A Green Spring....

Saying this post is late is perhaps an understatement, but as my knee convalescence drags on, I have no excuse to procrastinate further.

In sum, it was a spring of "green", although not so much because of the color.  In Arizona, despite what some people think, we do have lots of green year-round!  Many envision "hot, brown and nothing worth seeing".  But, we who know it better, know much better!  The myriad of colors -- the brilliant blue sky, the evergreens, the exposed earth basically offering you the cliff-notes of local geology. The intoxicating scents -- the mesquite, pine, cypress, their crispness, and my all-time favorite the creosote especially during monsoon season when it plumps up w/moisture.  The life, the history, the good livin',...!   I could go on and on and on about how much I still dig this place!

But, this past winter and spring, my life seemed to revolve around "green" -- my Grandmother who was the last woman on our side of the family to carry the married surname Green and the Verde River (spanish green), the latter which gives life to much of Arizona.   Per my previous post, our grandmother's final days were swift but she was super sharp til the end, and I'd had a few of my final phone chats w/her while I was walking along various spots on the Verde and she at her home in Florida.

I didn't realize the "green" connection at the time nor the awesomeness of how much they both gave so much vibrant life and brought everyone together.  She for the family, and the river for its life-sustaining water.

At the time, I'd merely been trying to find other things to do outdoors which gave me some wind in my face and still-injured-knee more time to heal...and of course to escape the "cold" of the higher elevations near home.

I spent many days paddling (stand-up paddleboard / SUP) along different sections of the river, though mainly in its dammed sections, some of AZ's best lakes.  The lakes are fantastic nuggets of the state and for the most part are quiet and unvisited in the winter/spring especially midweek.  Sheep, bald eagles, coyotes, wild donkeys, cattle and wild horses were regularly within sight, quenching their thirst from the wild and generally inaccessible river's flow.

And of course the bike.  Duh.  Since all my lil' hinge would really allow was some easy spinning, I'd scouted some long empty desert dirt roads where I could camp then just spin to my heart's content.

  

So remote in fact that sometimes I actually packed a little heat, something I rarely do.  Maybe I'd need it against some hungry mountain lion at dawn, or a bored ol' cattle rustler, or.....just felt like the right thing to do in certain locales.

However, of all those remote excursions, the only time I got a little sketched out, the heat wouldn't have been much use, sadly.  I was on my bike on an old fireroad seeking the old historic Sheeps Bridge.  The day was getting warm already and I was definitely having to pay attention to water supply versus mileage away from homebase (aka the truck).

I crested a hill and lo and behold there's big daddy rattler sprawled out across the road sunnin' himself.  I could relate, after all the sun felt great. But, he was blocking my way and wasn't going to budge.  I waited a few seconds and took the opportunity to snap some pics.  I was still a good 15-20 feet away and didn't feel too threatened.

Until. He. Got. Annoyed.  He rared his head back, giving me the ol' cockeye all while setting his rattler in full-throttle.  Instinct kicked in and I swear I felt sweatglands open in places I didn't know existed...my shins??  Wha??  So, now ol daddy simply refused to let me pass thru his sundeck.  Errr.  Rolled a few small rocks his direction which were not met kindly.  I then got mad.  I FULLY INTENDED TO FIND THAT SHEEP'S BRIDGE SO OL DADDY NEEDS TO CHILL OUT AND LET ME PASS THROUGH!   Eventually, after I told him that I was just a guest, he slithered up the bank and disappeared into the brush; I'm quite sure that when I pedaled past that I was at mock-speed, breath-held, traps fully stressed toward my ears and probably eyes squinted if not fully-closed (the same thing I do unintentionally sometimes on the dirtbike on rocky drops beyond my skill-level...ha!)  Point being, neither that little sidearm nor pepper-spray would've done much good w/ol daddy rattler.
(Oh by the way, he was the 5th snake I'd seen since sunrise.  Ah, another day in the life...)

And some other days and sections of the Verde...

 

( Fun friend TD & I playing along the northern sections of the Verde. )

( Right up against the river, a cool campsite for sure, assuming no one else is around. This night was totally unplanned. Fortunately my combo of stocked-rations and some leftover lunch was good enough for sunrise brekkie - sardines and strawberries. Yum??  )

 ( One of my now-favorite spots to set up camp now; ok well not now as it's 1 zillion degrees down that low, but come November, I'll be back! )

  

                                   

The Verde,

special chats with my grandmother,

the sun,

brilliant blue skies,

wide open space...

