Blog Archive

Mar 19, 2008

Mountain Biking Dreamy Draw Trail 100 etc 3-18-08

Well, on Sunday Elvota and Micki mentioned a cool area of the park I normally ride that did NOT sound familiar to me. I had never been over to this area...
Then on Monday while hiking Squaw Peak I saw it! There it was! How had I never seen it before! A whole new valley that they call the Abyss.
So, on Tuesday I went and found it!
There is nothing quite like finding new trails!
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Fresh paths!
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Lets see if I can make you tilt your head...
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This place was great to look at and even more fun to ride.
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THAT WAS TOO BRIGHT!
Let me find something to cover that sun so you can see!
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That Kinda worked, but I had to move... Oh wait. I know.
I'll just block out the sun myself!
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You can see some of the trail ahead.
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The downhill was steep and rocky. I run low tire pressure... This can't go well. You can see the trail skirting along the cliff here.
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Then... a flat. Although it provided me with the best shot of the day...
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As the sun set the mountains were painted red.
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As there seems to be most days, someone was getting airlifted off of Squaw peak... You can see the helicopter, they had just landed a second before this shot.
Must be someone from Ohio. haha, just kidding. I know people from there!!
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Hiking Squaw, Piestewa Peak 3-17-08

We decided to get out and do a short, but fun hike. You access this trial by taking the 51 in Phoenix, AZ to the Lincoln exit, turn East. Turn on Squaw peak North. Park in the first lot on the left. Trail starts within a few feet of the parking lot.
This hike will take under 2 hours to complete taking it slow. You get some great city views from the top.
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We reached the top just at sunset. Beautiful.
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Look at that serious guy. Rarrrr!
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Here is my favorite shot of the day.
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Trail 404 Rio Verde Arizona Offroading, 3-16-08

So after mountain biking we headed out to go and do some offroading. I went home, ate some In-N-Out, and then Danica and I headed to the trail head.
To start this you head up to Bartlett lake road just past Cave Creek. There is a turn off on the right for it. Not labeled, you just have to know where to go.
We were doing this trail in reverse of how we had always done it in the past.
That meant the hardest obsticle would be about a half mile into it. DOH!
This is not a good sight. What you can't see is that whole truck leaning into this rock. Thank goodness for rock sliders. I knew I made those for a reason!
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Uh oh, design flaw...
The rear "kick out" is supposed to help nudge the truck out of the way of the rock.... Here you can see it almost bending flat....
I think I may need a little support bar right there...
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Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell. Now that I was up against the rock and a wall I was all but stuck. The rock had touched my two passenger side doors ever so lightly. Not even a dent was hardly made, but there were a couple of dime size scratches from it. Thanks to the guiding of Elvota I reversed back and we stacked a couple rocks to keep me from leaning so far into the big rock.
As I back up I heard a bad noise....
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Bad noise, but not an expensive noise. I had shredded the center cap for my wheels. Thats an easy fix at a junk yard. :)
On we went without any problems. We made it down to a natural canyon that is fun to hike.

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There were animal tracks all over in the canyon. Something had eaten a bit of this fallen Saguaro.
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Maybe its whatever ate this!
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ahhh!

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We went to another canyon that Elvota knew about.
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Then we headed on
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Maybe the favorite pic of the day.
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This hill was really, REALLY steep. About 30 degrees or so and loose gravel.
Thank goodness for 4wd low and a rear axle locker.
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A hole lot more wild flowers all over.
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Mountain Biking Red Mountain, Arizona 3-16-08

After the hike Saturday I was itching to get out and do some riding!
I tagged along with some friends to a trail I had never been on. Red Mountain. After getting there we saw a Yeti Bicycles truck and trailer.
Neato!
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Micki actually knew them since she rides a Yeti and is a Mountain Biker through and through.
She said "anyone else want to ride a Yeti today?" Are you kidding. Ride my 8 year old bike, which I love, or ride a brand new $6,000 + dollar bike? Hmmm. Okay!
There were a bunch of other folks that decided to saddle up a Yeti and so 13 of use headed out.
The guys from Yeti were great. They were taking pictures and making sure no one got left behind... Or maybe he was making sure we didn't just ride of into the sunset with a yeti? Haha. No, these guys were as relaxed and friendly as they get! In fact, I almost asked them about how they got their jobs as I'm sure many do.
Some pictures of the day and MANY more are up at www.anthonysloan.com
The bike was amazing. It felt comfortable right away. In some ways it felt more comfortable than my own bike. The only thing I noticed is that my lungs were hurting. My legs didn't hurt to bad, but not riding for almost a month killed my lungs and they were burning!
I really noticed the increased weight of this bike over mine on the up hill. That being said, I'd take it in a heart beat. I would be happy to get used to it!

