Last weekend of September

This weekend was a little different than usual. On Saturday (in the afternoon, hot!), I went for a ride along the canals, and went wandering around by the riverside. It's amazing the things you see and find in the desert. In the middle of nowhere I saw the remainder of what once was someone's porch, and halfway buried in the sand an old Ford pick up truck. I was watching the last movie in the Resident Evil series last night, Extinction, I'm pretty sure they used this as their decor.

A ways out there I got company from this AH-64A, flying pretty low. They were probably wondering what on earth would make a person ride their bike into the desert in the middle of a hot afternoon .

On Sunday I hooked up with a girl from the Luna Chix group to go ride at Red Mountain. We met up at Walgreens, 7AM, while I usually stage at the river and take that little trail that drops you onto mine trail. So now I know where most of the other mountain bikers usually stage, though I'm not too crazy about that ride up the road to the trailhead. Besides, sometimes it's nice to have a little variety and stage at different spots, so sometimes I stage at the NRA pit, sometimes Wild Horse, then Mine Trail etc. etc.

This was a nice and easy girly ride for a change, and we had a ball. The trails we took were Pig Trail, Story Trail, a taste of Disneyland, and then onto the Hidden Trail, down Saguaro Trail, and back up Pig Trail. The Hidden Trail, together with Twisted Sister and Wild Horse, would probably be my favorite trail of all in the Valley. Where my bike is a little sketchy on monster downhills, it handles buttery smooth on tight, narrow singletrack, with steep switchbacks, boulders, and cholla.

I am really excited about the weather cooling off, it is so nice out in the morning, it's hard to pass up an opportunity to go riding. I really have no trouble at all getting out of bed early to enjoy the beauty of the desert on a nice early morning ride. In fact, when I post these postings, I look at the pictures I took, and realize how lucky I am that I live in this area and get to ride this pretty much year round.....