   ...Spring 2014.

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Rocky Mountain Dirt & Unplanned Bliss

After my early summer adventures/races, I feared I'd blown my knee for good.  I've known (via several surgeons and my own foresight) that my knee's lifespan is limited.  I went 3 weeks not even being able to squat 20deg nor even sleep face down because the kneecap was protruding forward so badly.  "Fortunately" (?), I had to travel for work for a few weeks so (a) was preoccupied with work, and (b) wasn't tempted/depressed by seeing my mountain bike & trails to run on nearby daily.  I'd tried a few times to get on a spinbike, but frankly even 15-20 minutes of easy spinning killed me.  I just tried to justify it as needing time for the swelling to go down and that maybe it was the size of the cranks on the bike (too long).  So, I just did some maintenance stuff for a few weeks to stay somewhat fit and reluctantly wondered if my running/riding days were over, and hoping that when I returned home, a miracle might happen.

I finally made it back home and reunited w/my bike.  The first day was a goatrope.  I rode for about 30 minutes before collapsing on the side of the trail - likely a combo of jetlag (50+ hours straight of sitting on planes, trains, automobiles), heat exhaustion (rocky trail near my friends' home in Mesa, AZ) at sunrise,  a newly busted hand and sheer lack of fitness.  But then I tried again the next day.  It still hurt, but less so.

I was scheduled to race at Beaver Creek, XTERRA, that weekend, and simply knew that I had no personal governor when it comes to racing and I feared that if I towed that line, I would likely kill my knee forever.  Plus, all those colorado girls would kick this sealevel girl's bootay! Ha!  So, after much internal debate, I opted not to race.

I still wanted to ride in Colorado.  I get to go/ride there so infrequently and figured why not just go explore all those epic trails -- without a race, without a stopwatch, for the sheer joy of RIDING a bike.  Maybe the absence of "training" and a "clock" would help me to rehab my knee. Of course, coming from an early summer at sea-level, it might be a challenge, but typically, I handle the altitude pretty well and figured it beat sulking in hot Arizona.  And, frankly, while I ADORE the red rocks of Sedona, I wasn't in love with the idea of fighting rocks and techy trail this summer.  Seeking big mountains, huge climbs, aspen, long and fun descents.  Rocky Mountains!

So, I loaded up the truck, the bike and some camping gear and hit the road.    I'm lucky to have a flexible calendar and wanted to exploit the summer to its fullest this year.  I hit up everyone I know who KNOWS Colorado singletrack and got tons of 411.  Biggest shoutouts to the Turner fam -- Matt & Timoni -- who between the two of them pointed the lil' carbon caballo on most excellent dirt several times.  Super appreciative!

Love crossing the rez at sunset...magical sunset glow.

So, I eased into it, first stop Telluride, rode w/some friends.  I felt the knee, but less so.  Then again the next day, riding easy, the knee was ok.  Wha???   Not sure why I was suddenly better.  Back to my shorter cranks? Better fit on the bike vs a standard spin bike? A few days off from running?  Colorado? I never figured it out.  Rather, I said a few thank yous (to God, Allah, the bike, etc.) and promised to not take it for granted! :)

Of course, I didn't get to ride ALL the trails I'd hoped, but heck yeah a lot of it.   Lots of the epics.  Telluride, Crested Butte, Almont, Fruita, Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt, Cortez, etc..  Big mountains, flowy dirt, chunky rock, jeep passes.  Most of my days were above 8000ft elev, and several times above 13,000ft, well above the treeline.   I handled it pretty well.  My legs definitely lacked some needed punch several times.  Found I had to push the bike a few times in places I wouldn't have had to were I a mile lower in elevation.  But I loved it.  Found myself grinning a lot!  Definitely bliss.  Looking back at some stats, looks like I rode 1-2x a day on NEW dirt, pedaled about 250 miles and a glorious 40,000 in about 10 days of riding.  Yes, less than Coconino250/La Ruta/etc; but again, this was for FUN, for EXPLORING, and while yeah hitting it hard at times, I definitely stopped to smell the roses, and mock foxes, and oogle black bears, etc..  (One of the rides was about 5500ft climbing in a mere 20miles, and up to 13K' which kicked my bootay!)