I left my camera in the car because it looked like rain all morning. After we were done the Yeti guys offered us some beers. GREAT GUYS! I grabbed a gatorade because I felt like I was about to pass out.
Here is the beaut I rode:
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That was it for the morning. Now we headed off to grab some lunch, meet up with our other halfs that didn't go riding and drive out to do some offroading! Busy day!
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Mar 14, 2008

Miner's Revenge Trail AZ.

Since the clean up, my 4runner has been down with a broken rear differential and getting some upgrades. More on that later.
So, last weekend a couple of friends invited me to tag along on a more extreme trail than I'd normally do. Miner's Revenge. This trail is located near the town of Superior and the entrance is just next to the Battleaxe trail.
We met down at a diner in Superior. Great mexican food and I had a nice breakfast too! I road with Westy. He has the tan colored pickup pictured.
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This buggy is pretty cool. It may look like a jeep, but its actually on old toyota pickup that he turned into a tube buggy. It works great! A prime example of how clearance, gearing, and tire size can make it almost anywhere without much wheel travel!
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We headed to the trail and aired the trucks tires down for more grip.
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Just after heading down a sandy wash to get to the main trail we passed a slight turn in the road which had a small, but sharp rock on the side of it. I mentioned to Westy how that was a "GOTCHA" rock. The kind you don't see that pop tires. I guess I was right.
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The hole in the nice new tire was large enough to get my thumb in. No trail repair tire patches for this one.
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Thank goodness for full size spares!
We headed on to the beginning of where the trail got difficult.
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Right here on the first drop off we are on some terrain that is above my 4runners level Pretty impressive first bump!
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Thats a big rock to get over and thats a steep incline to be backing up to make a three point turn with a STICK shift. Westy made it look easy!
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We headed down this canyon some more.
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We saw some fancy buggies headed up the trail. Buggies like this are fun, but they have to be trailered out to the beginning of the trail... All of the trucks in our group drove to the trail and drove home. (Westy has a nice feature. Removable doors. We took them off and placed them behind a bush to be picked up on the way out!)
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This 4runner is a lot like mine. It was inspirational to see him tackle these giant obsticles with no damage. Some great driving on Jon's part.
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There were some very tippy spots on this trail.
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Here is an odd problem. This 4runner would loose all power when it hit about a 45 degree incline... The motor was running just fine, but the transmission would not make the wheels move... The second he got more level, it was perfectly fine again.
We winched him up this hill.
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Some obsticles have a bypass. You can see the white 4runner above skipping the harder drop below that the black Tacoma is on.
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The views in this canyon are not to be missed. Here is one from the passenger seat.
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This steep uphill was steeper than anything I've been in a vehicle on.
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Almost everyone crawled right up!
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There were some tight fits!
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Not one of us, including the driver thought that this truck would make it up this hill without a little help. A winch or a pull.
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He went right up and over... Amazing!
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When rock crawling, don't plan to go anywhere fast. :)
That was fine with me. This canyon was a beaut!
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Hmmm. What's that big thing were coming up to?
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that looks tough...
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Its is too. Even to just climb up.
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There was moss and water all over too making it slick.

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As you might have noticed above the left side looks a LITTLE easier... Not for us, we were all headed up the more difficult right side...
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and this was my view for the next several minutes as we tried to get up. It took a few tries and some scary moments, but we made it!
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Okay, that was a great ride. I'm smiling ear to ear. Next!
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He made that look WAY to easy.

Next Brian took a shot at it.
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YIKES!
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He almost made it and almost slipped off too!
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Brian decided the best thing to do was winch up that first lip and drive it up the rest, BUT before he did he tried and tried. Here is a little video.

or two.


Look at Brian just pull him up. Now that is strength. Lift with the back not with the knees!... wait..
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Jon got up further than anyone thought!
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But when your rear bumper digs in like this and your rear tires can't even touch. You're not going anywhere!!
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Add in a little help though and:

Bam!
You make it up.

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As Ken was headed up he started to make it and... WOOOH!
He almost fell off the 15 foot drop on the side. That would not be pretty.
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Yikes, Hello!

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Up up and away he goes.



Such an amazing looking canyon.
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Well, we made it out. Great day, full day, a day that I was SO glad I didn't have my truck because there was no stress and no worrying. Westy can drive and it was a great ride!!!
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We aired up, headed into town and grabbed some dinner and a beer!
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