Quick Sedona Trip

[maxwell]

Well, I was supposed to hit Frutia for thr Fat Tire Fest on my vacation week this week. It fell through at the last minute, so I was left trying to figure out what to do with my time off.
I called my friend Bill, who lives in Washington State, to see if he wanted to meet in Oregon, and ride some of the trails that we'll be hitting in October for the BBFT.

Home www.bendsbigfattour.org

Well, he couldn't make it to Oregon, due to the fact that he would be working here in OC, on Tues, Wed, and Thurs.
But then he called me back with a GREAT idea.
He would fly into Pheonix, I'd pick him up there, and we'd head on up and ride Sedona for Sat, Sun, and Mon. Then he'd drive on back here to OC to get to work on Tues.
After calling up DStepper to get some local knowledge we were set.

SWEET!!

Once in Sedona, we hit the ever popular Bike and Bean shop for a map, and of course a COFFEE!
Then we would drive on in to our hotel, the Baby Quail Inn Baby Quail Inn - Sedona, AZ .


It was a pretty small room, but it had two beds, a coffee maker, a microwave, and a small fridge. The rates were also very reasonable. And it was within walking distance of restraunts, and the Mountain Bike Heaven bike shop. We actually dropped by that shop for some addvice on where to ride that afternoon. They set us up with a good route, and invited us back for their Sunday morning ride.
They asked us if we had Slime in our tubes, and if not, we should. We said we did not, but we had extra tubes.
Famous last words.
We had a great ride that afternoon, hitting the trails off of Dry Creek road. Fun swooping single track, with short climbs, and fun rocky sections.....great for pinch flatting! After only a half hour of riding I got my first flat. No worries, I've got more tubes.
Back to riding.

Bill


Me


More swooping, then a quick steep up......
SNAP goes my chain! Thank goodness for SRAM Powerlinks!

More exploring and a lite rain later, it was back to the car, just in time to see a beautiful sunset.



Sunday morning we headed on over to MTB Heaven for their group ride.
What a great, easy going bunch! All on big bikes, and all very fast riders. We rode a loop called Legendary. I'm not exactly sure of the distance, but I'm guess it was at least an 18 mile loop. Lots of up's and downs, rocky and loose, and in some places steep. One section had some major exsposure, which I'm guessing the trail get's it's name. I'm sorry that I didn't get any picture from this ride. I was too busy having fun, trying to keep up.
Oh yeah, and fixing flat number two.
After the ride, we stopped off at the Oak Creek Brewery, and picked up our tour guides a growler, and hung out at the shop for a while.

Monday would take us back over to the Bell Rock area. Dean gave us what sounded like a great route to follow for the day.
More swooping single track, this time with some slick rock areas, and nice little step up's on the climbs.
The morning started off sunny, but the storm clouds where hanging out in the distance. According to the Weather Channel, we should be ok until the afternoon.

WRONG!

We could see the storm comming in fast, and by the time we got to Submarine rock it was raining.
Now raing doesn't bother me too much, and it doesn't bother Bill at all, living in the Seattle area and all, so we just kept on riding. Then it really opened up! Then the thunder, and lighting. Then the HAIL!

OK, time to get back to the car, before we get hit by lightning bolt.

The single track trails were really holding up well to the rain, but when we finally got back to the Bell Rock Pathway, we found out how sticky that red mud can get.
We finally reached the car, covered in red mud, and smiling like a couple of little kid's!

The guy's at Bike and Bean were nice enough to let up us their hose, and after cleaning up a bit, it was time to head back to OC.

All and all a GREAT trip!

Here's the pictures from Monday....

Bell Rock



Me


Bill


a nice rocky decsent


Bill at Chicken Point


Me on a nice little steep climb


Here comes the storm


and the HAIL




just a couple of muddy "kid's"


and finaly my mud covered Stinky

[genusmtbkr5]

Very nice R&R, great pics, looked like alot of fun even with the rain and hail.

[Pain Freak]

Nice!!!

[Schecky]

Nice RR. Confirms that I need to get to AZ soon!

[dstepper]

Very nice, glad you guys enjoyed, Bummer about the rain and me not being able to join you guys. After I got my work done, I rode Thumb Butte in Prescott and was hit by the same storm. With Prescott's higher elevation in snowed and did not rain.

Dean

[Von-Skipp]

Nice pics of Sedona. The weather in AZ is always unexpected as it was 100 degrees and sunny earlier today then rained in the afternoon!

[allison]

Nice pics!! The hail is crazy! So's the mud

[0gravity]

First off, Sedona is da bomb. For anyone else thinking of going, I highly recommend the big brother to the Baby Quail Inn, the "Quail Ridge Resort." It's hardly a resort but the rentals are spacious, and have full kitchens. There's a bunch of units that are great for couples and then a bunch of units that are good for groups. There's a heated pool and hot-tub. It's got a gorgeous view, and it's right behind Bike & Bean so you've always got an excuse to drop into the shop each morning for coffee and directions on new trails. Plus, it's been my experience during two trips that Bike n Bean is the chiller shop.

And i won't even get started on the trails. Fantastic.