On Holiday in Sedona
by Bryan on December 23rd, 2007
Well, the end of 2007 nears and after a year of working my but off it was about time to get the heck out of Los Angeles and find a place far away with a more relaxed vibe. After a list of places that included Colorado, Hawaii and even San Diego - which was immediately vetoed due to the lack of exquisite mountain bike trail access and it being to much like the pit of LA - the choice was Sedona, AZ. Ideal because of the 1 day drive, serene vistas, plentiful mountain biking and of course new age healing hikes to vortexes. I dont even want to explain what a vortex is, cause I still dont know. All I do know is there is one at Bell Rock which I mountain biked thru last time I was out there and all I remember was having in a tingling feeling in my belly and a serious craving for a cheeseburger and chocolate shake.
This particular trip to Sedona was with my family and quite an awesome trip it was. We pretty much chilled and enjoyed the scenery. As I mentioned I was out to Sedona a couple years ago as part of an Evomo road trip the the UCI world cup races in Angel Fire, New Mexico… awesome that was and most definitely Epic - with a capitol E.
I brought the Turner Nitrous along and was able to hook up with some guys from the Mountain Bike Heaven Bike Shop for a nice morning ride. Those guys are some of the coolest locals I have had the pleasure of riding with.
I need to back up in my story… when I got to town I called a couple bike shops to see if they had any “shop rides”. Its the best way to tag along with the locals. I had been out on the Bell Rock area but this time I wanted to see something different. The 1st shop I called said it was the “off season” and that it was “too cold to ride this time of year”. What?! You got to be kidding me. I ride in 50-60 degree weather in LA at 8am in the morning… whats the deal? Sedona is averaging the mid 60s during the day… thats pretty ideal if you ask me. Its not like Jeff Kerkove riding in sub zero temps out in Ft. Collins, CO. So I moved on to the next shop on the list which was Mt Bike Heaven. This guy Rob was on the phone and was more than happy to tell me that they ride every Wednesday and Sunday like clock work and that I should definitely come on out. Awesome!
So the next morning I headed in to town from my creek house and got to the shop at 9am. “Shaggy” was there and had opened the shop. He let me know that the guys are pretty casual and the rides dont get going until 9:30 or even 10am. Perfect… relaxed vibe… just like RL and the gang from mtnbikeriders.com.
Now one thing definitely had me a bit nervous, I mean when you ride with guys you have never ridden with, there are always the unknowns. Some of those include, how aggressive are they, how hard are the trails going to be, how long will we be out, are we going to have to jump 30 foot gaps or kill rattle snakes for trail snacks? The thing that had me thinking “I need to bring a satellite phone so I can call the Evomo helicopter in for an evac in case shit goes crazy” was that Shaggy got off the phone and said so it looks like “Danger” is going to be leading the ride today. I said, danger? “Yeah, Danger Dave - just dont follow him… you dont want to go where he goes” Shaggy told me. I was like, great.
Danger Dave rolled up like a cowboy on a horse… confident and ready to ride… even smoking a cigarette. Yeah smoking! Man this guy is dangerous already. Kenny, Mark and another guy whos name I think is “Seva” (forgive me if I misspelled it) were all pretty much local regulars to the rides from the shop. Ends up being all these guys are quite cool and very laid back. They all seemed to be happy to have me - the out of town from LA guy - along for their morning ride.
Danger was the lead and decided we should hit the “secret trails”. Secret sounds good to me! The ride was about 2 hours and we were off on some gnarly technical shit that required us to hike a bike quite a few times. I kept up as best I could and honestly was pretty sloppy on the technical sections. The “secret trails” are a network of unmarked trails that only these guys know. With out them as guides, you will never find them and even if you do, you will get lost… believe me.
So we are jamming down some really flowy sections heading back towards town. All has been good and I these guys are in no hurry to dust me a leave me for coyote bait (which was nice) and no one got hurt - until I rounded a corner and saw Seva looking down a ledge. Oh no! I look over the edge and see Danger down there laying on the ground with Kenny check to see where he was hurt. I was sure he broke a bone. Ends up, Danger bombed down some steep grade and he would have made it except he hit some really soft soil at the bottom and I guess flipped over and landed on a big rock which torqued his knee and leg real good. Lucky he is a Chiropractor, s get this… he talks Mark on how to pull his legs, in a jerking motion, to re-align them! Shit!
Once the leg-alignment is taken care of, Danger is back on his Iron Horse and we are off. What a ride! Like I said these guys are ultra cool and laid back. They just love to ride and if you ever want to tag along - just call the shop - Mountain Bike Heaven. Oh and they even have a blog… mountain-bike-heaven.blogspot.com
