Water? In the desert?

Yes, I think it actually started with “It was a dark and stormy night...” Or maybe not. When you live in a place that brags about 300+ sunny days a year, sometimes your vision gets skewed. The clouds were somewhat like a mottled pan of monkey bread though. I guess that’s fitting considering the activities I partake and the friends I claim.

The Black Canyon Trail, [link] is a little like a fruit-n-nut bar (sounds a little like the author). It’s a tasty trail with a few tech crunchies thrown in every now and then. A little river crossing (not much of a river to those outside AZ) which, most of the time, is a trickle. Sometimes however, the Agua Fria River flows freely with upstream downpours [link] and not so freely, like this day.

The trailhead starts at Rock Springs exit, or the south end of Black Canyon City. The segment running north is known as the Kay Mine Segment. The Kay Copper Mine was discovered in 1910, and consisted of a Copper, Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc mine. In it’s heyday (1925), it was a little over 15,000 feet of tunnels and almost 18,000 of diamond drill holes.

In the west, or as I refer to it, West of the Mississippi, there is a little more humor and a little less serious. Of which, I always remind my friends who live East of the Mississippi. Our CEO and owner, rarely wears a tie, and often will get his hands dirty. As such, junctions are marked with common items, and this trail is no exception. 2 Boots Junction marks the intersection of the trail with a jeep road, although currently, there are more than two boots.

The Black Canyon Trail Coalition [bctaz] has done a fantastic job of trail building, organizing and mobilizing individuals to create such a trail. The equestrians, hikers, and bikers, all coming together to build a pretty spectacular piece of trail. All the way down to cattle guards and gates.

It was a good ride, and I don’t know if it was the cloudy light or the recent light rains, but the lichens were neon, more neon than a Cyndi Lauper True Colors video.

Finally, the OAB (out and back) was complete, sandwiches were consumed, and streams were crossed. That meant the completion of the ride, and the end of this story. The BCT is just a fun place to be, along with some excellent views.

New Year, Familiar Ride

BCT

This year there wasn’t a New Year’s Day ride [like this cold one], it was spent just being lazy. It felt good. Pancakes, coffee, cookiedough for breakfast, lots of laughs with the Fam, cards in the afternoon, playin’ in the sun. Then, back to work on Tuesday. Take a fitness ride after work, and roll into the weekend. Short week was nice, now, plan a ride for Saturday.

Black Canyon Trail is a good flowy, well-built trail. Rolls right along, offering some great views of the Sonoran Desert. Ridden it a number of times, and each time, it is a pleasant experience, even if you come home just destroyed from the effort. It started out cool and breezy, but a good long climb lights the furnace and the cool temps were most welcome.

It has some aspects of big country, across a valley, cresting a ridge and dropping into another. 

Now, rush to catch back up with everyone. Smiles all around.

The flora of the desert.

Just plain good riding.

January Riding

Been some good riding and good coffee with friends.  Starting the year off right, a little jaunt on the BCT, started early with a group of 5.  It's cold, at least for those of us in Phx it is.  A little snow on the Bradshaw's from the storm that reached from Canada to Mexico.  And, we got to drive through it coming home from Nebraska.  I like the looks of it here, at a distance.

Fun times that.  Mark and I hit the BCT from the Table Mesa trailhead.  Still 20 cfs flowing in the river.  Makes for some crossings. Early morning sun glistening on the water.  Picking out a spot to cross.

Crossing:

Best exchange during the ride:
Me: you ridin' this?
Mark: Yeah, I have a plan.
Me: oh, let me get my camera
Mark: I didn't say a well thought out plan
Me: oh, really let me get my camera

Cleaned it successfully:

As he said later, wow, I didn't think it was that deep. I sure do enjoy the ride.

Father's Day Weekend

Saturday came with an early morning bike ride.  3 of us out to Black Canyon Trail. 

