OctoberNovemberDecember

Vortexing it in Sedona

I got busy... Good news is my thesis proposal was approved and I'm on my way to finishing grad school in the spring! Now that it's the break I'm balancing thesis writing and attempts at getting outside. There's something peaceful about the routine of writing for a few hours, getting outside, then writing some more.

In October and November the temperatures began to drop and I tried to squeeze in the last bike rides of the year before it all snowed in. The next four pictures are from the same ride around Elden where it rained, hailed, and snowed, while we rode on dirt roads and single track through mud, snow, ice, sand. It was really a trip to find so much variety on one ride.

Ponderosa forest, north side of Elden where it burned

Into the Junipers

And then a meadow with old growth ponderosa??

And then into pokey things?

Another ride, around Mormon Lake south of Flag before the snow and cinders piled up along the roadways

mostly clear roads

Once the snow came to stay, $10 at the thrift store brought a cross country ski adventure! I think the skis will save me this winter, getting me excited for the snow rather than wishing the trails were clear. 

Beautiful beautiful beautiful places all around

 Finally there's still Sedona to warm up in, although we picked a rare day where it was actually nicer in Flag. Still pretty though!

And now for christmas ski adventures!

September

Hangin' in there

Summer went by really fast. There is so much to do here and not enough days for it all. We sat down and made lists, made more lists, and barely scratched the surface. School has started up again and I wasn't ready for that. Three weeks in it's proving to be a good semester though. For the first time here my classes have me really engaged and thinking, and that deep thinking feels good. My thesis is also coming together quickly and I'm enjoying the research and writing process. That may change once the revisions start, but right now it's just all great and I'm keeping up despite the heavy workload. There is something dreamy and surreal about this hectic lifestyle, like riding a wave and staying on top of it if you play your cards right. If you can achieve getting into that groove, the moments of peacefulness and being in the zone are highly rewarding. Perhaps one of the best parts is not having a set schedule all day long. You can take off for bike rides and do your work later, or chain yourself to your desk one day and store up a couple days off. So in the madness and commitment there is also a lot of freedom. I'm into that.

In July, Derek's folks came out for a visit and were treated to some good ole' monsoon showers. We hiked, ate, and drank lots of margaritas: the drink of the summer. I never liked margaritas much, but something about the southwest makes them sound like the best thing in the world on a sunny day.

In August the rains started bringing out the mushrooms and I got all excited. What I thought were boletes turned out to be slippery jacks, their not so awesome and really snotty cousin. The good discovery though was lobster mushrooms. Lots and lots of lobster mushrooms. They're big, dense, tasty mushrooms that have been taken over by another mushroom, making them a bright orange color with no gills. Just a handful easily weighs a pound, and they're easy to spot once you get the hang of it. The only problem is getting carried away and picking too much!

August also brought a trip to the lava cave near by, and lots and lots of bike rides.

 To top it all off we headed up to Durango, CO right before school started. In Cortez a stop off at Phil's World is a must. http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/phils-world.html It's pretty much an adult playground for mountain bikers.
After Phil's World we checked out Durango for two days, rode some local trails and an amazing section of Colorado trail, drank local beer, ate good food, and enjoyed the feel of Colorado. It's easy to fall in love with the place. It's a 5 hour drive from Flag and well worth the trip. I can't wait to go again.

Wearing out at mile 14...

The best part of CO riding: creeks to cool off in at the end of rides!

Old Munds and Schnebly Hill

Julia is back in town and making lists of things to check off, such as riding up Snowbowl, check, and riding from Flagstaff to Sedona via Forest Service back roads, check. I'm enjoying the motivation and positivity; thanks Julia!

This is the route from Flag to Sedona. It takes Old Munds Highway to a maze of numbered Forest Service roads, to Schnebly Hill road for the last bumpy rocky road to Sedona. The whole ride is gorgeous with much of it meandering through pine forest and lush meadows.

Next comes a tricky set of turns that are hard to find. Despite our vigilance, we missed them and ended up in the bedroom/retirement community/summer home of AZ people, of Munds Park. There we saw retired people playing golf, hiking, and a bunch of RVs, ATVs, and dirt bikes in the nearby woods. Hopping on the highway for two miles got us back on track with the Schnebly Hill exit. A generous shoulder and down hill direction makes that fly by.

