Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Our niece was getting married down in Tallahassee, so we made our non-rev (Non-revenue or stand-by) travel arrangements then kept a keen eye on the seats available over the upcoming days. Typically the PHX-CLT legs can be the more difficult flights to get on, especially the red-eye out of PHX. This trip we were fortunate and were able to get decent seats on the 1:15a flight to CLT. Things were looking good as the TLH leg was wide open from CLT.

I was able to snag some shuteye on the flight and we touched down in Charlotte, NC with enough time for a quick breakfast. Upon arriving at our gate for the Tallahassee flight we promptly greeted with the following message 'Attention, travelers flying to Tallahassee today on flight ##, you're flight as been cancelled'. Here we go, time to get creative. Waiting it out for either of the next two TLH flights really wasn't an option as they were both almost full now and guaranteed to be oversold by departure time. Plan B: get as close to TLH as we can and get a one-way rental car. We've done it before, no sweat.

We opted to fly into Jacksonville (JAX) and perhaps grab lunch with my brother who lives nearby.

Wasn't planning on seeing this sign.

I contacted my brother, who was getting off work early, and told him of our plans. He simply said 'Good luck, there's a PGA event going on now!'. Drat. Sure enough the rental cars were few and far between and the ones that were available were being rented for $180 for a four hour rental!! No thanks. Plan C: Called my brother back and asked him if he was up for a road trip!!

We grabbed some lunch, picked up his surprised daughter from school and hung out with the rest of the family for about an hour before heading west on I-10 towards Tally.

We met my in-laws, S & G, about 2/3rds the way there, switched cars and arrived in Tally around dinner time. So we were a few hours behind schedule, we made it. The wedding wasn't until the next day anyway.

After a good nights sleep and a wonderful breakfast we headed south for the wedding. It was a nice quiet southern ceremony. 

The happy couple slicing the cake.

We were only in for the weekend, so a quick trip to the grocery store was in order for goodies not available in AZ. That typically involves Tastykakes & Yuengling beer, although Tastykakes have begun to pop up at our stores recently, just not the traditional favorites.

Mmmmm, beer.

I started looking over our return flight options and they weren't looking good. We opted to change our itinerary of TLH-CLT-PHX in favor of a Delta flight to ATL, then switch to USAirways for the PHX leg. That ended up working out even though we didn't get on the earliest flight out of Atlanta. We had some time to kill there, so why not hit up a local favorite for food.

The frozen orange was delicious.

Back in the desert, we barely had time to unpack before the next weekend approached. K had to go to San Francisco for a work conference and we decided to use up some timeshare points to make a long weekend beforehand. Flights were looking good early in the week, but as Friday approached every flight into SFO, OAK & SJC were oversold except one. The early flight into SJC was wide open, so we took our opportunity.

First was the flight to SJC, then a free shuttle over to the Caltrain station, a one-way pass for 2 adults ran us $9ea. That dropped us off in downtown SF where we jumped into a taxi, $10, for the final couple of miles to the luxurious Fairmont hotel. We figured this would be a rare chance to stay at a hotel of this caliber, not some place we'd normally stay!! It did not disappoint.

The view from our room, Alcatraz floating in the bay.

The grand entryway inside the Fairmont. I felt out of place.

We didn't have any real plans other than a touristy jaunt to Alcatraz the next morning. We were both tired from the week, so we took a nap. We ended up snoozing longer than we would have liked and missed a chance to grab dinner with a friend.

The next morning we gorged out on the enormous breakfast offerings, then hopped in a taxi down to catch our tour. The day turned out to be perfect, no wind, low 70's & sunny. We were both overdressed, but the bay area weather can be finicky sometimes. We had a blast on the Alcatraz tour, it's a self-guided audio tour so we took our time and explored the entire island. There was a special treat, one of the guards, now in his 80's, happened to be there for a book signing. He told a few stories as we started out on our tour.

Approaching the dock.

Remnants of the native american occupation of Alcatraz.

Gardens abound around the penitentiary.

Typical cell.

Recreation yard.

A few of the notorious inhabitants.

C-block cells.

Beautiful view of Golden Gate bridge.

Downtown San Francisco.

One of the cells where the great escape went down.

Nesting grounds.

We finished off the day walking around Fisherman's Wharf, of course a stop at Ghirardelli's was in order. A large crowd was in line for a wine tasting event, there always seems to be something going on in this city.

