One of my favorite trails in Arizona, we called it Hawes trail, cuz it was near Hawes pass I think. Clever name dont you think? We dont mess around much. It was a pretty excruciating ride up the mountain Then you took a break, peed on a cactus, flipped your bike around and laid your life on the line on the way down. One time I remember we took a different way down called the Secret Trail. But it turned out it was pretty dang secret because when it intersected a dry riverbed we lost the trail and went down the dry riverbed. Which turned into a very sandy trail, prolly about a foot or so of loose dry sand, the riverbed was relatively flat but ran at a good slope down hill. So naturally you loose the dragons and just fly like heck down the river. But whats strange is when your killin it that fast you kind of just ride on top of the sand. As long as your just going straight that is, for when you turn to the left your front tire starts to sink into the sand and push like a mother. The tire just wants to turn perpendicular to the trail instead of parallel. Of course this happens in like a millisecond so you slight to the left and all of a sudden you have to over correct to the right like lightning. Which creates a massive divet in the sand as when your tire pulls itself out of the sand and starts riding ontop again. Its seriously alot of fun to be that close to pulling a header going that fast, your reaction time is on max and you really know that sooner or later your gonna go south.
Another of my favorite trails of all time, honestly I dont really know about alot of trails but I do know more than the average Joe. So another of my favorite trails is one we call respectively the McDowell trail, its a bit north of fountain hills and is an actual legit mountain bike trail for like races and stuff. It has a few loops in the park, the sport loop, longer sport loop, and the inexplicable loop. The inexplicable loop is around 10 miles long and one of the things I remember most is one feature call the The Step. Basically the trail goes up the mountain but in the way is a large boulder a couple feet high. Your challenge is to bunny hop your bike onto the boulder. You'd have to be pro to do it, I'm tellin you. But especially after a couple miles of hot sweaty glorious riding up and down rocky hills it is especially brutal. And as its already an uphill ride its not like you can get a ton of speed and just go for it. I went for it. I didnt get it. Someday I'll get it. Someday. But, it wasnt that day. I kinda hurt and embarrassed myself when I tried the step the first time. I sheepishly got off my bruised hindquarters and hiked up the hill a little ways past the step.
One of the preemo mountain biking races is called the Leadville 100, the Race across the sky. Its held in leadville colorado and is one of my bucket list items to compete in and finish the race. A one hundred mile mountain biking race. Climbs thousands of feet and descends thousands of feet over some of the most harsh and rugged yet beautiful landscapes in the US. It was won by lance armstrong a year or two ago, who paid a few young riders to help him win the road cycling way. In cycling you stay as a pack and draft off of each other. In mountain biking its a different style. Its all about you and the mountain. You, the lone wolf, a solitary sport. About how much you can endure and how much you can handle. Its supposed to be hard. hard hard hard. Thats where you find the joy. As a solitary warrior facing the vast landscape, is what its all about.
