So I haven't posted
anything here in a year. Last February I was in the middle of being very busy
writing a very big paper (thesis), and I didn't feel much like writing more on
here. I finished the thesis, made a short video on
it for my last presentations, and walked away from school with a very
un-climactic feeling. I grappled a bit with my life philosophy and for a short
time I felt like I was graduating into a big post-school world and should have
a career in mind. But then I came to my senses. I want to do a lot of things,
and food justice is just one of them. I'm not ok with the American ethic where
you turn your life over to work to build a retirement account at the expense of
the environment, communities, and your very own soul. The American ratio of
contribution, meaning, and fun is way out of balance, and the American work
ethic is largely to blame for that. Play at all life stages is important. So is
contribution and meaning. Important enough to give up thousands of dollars that
a life-long career might offer? Fuck yes. So school was good, and it didn't end
with me handing over my life. And this weekend I went and rode bikes, and I
took pictures, so here they are.
We took a trip to Superior,
Arizona for some Arizona trail riding. On our way we drove down Lake Mary road
to Rim Country and hit up some thrift stores in Payson. Payson has a lot of churches, is pretty, and has neat vegetation zones that remind me more
of mountainous California or Oregon with dry forests of pine trees, manzanita,
and other scrubby stuff that walk the line between prickly and lush. After thrift
stores and burros, we detoured down the Globe-Young Highway that we toured last
year. It’s a mostly dirt forest service road through mountains of ponderosa and
openings of sage brush and cactus. In the middle of it, Young is the site of an
interesting wild west feud in the late 1800's that involved lots of murders,
livestock rustling, resource battles, and good ole' racism. Check out the Pleasant Valley War. Young is also known as Pleasant Valley,
and it really is a beautiful pastoral valley studded with a few ramshackle
homes, pickup trucks, and little white-painted churches. The peacefulness is
almost unsettling and I’m reminded of the movie Hot Fuzz.
In search of a place to
camp we continued south out of Young. The road was mostly clear but there was
still a layer of snow, so we kept driving in search of drier ground. We serendipitously
came across a stack of firewood amidst a snowy campground and excitedly loaded up. We settled on a slightly
less muddy and snowy area, and proceeded to get to work on making a fire.
Lacking tools and especially lacking dry wood, we made a rather comedic attempt
at a camp fire. We decided that in the future some essentials like an axe would
be really smart to have!
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| as big as the flames got |
Day 2, just over the
hump and down the hills, we found a nice place for future camping.
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| Roosevelt lake in the background |
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| go expos! 25 cents in Payson! |
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We continued south
through Miami, which is a crazy little mining town, and then into Superior,
which is a little bigger (around 3,000 people).
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| Miami has mines |
In Superior we loaded up on chorizo at
a local Mexican restaurant and started riding at the Picketpost trailhead heading
south on the AZT. We thought the south section would be newer, mellow, and good
after sitting in the car, but it started with old-school trail building and I
tried to hold my burrito down. I got really defeated and sick and pushed up a
bunch of rocky hills cursing my inability to ride a lot of it. Eventually
though the terrain changed to larger hillsides where the trail flowed across the
contours, and the burrito and car legs began to feel a lot better.
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| what we rode around |
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| taking a break to wait for me... |
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| the flow begins! |
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| Taylor's glam shot |
Deciding to make a loop, we took
forest service roads back and I wish I had stopped for a picture. Derek warned
us it was rocky, but I didn’t comprehend how rocky a road could be. Parts of
the road included long steep sections of bedrock, lengths of cobbly washes, and
deep layers of nothing but babyheads. I probably would have taken the old
school trail back if I had known, but at the same time it was so ridiculous it
was fun, and I have begun to really get a kick out of ridiculous rides. We came
across some moto jumps and took a silly break before returning the last few
miles on pavement.
Warmer weather camping was awesome! Lots
of dry stuff meant no more pampering the wet pine. We unabashedly scrubbed off
the trail grime with a makeshift shower and felt like a million bucks. Cows in
the open range mooed all night and I chased them around in the morning trying
to feed them fistfuls of grass.
With an earlier start and the trailhead down
the road, we set off for our planned adventure ride day of old trails and
hike-a-bike northwards towards Reevis Canyon. Reevis was a gnarly settler that
you should read about. Short story shorter, aside from a
few steep babyhead covered hills to push up, the north section was lovely. Being
more prepared for an adventure ride, I suggested turning back to conserve
energy and water, but underestimated the amount that we climbed heading north.
We rolled back into town wanting more riding, ate some amazing burros in Globe, at more burros in Payson, and made it back to Flag for a good night of sleep.
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| a green desert! |
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| a lush canyon, so cool |
Good times.