Mmmmm, chocolate.

What to wear for the wine tasting.....aha!! My bear costume!!

Powell & Hyde turnaround.

We hopped on the outside poles & rode the cable-car back to the Fairmont.

The Fairmont Hotel.

Sunday morning came around and all that was left was to get me to the airport & K over to her conference hotel. I had pre-paid for a $11 shuttle ride & K was going to taxi/train over to her hotel. Our plans were wrecked when we found out a marathon was being held that morning shutting down all but two streets through downtown. My shuttle driver couldn't figure a way to get to the Fairmont & out to the airport in a timely fashion, so I cancelled and went with a taxi. $58 later, I was dropped off at SFO. K ended up doing the same and dropped $42 on her transfer. So much for cheap transit, but without really knowing all our options and limited on time, it's what we had.

Although quick, it was nice to relax for a couple of days. I left the 70º weather in exchange for upper 90's, but that's ok. I love the desert.

Sedona BFL (Redux)

Back in March a series of wicked storms wiped out the annual AES Sedona Big Friggin' Loop (BFL). I was really bummed since I don't get up there as often as I would like. As luck would have it Sedona was having a singletrack celebration the first week of May and some of the locals decided it would be a fine time to give the BFL another crack. Enter Red Rock Chica and Lars, they modified the route just a bit, announced a starting time (then bumped it up another half hour to 6:30a!!) and it was set.

I rounded up Tim to tag along for the carpool and we were off, a bit late, but we were heading to Sedona for some incredible singletrack! We arrived at the meeting spot just before 7a and the group had already departed, but there were only a couple of cars in the lot? Where was everyone we wondered? As it turns out, only 7 of us ventured out for the BFL. Oh well, lots of people missed out on a fantastic beatdown of a route.

Tim was rocking his rigid singlespeed (SS) 29er, dude is hardcore. The fun began at the Adobe Jack trailhead (TH) and did a quick split on the way to the main loop. Once there we continued clockwise onto the Jim Thompson trail. I wasn't quite ready for the rubbly climbing and was all over the place, hiking more than I normally would on trails like this. Soon we came to a cool vantage point overlooking the Midgley bridge.

Midgley bridge over Oak Creek.

A quick rocky descent brought us to the Wilderness boundary before we turned and made our way to the touristy viewpoint at the bridge.

No bikes beyond this point. :(

We made a quick descent to Oak Creek and I tried to navigate across the water flow. I was perched atop an angled rock and as I made my move to the next stepping stone I felt my momentum going the wrong way, the creek way! Oh well, I stepped into the creek up to my knees and walked it out, but I kept the bike dry!!

Tim joined me in the wet feet club, felt kinda nice.

We were just up there!

Stunning views all day long.

Huckaby trail meandering along side Oak Creek towards Schnebly Hill Rd.

I still wasn't getting into a groove and we joked how we were on a 12 hour pace...little did we know. We finally dumped out onto the pavement of Schnebly Hill Rd and bombed down to rte.179. Now we were getting back to some familiar trails to me. We chatted with some 4x4 tourists near the Broken Arrow split, then made the techy climb up to Chicken Point.

Nice overview of Submarine Rock.

The final dip into Chicken Point.

Tim was hassling some 4x4'ers because their jeep was too clean.

The White Line about half-way up is a test of one's fear of heights. POV version. (Looks easy, huh?)

Bell Rock from Chicken Point.

The following stretch of trail is super fun all the way to the Bike & Bean re-supply spot. I had been sucking down the water and was in need of a refill, plus a gatorade, coconut water and chocolate milk were calling out to me!! By this point I was still waiting for my legs to come around, still feeling a bit heavy out there. I also starting having rear tire issues with a slow leak that I just couldn't pinpoint, but it wasn't bad enough to throw in a tube. I'll admit it, Tim suggested I should top off my Stan's sealant as the tire could be dry, but I was stubborn insisting that it wasn't since I had topped it off only 3 weeks prior. Long story short, I should've listened to Tim. I tightened the valve stem a bit & added a 2oz bottle of Stan's essentially ending my tire woes after about 2-3 hours & 8-10 refills with my hand pump!! Smart move there.

We stopped to chat with Wally, a local rider, on Llama trail.

The sign doesn't lie, got it Made in the Shade! Photo by Tim.

Ahh, the postcard views from Highline Trail.