A huge perk was that I even ended up getting to ride w/some friends along the way.  Few of those joint rides were planned, but popped up as great opportunities along the way! :-)

Even some of the best riders find themselves having to push "easy" pitches when nearing 14,000ft.
Corkscrew gulch, near Ouray.  

Jess, leading the way for Patrick, Jason and me, near Telluride.  

I'd recruited a buddy to do some bikepacking and traverse one of the best sections of the Colorado Trail (CT), but being in the midst of monsoon season, it became too risky to get stuck up there on a certain long exposed sections during lightening/electrical storms -- which that particular week was seeing many of.   Of course, my impatience tried to beg borrow and steal to convince him to just go for it, but in the end and after a morning "recon" session, we opted out -- and nearly suffered hypothermia from the experience.    I was bummed but knowing how I have no tolerance for wet/cold as it is, it was probably good I avoided a melt-down...and death by lightening of course.)

Wet rat on the Colorado Trail.
Cold, soaked, off-route and realizing that my hopes for the full-passage the following day was not going to happen...due to the weeklong summer storm in the San Juan range.

Pics never capture moments precisely, especially when the actual vistas are so pungent of vast space, vivid colors, crisp air and the magnanimous appreciation of good health and insanely happy lungs and legs.  Yet, I'm glad to have photos.  For soon, I will be back at work, with no time.  No bike.  No mountains.  No freedom to go go go.  No imperfectly angled climbs.  No glorious deep breathing.  No options for quads to argue for more.  No irrational fear of mountain lions stalking.  No sweet anticipation of what's around the next ridgeline.  No cramping hands and triceps from sweet descents (e.g. Doctor Park!).  No laughing, chasing, freezing, sweating, suffering, alongside riding partners in crime.  No passing out from sheer exhaustion and exhilaration only to wake up and saddle up again.

So, these pics will remind me of my summer stoke - and maybe inspire others to just pack up and go hit the trail (or whatever your equivalent is)!   It's somewhat hard for me to see these pics now, hard to not be bitter that I can't go back tomorrow today.  But hopefully I'll have next summer.  And the next.  And the next.  En sha allah.

Or, as a friend pointed out, this little globe we live on always has summer somewhere on it.  So, for now, I'll try to stay drunk off the summer sweetness and start hatching the next lil excursion.

Ideas???

Birthday morning ride to above the treeline. Near Silverton.

Between Ouray and Silverton...California Gulch I think (via Corkscrew).

Happy camper, climbing to the moon!

The MTB diva Tina on her SS pony...showing me the spectacular colorado trail above Durango.

Ol Black Bear seems to be going where I was planning to go.  Thank gawd for Johnny Cash songs aloud, and my persistence to tuck into that aspen forest anyway.  Near Aspen.

Morning venture. Near Crested Butte.

Perfect for soaking the legs between the am/pm rides.  Near Almont.

Wrapping up the snodgrass trail. Fast fun look, near Mt. Crested Butte.

Singletrack discovery near Cortez.  Amazing circuit of Anasazi ruins along the way.

At around 13000'.  

A solid riding partner. Just say "go" and the boy can "go". Turns out he can climb bout as good as he can DH.

           Pushing up a (sorta) steep pitch...way above the treeline....loving it! Red Mtn, Imogene, etc. in the background.

              Lars, leading the way along the Colorado Trail -- pre-rain/hail/slopsoup fest.  What a day!

Little Things and Semi-Interesting Moments...

Arizona Trail between Picketpost and Gila River.  
(Zoom in...spectacular!)

I love riding my bike.  You all know that.  Racing it?  meh...not as much.  Sometimes.  What I mainly love is how it takes me out and beyond, beyond the pavement, beyond 'civilization'...criss-crossing the terrain via my own legs and lungs and imagination.  Alert only by things primal...thirst, hunger, caution of mountain lions, not much else.

