And then we rode our bikes.....

Every year I'm in Tucson I get a photo of my newest bike with this car. The car never changes, my bike always does.Getting ready to ride, loaded and un-loaded seems to be the most difficult part. Waiting, still waiting.Maybe I'll ride a wheelie while I wait. Hmmmm. Yea, that sounds good.Well I guess it was worth the wait, because we all finally ended up here.

There was a little 80's night left over from the night before. The girls, and me--in pink----wearing some sweet shades!

Next day. Bugs Springs to Milano Basin to La Milagrosa! To intense to stop and take many photos of ride action.


Above, Nancy on Bugs Springs.

80's Night? Or Photo's of Gay People?

Yea, thats us! Rockin it OLD SCHOOL! Mary is dressed to kill in a one piece jump suit with purple leotards, a pink belt, and jelly shoes. Credit goes out to the movie "Road House" for inspiring her hair. I'm rockin in BLUE Calivin Klein jeans,tight rolled, my sleeves rolled up and a hot pink shirt underneath. AND! Unseen in the photo are my 1989 Nike Force Shoes with air pockets! And to top it off the the original Oakley Blades! YO ICE, LETS KICK IT, ICE ICE BABY, ICE ICE BABY, TOO COOL, TOO COOL!

Who is that boy in Jacques Pants? Underage and LOVIN IT!

Scotty Gray dot com and Dave Nash show some island style.

Nikki and Nancy, lookin HOT! Too bad all the boys are GAY!

Merrick and Eric the Ferret prove my point!

Mary's Birthday, Dogs, A Bike Race

Mary got me all dressed up for her birthday. We had a nice dinner at her favorite place, Mimi's Cafe.

Gustifson has a new little friend. Jake, or as I call him, "whine bag." Jake climbs in bed with us in the mornings and gets Gus pretty jealous. Gus has even taken to whining to try and get what he wants.

The 2009 24 hours in the Old Pueblo. Team Scofflaw rides again. This time I was riding instead of wrenching, taking the place of the fallen Jacques Hadler. The course was smooth, fast and really good for people who like to mash the big ring. I hate smooth trails, I only go fast down hill, and I haven't used a big ring in 5 years. Not looking good for Team Scofflaw.

Picture before Lap one above, and me running to the start of lap one.

I had a good first lap, only 4 min behind Nikki, our fast female rider. We were in 5th place through the day, and then we imploded. As I left on my night lap Nikki was throwing up, and Dave was about to also. My night lap was fun, I was going fast, feeling good, then my legs just turned to mush. Climbing the final climb i was in my granny, getting passed by everyone. No one was there to greet me as I came into the tent. Eventually Scotty and Chris turned double laps through the night as I slept, trying to keep it alive. I awoke at sunrise to all of our bikes in camp. No one was riding. Team Scofflaw had become Team Implosion. We were done.

I want my money back....

I didn't take all this time off work and come this far south to ride in SNOW! Luckily snow doesn't last long down here, this was about all that was left on a ride to Chiva Falls. The falls were roaring as well as all the creeks on the way down. Some were knee deep. Gus would tear into them FULL SPEED AHEAD! He was diggin' all the water and cool temps.

Mary joined me for a hike before I took off for the falls on my bike.

Pretty nice day, wouldn't ya say?

Star Pass

Went out to Star Pass the other day. These trails are classic Sonoran single track.

First ride on my new TALAS fork. BUTTER!

I climbed to the top of this mountain on an amazingly technical climb. Too bad I was alone and have no witness to tell storys of my remarkable tech climbing skills. I'd love to see someone with more fitness attempt to clean this climb.

Have I mentioned to anyone lately that the Remedy is the BEST bike ever made! I know I go on like a broken record about it, but it gives up almost nothing on the climbs and descends better than bikes with 2 and 3 more inches of travel. VIVA LA REMEDY

We beat Greg to Patagonia....

So, my co-worker Greg Luck (www.ridetotheride.blogspot.com) is headed to Chile, South America, and might go as far south as Patagonia. Not to be out done, Mary and I headed to Patagonia first, Patagonia Arizona that is. The picture above is of our camp, from atop one of the Patagonia Peaks.
Gus and I had quite a little adventure. We started up on a whim, I didn't even put on jeans, which in Sonora is a good idea. My legs were stinging from the scraping of the pokey desert plants, but luckily I had some leg warmers in my pack and put them on. We made the top in about an hour, I waved at Mary below and she acknowledged by waving back. I noticed while sitting on the cliff at the top, that below the cliff band there was very little vegetation. If Gus and I could get down the cliff we could "walk" back down. Well, getting down the cliff with Gus was absolutely scary. Lucky for me he obeys every command and did exactly as he was told or we both would have fallen. At one point I arrested his downward fall, it was the only way, and he trusted me completely.

Once we reached the bottom of the cliff band I was shocked to realize that the slope had no vegetation because it was too steep for any to grow on it. My view from the top had skewed my depth perception. It was a scree field most of the way to the bottom. It was like surfing on rocks. Finally we popped out about 500 ft BELOW camp, making my "short cut" quite dangerous and substantially longer.

The picture above was taken very near the bottom where vegetation took back over.

Mary was starting a camp fire and dinner when we trudged back into camp. I had forgotten bread so our hot dogs got dumped in with the pork and beans. Quite a good mix actually. Half way through dinner the sky got all hot and bothered and started strutting its stuff. Not a bad sunset.

The wind howled all night and Border Patrol trucks kept driving by our little slice of wilderness reminding us that thousands of illegal immigrants were struggling through the hills around us, probably wishing they had worn jeans to keep the pokey plants off of their legs too.

We drove back north after breakfast to Kentucky Camp, an old mining town from the 1800's. The hills around it are laced with singletrack, part of and IMBA epic route. Mary's hands were not feeling it, and Gus was tuckered out from the day before, so I went on a solo ride. These trails make up part of the Arizona Trail system.

(Bleeding Tree) Anyone know what this tree is, or why it is half red? Cool photo I thought?

Above is the handle bar view of the butter smooth trails running through the high grasslands below the Santa Rita Mountains. The ride was twenty two miles, which was all I wanted this early in the season.

Sunburned

Here are some pictures of the trip down to Tucson. Above is Monument Valley from a long ways away at sunset. It was a beautiful drive, as usual, through MV.We camped near Flagstaff at 7000 ft. Some snow, and a temp in the morning of 22 degrees, however, it was around 85 degrees in our sleeping bag according to my watch.

Below is my brand new Fisher Hi Fi Carbon on its first ride. She is 26.5 lbs with a Gravity Dropper post. Lightest bike I have ever had. She's so dang light she's a bit skitish, or it could be i'm not used to riding on the ball bearing rocks of the Sonoran desert.

First ride was on the new Black Canyon Trail near Black Canyon City. This is a must ride! As Noah said in his blog, "it will blow your mind all over your face." It is perfectly built and made to flow. It's easy to find, just off the interstate.

The pics and video below are from today. Mary has been struggling for some time with her hand tendinitus. This was her first ride since October. She had me prepared to just take a casual ride, and then she freakin dropped me! Right off the start she was hammering and I was struggling to keep her in sight. Thats my girl!