From Highline looking back towards Chicken Point.

Chapel on the rocks from Highline.

More awesomesauce from Highline Trail.

Nearing the drop-off from Highline. Photo by Tim.

Look at that trail!! We're going down there!! Photo by Tim.

We made our way up to Highline Trail and I had totally forgotten the effort required to get up there! Once up on the trail all thoughts of pain & suffering go away as you are rewarded with sprawling views of Sedona. The singletrack demands all of your attention though, one slip up and you could be a goner! We started our descent back to Oak Creek over some fun slickrock areas before HAB'ing down a nasty chute.

Near the bottom, Tim eyeballed this section.

Then blasted it on the rigid SS!!

Heart pumping clean rollout, nicely done!!

We hit bottom at the creek where people were relaxing in the cool waters. I needed another snack break & tire maintenance (I had yet to add the Stan's at this point).

Last water crossing.

We exited onto a short bit of pavement then onto the Old Post Trail. This section started out ok, but soon became more rubbly climbing. I was all over the place, just not feeling it, tire still giving me fits and I was seriously considering bailing to the car at the next road crossing. We were about 30 miles in and still on a 12 hour pace for the day. What is going on, we both wondered. Each time we seemed to get into a rhythm something would cause us to stop for an extended bit, chatting with locals, picture taking, bonking, tires and trail were all culprits on this day. We were still riding our bikes in Sedona so who really cares, right? Right.

This is where I finally heeded Tim's advice and took care of my rear tire for good. Tim: 'I don't want to say I told you so, but...', yeah, yeah. The Old Post Trail crested out and made us almost forget the rough climbing. We dumped out onto 89A and decided to stop for ice at the teal arched McD's in town. I scarfed down my PB&J and a few other morsels before we made our way over to the super fun downhill on Girdner Tr.

Things were finally looking up, my legs started to feel life again and this downhill was a hoot. The multitude of sandy wash crossings at the bottom tried to deter my enthusiasm but I was having none of it. Well, at least not until the 18th crossing or so!

Somewhere in here I checked my phone, I had a message from Red Rock Chica at 4:45p, she had finished at 4pm and was chilling at home waiting for us to complete the route. Jeez, that girl can ride!! We still had grand illusions of finishing around 6:30 and catching some dinner & drinks on this Cinco de Mayo, but little did we know we wouldn't finish until sometime after 8p!!

I knew we were approaching the fun sections of Cockscomb/Aerie/Mescal Mtn and they did not disappoint. This was some of the most fun riding on the route sans a small GPX file gaffe that had us backtracking a few times. We didn't want to stop & take pics through here, the trail is so much fun!!

Almost to the super fun pump track section.

Once again we were dumped onto some pavement, but I knew what was ahead: Thunder Mtn trail. This was more HAB up/down short steep drainages over the next mile or so, but the day was getting long and we were now in a race against sunset. I didn't even think to pack my lights, why would I? The route was going to be shorter, day was longer and we started earlier than last year. What I failed to recall was the slow going nature of me on Sedona trails!!

We came to the switchbacked downhill on Teacup trail as the sun was setting, only thinking we had a mile or two to go, in reality we still had about 5 to go. It was now full-on twilight as we made the turn back onto the Adobe Jack trail which led us to the starting trailhead. This time we'd be taking the left fork on the way 'down'. Surprise, surprise, another HAB hill climb!! Drat. Not that I didn't want to go up there, but I didn't want to go up there NOW, racing against darkness. We crested the top of Ant Hill, my eyes now adjusted to the fading light and began a slow methodical downhill slog. We hooked up with the final out-n-back portion of the trail, but with about a mile to go it was just too dark for me to see anything and ride safely. I made the call to get off and walk it out. Tim had a small camp light to help navigate to the end and about 25 minutes later we reached the road. What's another nighttime AES finish, right?

A quarter mile later we were back at the car, pitch black, 8:18pm. 12hrs 51 minutes later, dang. That was a tough 57 miles. A few minutes later, Red Rock & Lars came by to pick up the sign-in ledger and were pleased to see that we survived. A special thanks to these two for taking the reigns on this ride, I'm glad I made the trip north. For all its punishment, Sedona is a special place to put bike tracks down.

I think my next ride in Sedona is going to be more along the lines of a 20 mile, fun flowy trail only type of ride. I'll save this kind of beatdown for next year's BFL. See you then!!