So, when I have to ride the bike for 'training' (e.g. hit certain efforts, ride for set "x" duration of time, do intervals inside on a trainer, etc.), it can take a little bit of the fun and flow from my ride mojo.  But sometimes ya gotta do whatcha gotta do, and I wholeheartedly am surprised  proud  that I stuck to the 5-week (short) training plan as well as I could for my upcoming South America trip.  Barring any knee/back issues, I'm now pretty confident that I will finish the race...with a smile and hopefully while embracing some spectacular views and new experiences.

So, back to my original rant.  While the past few weeks have been more about puttin' my head down and gettin'er done, I had some interesting moments. . . .

--Going through so much trouble to set up my wildlife cameras up in the desolate wilderness/forest, then coming face to face with a  bobcat  along an urban trail in Phoenix.

--Getting to ride on some trails new to me...all very different in terrain and some definitely going in the "epic" category.  A highlight would be on a fantastic segment of the Arizona Trail (AZT)...Picketpost toward the Gila river.  As much solitude a girl could ever want!  Only a few mountainbikers who were actually bikepacking far in....running across them totally inspired me to get back out there and do my own bikepacking...when it warms up of course.

--Spent my first Christmas at 'home' in about 10 years;  further, this was only 1 of 2 in that same period NOT in a muslim country for work.  Ya know what?  I think I prefer the muslim countries for xmas....nothing to do w/religion but pretty much everything to do w/the chaos and stress and jinglebell songs that permeated through the air here in the commercial USA for the weeks prior.  As for me, all was still and flowy and chill ...except of course I didn't see my family; soon though!  Some pretty fun holiday get-togethers and dinner parties kept it from being too chill!



--Neglecting to grab my long-time GPS off the truck tire and subsequently ran it over w/theexcursionator.  Doh!  That wrist model had travelled/biked/ran/got shot at (by direct and indirect fire) all over the world.  RIP little Garmin.



--Successfully completed my mental mindgame of pedaling up the same mountain a few weeks in a row.  Four Peaks Mountain.  Nothing terribly exciting about the long fireroad to its top, but good pedaling opportunities and most importantly the mental aspect.  (WHY am I doing this again? I KNOW where it goes? There's nothing FUN about this.  Suck it up and drive on anyway!)  A few lil' surprises always occured up there...  

      _ Was encouraged by lots of jeepers/ATVers as they passed me.  Usually this would be annoying, but they were few and far between so seeing humans every 20-30 mins would motivate me to keep pushing (and give me a little extra confidence that a mountain lion would stay away from the road :-)  Maybe this too will encourage a few of those 'types' to get back on a bike sometime.  I mean, obviously, a bike can take ya pretty much anywhere AND keep ya healthy! 
     _ On one of those days up there, I was freezing/shivering, making mental deals w/myself about heading straight to starbucks when I finished.  Coffee!!  Visions of Coffee!  Right as I crested the top saddle, lo and behold, there were a group of canadian guys on atv's (who'd passed me earlier apparently) and yelled "Do ya want some hot coffee?"  I threw down my bike and headed straight over to them.  They pulled out an old school thermos that sure enough had very hot coffee.  It was perfect!!  Way up there on top of a mountain far away from any store, any building, I got hot coffee!  Best tasting coffee ever.  (They also pulled out a bottle of cinnamon schnapps, but I declined on that one, thinking that wouldn't help the ~17 more miles of pedaling I still had in front of me.)  
      _ While most of the people I'd see up there were getting their version of what I usually do -- trying to get out of the city and go explore -- a few were pretty obnoxius: catcalls and even a promise/threat that they'd be waiting for me at the bottom for a 'good time'.  (Not a lot scares me, but those two sketchy dirtbikers had be alert enough to at least send a text out to one of my friend's as a "in case you don't hear from me later" message.  Also, got a catcall from two ATVers which 20seconds later resulted in one of them crashing his ATV.  Thought he was all cool as he hollered out a (stupid) flirt while simultaneously trying to do show his "impressive" cornering skills; instead he screwed it up, flipped the ATV and bent all sorts of parts on the huge boulders alongside the road.  He was pretty shaken up, but OK.  Couldn't say I felt too sorry for either of them.  Hopefully, they felt pretty stupid.
      _ Saw more pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, pickup trucks, ammo tables, etc. than I've seen in a long time.  The first 1-3 miles is all the cityfolk heading out to the 'desert' to target practice.  Sadly, I saw A LOT of user error out there, mainly in the form of target (non)awareness and mishandling of weapons flailing em in all sorts of directions.  Those roads curve, people!  Just because you're shooting away from the 'main' road doesn't mean that there's not another road behind your target.  And, probably not the best idea to shoot from on TOP of a knoll.  Use a wash/wadi people!  That said, most were trying to do the right thing.; I am just surprised there aren't more accidents out there.