Start off with coffee and head north.  Meet at the trailhead, start unloading bikes and just in general looking good.  We ride off of Bumble Bee trailhead.  There is still some water in the desert, though not much.

After riding for awhile, we stop for refueling.  I had my fav, a sunflower seed butter & strawberry jelly sammich.

The BCT has some phenomenal trailwork, as evidenced by this switchback.

After the great ride, we did Papadeaux's for dinner.  To celebrate Father's Day.

Sunday morning came, the alarm went off, decided not to head out at 4:30.  Turned off the alarm and rolled over.  Woke up at 5:30.  Decided that it was Father's Day and I needed to do a ride.  Headed out for a little West Wing jaunt.  Was good right up until the point at which the front wheel made contact with a watermelon sized rock in loose gravel.  On a steep downhill.  At slow speed.  With too much weight on front wheel.  It was really slow motion.  The endo went and I was breaking the fall with hands and lowering my falling body to the trail with many granite rocks.  My knee took one pretty hard.

At least the early morning sun made some nice light in which to photograph the carnage.

Ah, Spring

Bikes can spawn so many good ideas. 

A friend and I decided to take a favorite trail for a ride.  Bikes and their rides, indeed.  Meet at the closest ‘bucks, coffee up, head out.  Conversation on the way to the ride, suiting up, the first click in, oh man, good stuff.

 Hit the trail, and get to the river crossing.  Yes, we have rivers in AZ, they just don’t run all the time.  Bridge to Nowhere?  Sure, some years, but come back and that bridge may just go to somewhere you want to be.  In this case however, no bridge means a little wade, mid-thigh type of wade.

After a spring of rain, the sunshine comes and the desert is alive with color.  Much different than those in northern latitudes. SpaceCowgirl

Temps are great, flowers are growing.

After the bike ride and seeing the river, I thought maybe the fam should enjoy this as well.  You know, 10 years in Arizona and the first time "swimming" in the river.  We, or rather those North of us, have had a doozy of a winter.  The river has been flowing nicely for several weeks and most likely will continue for some time to come.  K and I went for a ride on Saturday, crossing the river, laughing at the adventure we find ourselves in sometimes.  Mid thigh and flowing, carrying bikes and shoes.  Lots of laughs.

Since that was so fun, I just had to do it again.

The bike ride made for a great day and inspired me to take the Fam out.  Set out with towels and water bottles and sandals, just for a day of play.

 And really, the water wasn't that cold, Oregon beaches were colder.

ah, the bike

Yes, I do remember the bike.  Feeling the breeze through the vents in the helmet.  Hearing the tires on the trail.  The feel of gravity increasing and decreasing through a turn. The grin that grows as the speed down a singletrack increases.  The initial burn in the legs as the climb starts then the rush of oxygen to the muscles as you settle into a long grind.

Had a big rain (for Phx at least) Thursday night.  Decided to go and see what happened to one of the better trails in the area.  BCT - smooth, flowy, skinny.  Good stuff.  Thought we may need to hike instead of bike, just because we are only a day of dry away from 4 days of rain.  Nope.  Well constructed trail and highly drained shale made for some good riding, albeit short.  Spent more time poking around in the changed scenery than riding.  Official records say something like 28 feet of flood crest.  I'd believe it after being there.  Compare the May 2009 trickle with the January 2010 torrent:

Now, 2010:

Those rocks across the flow? Yes, that is where we were putting on our shoes.  The trees and vegetation have been stripped off the land.  It will be interesting seeing what this all looks like in May of this year.  We even found a mighty saguaro, desert, juxtaposed against river:

Kinda strange seeing a cactus in the washed out river bottom.

The water moved quite a bit of earth, changing some of the scenery significantly.  We came to the sign, leading the way, but it was up to it's neck in alluvial sediments.

It was a good ride, and fun exploring.  I haven't been doing enough exploring lately, that will need to change.  As always, it's good to look and listen.