Away from the highway, the final descent into Sedona is a blast after a couple quick climbs (it's good to know beforehand that heading "down to Sedona" has a good bit of up as well). Mucho thanks to Derek for meeting us at the bottom and whisking us off to a swim spot with beers and a picnic! Couldn't be a better way to end a ride.

June in N. AZ

While vast areas of AZ are currently burning to a crisp (literally), it's mighty nice up north. It's still windy at times, but the weather is gorgeous and life here is coming into full bloom. Bees are out, trees are filling in, and evenings are nearly t-shirt weather.

Last weekend we went to the north rim of the grand canyon to ride the rainbow rim trail. It seems some nice forest service folks decided to put in 20 miles of singletrack along the edge of the grand canyon. The north rim is a neat area. At 8000ft elevation it's amazingly pleasant with shady woods, lush aspen stands, deer, and amazing views of a monsterous canyon. We drove up from Flag on Sunday eve, camped at the edge of the canyon light up by moonlight, woke up to amazing sights, and then went on a bike ride.

The trail has 5 different viewing points/trail heads met by forest service roads. In between those it meanders away from the rim and into the woods to follow the terrain with minimal elevation change. There are still some modest climbs and descents, but all in all the trail is fun and fast winding through the woods and out to amazing sights. Wanting to ride the whole trail, we parked in the middle and rode out and back in each direction with a lunch break in between back at the car. Having ridden the first leg of 20 miles, and consuming a lunch of sandwich, chips, and beer, my body protested the second half and I turned around mid way while the boys rode on. A couple we met on the trail was doing to ride in two days, which would be fun too, although a day seems doable if you're a manimal or you take your time and enjoy the sights.

The past month has also included some bike camping which I've enjoyed a lot. With so much beautiful forest out our back door, there's little excuse not to cruise out after work now and then to sleep out under the stars.

Finally, a quick trip to Williams was underwhelming but a good recon mission. There is pie, beer, and burritos. I chased tourists around to take pictures, explored the wild west display downtown, and we walked through neighborhoods outside of the touristy downtown trying to get a feel for the place. I get the feeling that there isn't much going for a lot of people there aside from country living and a tourist economy. I felt myself walking a bit faster as an absent looking young guy walked by with sunken eyes, aged beyond his years. America is an interesting place.

Two Months Later...

I last wrote in February when it was snowing. It's May now and it snowed last week. This week we're forcasted to have the first low temperature above 40, so I'm looking forward to not covering every plant in the garden night after night. I'm learning that gardening in Flagstaff is hard, really hard, frustrating, and hopefully rewarding. If I lived here long term I would have to figure out some sort of a solar heated greenhouse to extend the growing season. It's amazing, its so sunny and warm during the day but then it gets so cold at night. What a tease.

As it is I finally have in the ground: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, beets, chard, lettuce, kale, peas, beans, corn (2 sweet, red, and Hopi blue), cucumbers (4 different kinds), zucchini, crookneck squash, Navajo Hubbard squash, delicata squash, kucha (?) squash, sweet pumpkins, sugar pie pumpkins, amaranth, sunflowers, onions, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, potatoes, garlic, and (today!) eggplant in walls-o-water. That sounds like a lot. No wonder I spend so many hours watering, covering, uncovering, and generally poking around in the yard.

I've also learned not to trust weather forecasts. When the forecast says 36, don't believe that you don't need to cover the tomatoes in the hoop house because it's not hitting freezing. Black, wilted, frozen tomato plants are a frustrating sight in the morning when you were lazy and didn't prepare the tomatoes for the worst. Likewise, random zucchini seedlings have frozen and died off uncovered at night while the rest are happy as could be. Expect the unexpected and give up trying to predict fair weather.

