Epic Rides...Flagstaff Style

Got back earlier this week for a 5 day trip to Flagstaff. It's been over a year since I have ventured to the beautiful Southwest and my body was not happy about the lack of oxygen and my inconsistent riding regimen.

I arrived on Thursday to blue skies and 70 degree temperatures, perfect for mountain biking. I woke up early on Friday and headed out with my boy, Chris Hull, not to be confused with the Chris Hull of Bike Chain fame. We hopped on our rigs and pointed the bikes north towards Shultz Pass, an amazing 4.5 mile climb that takes you deep into the vast network of trails that the western side of the mountain has to offer.

As we start the climb, we are chatting it up, or should I say he was chatting it up and I was responding with curt one word answers due to the lack of oxygen at 7000 feet. That being said, I have been on this trail literally hundreds of times and I knew that if I just kept it cool the breathing would settle down and everything would be fine. The real climbing was yet to come...

One thing you have to understand, I am going up the pass at a relatively chill rate, the legs felt great but I was huffing and puffing for sure. If I hadn't of know better, Chris was sitting on the couch in his living room. I was thinking "come on man, at least look like you are getting a work out". Just as I am thinking that, he mentions very non-challantly that he just received word for the USCF that he was upgraded from Semi-Pro to Pro. Great! Here comes the acceleration...

We finish out Shultz and link over to Sunset. I scrabble on to his wheel only to look down and see that he's in his big chain ring...I mean, Damn...really, do you have to throw it in the big ring?

Anyway, we hit up sunset and finally my breathing is chilling out and I can actually hold a conversation. Sunset has always been my nemesis, I have tried to clean it maybe 20 times and have always dabbed at least once. It's beautiful, epic, steep but not so technical. It just breaks me down mentally, once I think I have a rhythm it kicks up again. Well, I am very proud to say that I pushed through and successfully navigated it without touching down...4 miles of steeps without a dab. Needless to say I was pretty stoked.

We continue on and linked a string of other trails including Little Bear(insane DH), lower moto, Ft Valley and a couple other that I can't even remember. The big highlight of this section was Super Moto...DAMN, it was off the chain. Lets just say that they named the trail appropriately. It was sooooo technical! I had to dab 4 times and that included pulling off some DH sections that I honestly don't know how I did it. I would look back after I cleaned something and just shake my head. If you have ridden with me, you know what I am talking about, I am clearly not the best descender in the world but the stars were just aligned, I guess.

Anyway, thought you guys might like to hear a little about the trip. Hope everyone is doing well out there on the inter-web, hopefully I will see you on the trail soon.