--Got to show my costa rican friend and MTB inspirator, JC, our red rock trails.

--Got to ride w/some fast buddies who pushed me waaaay beyond my comfort zone on the bike...hopefully this will pay off at some point.

--Got a christmas card from one of my BFFs....dated 25 DEC 2011 (that's last year folks)!  Thanks Kir!

About to passout/puke from a 
trainer session.

--Finally getting some better use out of my  Edwin  roadbike, albeit on the trainer, albeit in the warmth of my own casa (it's freezing outside).

--Even added in a few 'social' rides rather than my usual solo sufferfests.  Fun! 

--Wish I could say all the riding has made me scrawny and lean, but really, as expected, it just beefed me up.  I thought I'd be doing a lot more running this winter which usually keeps too much bike muscle/mass off, but with the race being added to my calendar, I just couldn't do much more than a handful of ez/recovery runs each week on top of the 12-14 hrs on the bike.  Plus, all the pedaling and the frigid temps (that are a new concept for me) just made me want to cram in more calories.  So, now I'm muscly and tired...kinda resembling a Russian power-lifter zombie.  (Not for long though!)

--Yoga, yoga, hot yoga.  Three times a week.  I forced myself to go those early cold mornings.  Hot yoga, Bob Marley remixes, Jen's flow...totally worth it in the end.  I'm still one of those girls who is on the fence about yoga, and I'm definitely not into the esoteric part of yoga (sue me).  I know it has it's uses, and I've learned it's not all about gaining flexibility.  For me, I usually try to focus on one or more of these: strength, rehab/prehab (injuries), working out all the little muscular/structural imbalances I build up from too my forward motion (e.g. biking, running, swimming), flexibility (gentle, often incorporating some self-resistance-stretching), the tribal music that Jen plays (definitely gets me moving), the heat...ahhh the heat.  This body loves the heat.  Suddenly, a lot of the little injuries/knots/etc don't hurt anymore.  Anyway, am glad to have been able to go more often lately.

-- Having Getting to ride up my favorite killer mountainside Schnebly with a bunch of pro Australian football players.  Turned out, a few of em could hold their own (they're roadies back in Australia).  Then, led them down some sweet singletrack.  Cool guys to play outside with, as usual.

--Definitely, some sweet off-roading in the truck.  One of the best recovery activities there is!  Add in some off-the-grid camping...even better!

--And the best was probably on my FINAL long day in the saddle (up the same ol' Four Peaks Mountain), I was pretty spent, freezing (there was still ice on the road), but I was almost to the top.  It was steep.  Really steep.  Legs were already smashed.  Mashing and mashing and making deals w/myself to never go near that mountain again, a hot looking jacked up 1970s Ford truck came rumbling by me on the road, driven by a few young jock hotties (donning surfing trucker hats no less), and yelled "That's badass girl. Get some!"  Who woulda thunk it?  That small moment of ego was the impetus for me to hammer up that mountain and hells yeah I got some.  (Even earned me a QOM, although I don't really care about that part....damn strava...although was funny to later realize the correlation! :-)

Four Peaks Mountain -
~19 miles from the top from here. Taken from the paved road; that sign was 'inviting' :-)

Arizona Trail (AZT) down near Picketpost.  Zoom in on it! 

Recovery day in the "4x4 Purse".

One of the holiday get-togethers. The Bike and Bean crew.

Black Canyon Trail (BCT)  with the Bean boys

BCT

With the Aussies - atop Schnebly.

ABOVE: The first few miles climbing up Four Peaks....where the real climbing begins (and where the 'target shooting' generally ends).

Arizona Trail (Picketpost)

* Thanks especially to Jen, John, David, Ray, Stravaguy, etc. for pointing me toward some great trails and great days on the bike! 

** Strava shall soon be fired.

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