try to plan out just what rides we were going to do in the next few days.

 

Vanessa, Lynne, Matt (smiling!) and me.

Just before first ride.

 

Lynne in the red rock.

 

Chilling in the shade

Wednesday

After the first night, we stayed the rest of the trip at the Red Agave Resort in our own chalet (la-dee-dah).  Riding, and cooking, and sipping, and chatting it up.  The main trail that we used to access a bunch of the trails came right into the resort, so we mostly didn't have to drive anywhere to get riding.  Really cool.  Here's some pics of the digs...

 

The chalet.

 

View from the doorway.  Lynne is checking the hot tub temp,

and you can see someone through the gate on a bike just about to ride

up onto the trail.  THAT'S how close we were to the riding! 

 

Evening view of the rocks in the above picture.

 

The chalet at night.

Surveying my domain?  Just looking really cool?

I'm not really sure...

Vanessa and Lynne coming up the trail.

Lovin it!

After two rides, there was the whole take-out-the-stitches thing, but that went pretty well.  Thanks to the wonders of modern medicine uh... whiskey.

 

Thanks for the suture removal kit Kimberley!

Thursday

Another great day of riding with the gang.

Please can we ride now, can we?  Pleeease??

Very cute.  (You too, Vanessa)

Kinda pretty here....

 

"Why is he so happy with himself?  What a jerk!"

(Luckily I'm used to people saying that.)

Vanessa about to rock some rocks!  Nice form!

 

Snack break!

Friday

We split up and did separate boys and girls rides on our last day of riding.  Super fun day again.  Just wish I got to ride the trail that the girls were on because it sounded pretty fun.

Lynne taming a little slickrock shelf.

 

Right after this, Vanessa wheelied off the drop.  Niiice!

Lynne looking sick with her Tiger Lily.  Roarange!

Did I mention that it was kinda pretty?

Vanessa contemplates bunny hopping the cactus... or just riding around.

Lynne kicking some trail butt!

Between a rock and a hard place?

 

Some sweet track!

 

 Climbing up the exposed section of trail.

Look close and you can see Matt just to the right of center in this pic.

 

Same spot, but he's come around the corner now.

View from the top.  You can see the trail winding out around that butte if you zoom in.

Wheeee!

Me descending some minor gnar.  No, middling gnar, middling gnar.

Matt getting ready to drop into...

 

... and climb out of a little ravine.

My faithful steed.  No, I don't mean Matt.

Near the end of a long ride, and I think he's trying to figure out how to open energy bar.

Saturday

Got up and had breakfast together, and then had to say good bye and head our separate ways.  The drive home took about ten times longer than the drive out there, even though we didn't take any detours on the way home.  How does that work?  Sheesh.

In short, a super fun time.  Good trails, good friends and good food.  Can't ask for more than that.  Well, good trails, good friends, good food, and a million dollars would be cool, too.  Don't get me wrong.

Can't wait to do it again!