Non-garden related, but still food related, our neighbor brought two new chickens to our lives a few weeks back. Earlier this spring her dog got into our yard and shook to death two chickens. It was a grim sight seeing half dead chickens in the yard and I was thankful that Derek had more stomach than me to finish them off. Earlier that day I joked with my parents about which birds were the dumbest and how I could understand how people could raise them for food. However, faced with killing our own chickens I couldn't do it, and beyond that it was incredibly traumatizing because we weren't prepared for it and they suffered in the ordeal. I'm glad that I don't like to eat chicken so I would never consider raising hens for that, but this still brings up my moral issues with raising/slaughtering animals and eating meat. I eat pork and beef, but if I don't have the heart to kill a pig or a cow, how can I still eat them? Aren't I a hypocrite?

With a face like that...

Eggs are great, chickens are entertaining as hell, and mass produced eggs are unconscionable given the lives of hens who lay them (even those "happy free range chickens"). We didn't want to raise chicks, but being handed two 7-week old balls of golden fluff has been one of the highlights of these last few weeks aside from reaching the half-way mark in grad school and getting a new job. They're cute, friendly, cute, cute, and cute, and it's fun watching them slowly grow into big chicken mannerisms and size. 

No really, they're pretty cute.

In the biking scene I finished my Soma Analog and jumped ahead 20 years in mountain bike technology. I'm getting into shape and am finding some skills and confidence on the trail, which feels pretty rad. Slowly the rocks, drops, twists, and hills aren't so daunting and I find myself having a lot more fun. Today on a ride I thought about how if I was ever a parent I would have my kids riding trails at a young age. Why not strap all sorts of pads to the little buggers and send them down a hill? Sounds good to me.

An un-glorious shot of the new bike

That's about it. Summer is officially here in my book. The garden will do its thing, bike camping, car camping and mountain biking, BBQs, hoppy beer, and long days to enjoy it all.

Here's a few more pictures:

Sewing projects are getting a little nicer!

Sedona trip to warm up with Jacob and Lily

Snow!

 

Randy came to visit and liked it so much he's moving here in the fall!

Still a ways from spring

February 19th, snow is back.

Reality check for the excited gardener... The good news is this means more water for the region, and the hoop house passed the snow test!

Test rides

We tried out a route from Flagstaff to Sedona this weekend. For me this was a mistake as I've been under the weather, but it was still a beautiful day and we've been antsy to see if the roads have cleared yet.
The Cosmic Ray guide sends you on a winding route via Forest Service roads out of Flagstaff and down to Old Munds Highway, which connects to Schnebly Hill Rd into Sedona. Right now the Sedona end of Schnebly hill is closed to traffic, so this makes a preferable low traffic route through beautiful sights.

We took Lake Mary to Frontier which is is gated at the end and turns into Forest Service roads. Back in January I posted a picture of us stopped at this gate with a foot of snow behind it; with all this sun and warmth it is now mostly clear aside from patches of ice and mud.

 The start of the Forest Service roads, which all looked pretty much like this. At first you ride gingerly or walk across these snow/slush/ice patches, but eventually you give up and just go for it. I rode unclipped most of the time and was thankful for dual platform/clip pedals.

 Another ice patch surrounded by beautiful brown hillsides and forest.

 Forest Service lands are for many types of recreation. We ran into disc golfers, ATV riders, motorcyclists, and a dude with a big stick looking for a lost cellphone who's kid had been chased by a coyote the day before; I rode with some paranoia thinking about my friend getting attacked by a rabid fox last year.

 Sand, mud, snow... I got pretty frustrated by this ride. The dirt is so loamy that my touring tires were having a hard time. I wiped out several times, once getting thrown off as my wheel sunk into a sand pit and pivoted sharply stopping my bike immediately (but not my own momentum); it's a strange feeling to hate the loose riding conditions and then be thankful as you land in dirt so soft if feels like down pillows. Being sick on top of this was the straw that broke the camels back and Derek did a good job of handling my mini break downs on the trail...

Finally a road that's rideable! Upon finally hitting Old Mund's Highway we were treated to a beautifully graded hardpacked gravel road. Calling it a day, we headed back and hopped briefly onto the 89A to catch up with the urban trail system back to town. This seems like the best route, bypassing the sandy maze of Forest Service roads for a more enjoyable time even though it's not as remote. Maybe next weekend we'll try it again with this new knowledge. Near the end of our ride we passed a lady on on a horse who commented on what a beautiful day it was. She was right, it was absolutely amazing and frustrations aside I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.