Day 1.
Finally, I've been waiting to go on this trip for months and now it’s beginning to become a reality. I woke up at 4:15 this morning, fueled up, did some final packing, met up with my travel partner Rob, and hit the open road. It feels so good to leave my computerized, cubicle sized, and weary eyed job behind.
So, we headed Southeast, through Needles, then to Flagstaff, and finally to Sedona, Arizona. The terrain was a pleasant surprise, considering this wasn't our final destination, merely a halfway point. The mountains surrounding Flagstaff had dropped away though a steep canyon mixing the lush forests into red sandstone cliffs. The town of Sedona was surprisingly busy. Tourists poured in from all over to visit this town of new age enchantment claiming that a vortex of "power" could strengthen their spiritual being. Not, of course, without first shopping through a myriad of souvenir stores for dream-catchers, kokopellis, magic crystals, and other new-age trinkets. We however, desired something you could not buy, a great ride.
A local shop, Bicycle Heaven, had recommended us a map and some local trails to start with so after a killer burrito at Tamale Mamas we headed for the trailhead. The Huckaby Trail was a good place to begin. It was a tight singletrack that dodged in and out of the dense desert brush punctuated by spiny cactus. The trails here are a mix of sandstone and matching red dirt that provide excellent traction, which we appreciated, as we navigated up a steep rocky ridge and then quickly down the side of a 300 foot cliff following a technical path of drop-offs, stairs, and switchbacks. Certainly not a trail for the beginner, after we reached the bottom, there was a delicate portage over some tree trunks to cross a rushing river and then a climb up to the main highway that finally returned us to town and our truck.
So began our adventure, in grand style. We believe that traveling is always best when you expect the least so we typically and purposefully plan ahead as little as possible just to make things interesting. Our goals were to ride some of America's best trails, this time sticking to Arizona, Southwestern Colorado, and maybe Utah. We also try to spend as little money as possible on lodging, therefore camping the entire way, and hopefully for free. Tonight we drove 5 miles above the Huckaby trailhead on Schnebly Hill Road until we could camp without getting fined by the rangers. The vista from our campsite was absolutely pristine. We slept on the ledge of canyon wall approximately 1500 feet above the town giving us an excellent view of the riding that awaited us tomorrow.
