The Bomb Squad road trip. A couple weeks a go T-2 mentions in a phone conversation he needs a road trip, funny how I was thinking the same thing. I had been watching the weather for South Mountain and Sedona and voila, perfect timing. Thursday evening departure, with T-2, Tom, Krankin Kiwi, Mike and Redwoods, Pat. We stop for overnight zzzzz’s in Blythe get up early and head out to Phoenix. We arrive about 9, check in unload, reload and head over to the ride. Mike had remembered the big stuff we had done at the Spring Fling quite a few years ago so off and up we go. We first hit the climb up National trail all attacking the techy climbs being schooled by The Krankin Kiwi. I think we need to rename you the Clawing Lizard, Mike. This guy is so good, he makes everything look easy, just watching him motivates you. Great riding Mike J. We get up to the Buena Vista look out , roll over to Holbert, pad up and are ready for some of the Chunkiest, Nar nar you will ever lay your knobbies on! Of course Mike leads out followed by the rest of us. If you like rock after rock boulders, lifts, ledges and white-knuckle descents then you have come to the right place! What a blast. There is one section where I was dropping ledge after ledge into multiple boulder rolls and lost my footing going into a flying W! Wholly Shiat! One of the nice things about this trail was it had little breather spots where you could gather your marbles and watch the next person coming down. We all know how much a better rider you are when someone else is watching! What a rush, everyone gets to the bottom unscathed, big smiles, bikes in tact and wondering just how we made that! Frieken awesome! Ok back to reality, after all that craziness we gotta get back up the mountain. So we search along the base looking for Kiwanis and proceed to climb and hike a bike back up to the road that takes us back to Buena Vista. Whew glad that’s over. Mike, T-2 and I were remembering doing that climb back at the Fling under a burning sun, which made it 10 times tougher. Alright, pads back on and ready to enjoy the fruits of our labor, National baby, what a blast, we swoop, jump, creep, drop and rail our 2 wheeler knobby rollers over some of the best desert riding ever, Mike and I hit and bounce through the water fall, we collect our marbles once again and continue on to the finish of National. It was really cool to see Tom and Pat really up their level today, you guys are awesome. Of course again watching Mike roll and claw through the rough stuff was very inspiring. Thanks Mike for the confidence building performances. What an epic day, right around 6 hours on the bike. Back to the hotel for cleanup, refuel and get some rest for the next days ride to come. NOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT! Guess I picked the wrong hotel again, (last time I was here my room had not hot water, the time before that Mike booked us at a hotel that tested the fire alarm every 30 minutes) seems there is a motorcycle club that has booked just about every room in the place. We check out some of the cool Harleys, notice the BBQs fired up in the parking lot and then as we are bedding down for the night the party starts. Revving Harleys, loud voices and some dude that just had to keep reminding everyone within a mile he had the baddest sound system built in to a bike that money could buy! This shit went on allllllll night long. What a bummer. Now I am all good for a good party but not when I have an early wake up call to go ride the best that Sedona has to offer the next morning an hour and a half away. Seemed like every time I was getting into dreams of gnarly, chunky single track that f*&king boom boxed Harley would rumble by! Piss! Well 6 A.M couldn’t come fast enough. After breakfast on the road to Sedona. The plan is Calepic's favorite loop. Mike got the 411 from Dean and Craig and the vote was more on the edge exposure, rock gardens and smiles in the land of enchantment. What a beautiful place. I never get tired of the views there. We had a great time testing the limits of our rubber on Highline rolling most of the steep chutes and drops along with navigating the off the edge single track. One of which pitched me off the side when I smacked a pedal clawing up a techy spot. Lucky for me for that tree that got in the way! Kudos to Mike for cleaning the super steep, slick rock face combo into the, better make that sharp left or off the cliff you go, section on highline. I took one look at that and said not today! We all thoroughly enjoyed your trail Craig, thanks for the hook up, the section of trail that paralleled the river was unbelievably beautiful. Back to the car, we drive up to the Mexican eatery we were salivating for just to find it was closed. Bummer , so we decided on Brawts and dogs at a local stop. Not to bad, we were starving. Back on the road seems like it always goes faster with conversation with good friends. We pull into the hotel and looks like the boom box Harley is gone! Wow, maybe we can get some, oh wait a minute is that a sound system I see in the doorway of the room below us? Sure as shit and it has only one volume setting …. Louuuuuuuud! Ok let’s go to dinner, maybe they will mysteriously disappear by the time we get back. Out to Bobby Q’s we go. If you like great BBQ this is the place. You gotta go. We stuff the gut till it is about to pop, waddle out to the mtb mobile, very comfy by the way. Pats new van with reclining seats. Niiiiice! And drive back to the rooms. Well they did not disappear and the party is in full swing, bikes rumbling, music blasting and 4 tired and plump mtbrs just looking to crash at the pad. We figure we would wait till 10 to see if the music gets turned down and low and behold it does. Unfortunately the bikes keep buzzing in and out. It did seem like they were making a conscious effort to keep it down though. Mike said he did not sleep for expletive. I think I got a bit more than the previous night, not sure how, probably just more tired. Morning comes and the plan is back to South Mountain, Climb Mormon to National, Down Geronimo, up the back side of Mormon down the front side of Mormon and Javelina across power line and out. Now we have been talking to the locals and seems Geronimo is the bombing go to DH run in the area and it did not disappoint. With a bit more flow than Holbert, this trail rocks! Really a blast, it just keeps throwing rocks at you the whole way. You know you have hit a lot of chunk when your get arm pump! Not quite as many drops but much longer rock gardens, as a matter of fact non-stop roooooocks! We watched a couple dhr's bomb through and joined them at the bottom for smiles and fist bumps, some directions and over to Mormon we go. Little did we know what was in store for us? After a little wandering, we find the trailhead, down a bar and up we go. Well this trail was the toughest climb err hike a bike yet! The book said the rocks and ledges would let up about half way through. Yah, that’s because it is the top! I think I got to pedal about a 10[SUP]th[/SUP] of the climb. Scratch that one off the climb list. What a motha. Finally there we descend Mormons front side to the turn off to Javelina. Since we only got a 1hr late check out extension we opt for showers and food for the drive home so we bomb down the rest of Mormon back to the car. A few pics later, cold Gatorade and water, thanks to Pat (you’re the best), back to the room all cleaned up, checked out, filled up at Chipoltles and on the road back home. What a great trip, awesome rides, no flats, one minor mechanical, a little blood, pictures and memories enough to make ya wanna go back. Another Bomb Squad Success. Thanks to T-2, Redwoods and Krankin Kiwi for being a great crew. Balllllllzzzzzz Baby! Keep the Zen, TTB Pics to come.
