Given that Corey and I are alcohol afficianados, we knew it was going to be tough to survive new years eve in any kind of condition to ride the next day. We had a few drinks early on and then tapered off as the night when on, and managed to wake up in reasonably good condition, better conditon than the guy who stabbed three people at one of the bars here in Prescott and in return was hospitalized by the bouncers of said bar. So our health intact, we were on our way. It takes just over an hour to get to Sedona from here, and it is a very scenic drive passing over Mingus mountain on the way. (Mingus is THE downhill run in the area)
Once at the trailhead I could tell that we were in for some good riding. The soil is kind of a sandy clay, that even in the muddy spots wasn't nearly as greasy as the mud in Missouri. The dry spots were incredibly hooked up, with intermitent slickrock riding to keep you on your toes. I would have to say that of the places I've ridden so far, Sedona is probably my favorite.
After riding for a little while we paused to speak with a chinaman a top this nice verticaly oriented slab of slickrock.
We were just about to make our way to a fairly well known feature called submarine rock, which is pretty much what it sounds like, when a local guy named lars rolls up and asks us if we want to follow him to a locals only trail. As it turns out, we spoke to our chinese friend only feet from the start of the trail and didn't even really notice it. Lars rolled up on a full squish slopestyle bike, Corey was on his Norco freeride bike complete with dual crown 7 inch travel fork. I had the interesting fortune of being on a singlespeed 29er. My camera batteries were dying at this point so I was unable to photograph the trail he showed us, but it is probably the gnarliest ride I have ever been on. You basically traverse an exposed ridgeline around one of the giant stone mesas the area is known for. Big slabs of slick rock intertwined with flowy bits of single track, totally exposed on the edge of this thing. I managed to crash twice on this section, the second being an endo of the side of the cliff. Somehow I managed to trade places with my bike, hitting the slickrock and sort of flinging the bike over the edge. I managed to hang on to one of the grips and save myself the trouble of rock climbing in spd shoes to go get the Kona, which survived with only minor cosmetic damage to the downtube. Lars may have helmet cam footage of this one, I will post it if he does.
I have never seen anyone ride the way that Lars can. He took his 40lbs tricked out Bottle Rocket up some of the steepest slabs of slickrock like it was nothing, and bombed the gnarliest technical areas I have ever seen (Think Raider Ridge in Durango, only the whole thing is on the egde of a cliff.) How I survived on my bike I don't know. There where a couple of dismounts for sure, but overall I was pretty happy with what I was able to clean. I spent a great deal of time at work yesterday looking at all mountain and slopesyle bikes. The raked out geometery is absolutley necesarry for this style of riding.
You jerks need to come visit out here and do some riding. Jerks
