Sedona...Just got back last night from a 4-day trip. It was my first time and I'm thrilled to check it off my bucket list.

Summary:

Great people. Good food. Very good riding. Ton's of laughs. Spectacular landscape. A fantastic trip.

Longer Version:

We departed San Diego Friday at 5:30A. Tfitz suggested Brownie's Cafe in Yuma for breakfast. In biz since '46. Be sure to get something with gravy on it. And something else with salsa on it. So. Good.



More miles and finally the Village of Oak Creek appears, then some unexpected traffic entering Sedona (surprising and a little annoying). We get through it and up the hill to our destination, a condo a the Junipine Resort. Nice. Thanks to Belizean for setting it up and getting this trip scheduled!

We unload our stuff, gear up, load the bikes and head back down the hill toward the West end of town. A long day and limited light encouraged us to try the Soldiers Wash network (Adobe Jack, Grand Central, Crusty, etc.). Did not get to ride every trail, but it was an awesome way to get acquanted with the trails of Sedona. We later realized that even when compared with some of the bigger name trails, this little network is a real gem and is worth seeking out. I'm not the only one that considered a second session here. Too much other stuff to explore to justify a repeat though.



Darkness came, so back to homebase. Tfitz whipped up some award winning (true story) chicken chili and a salad. Yum. A wide selection of delicious beers and even some strange drink made from the blue agave plant were enjoyed. Big stories and big laughs ensued. Later on, and without explanation, Gabe insisted on sleeping outdoors on a seemingly uncomfortable patio chaise lounge, wrapped in his parka and burritoed in his sleeping bag. A practice he would continue for the next two subsequent nights of my stay. It got down to 28 degrees that night.... Inexplicably, he truly seemed to enjoy the experience despite the discomforts. Too funny.

Up early Saturday morning. Another big breakfast cooked up by Lost One 2; cream cheese and ortega chile scrambled eggs and bacon.

Tfitz's older brother drove up from Phoenix and joined in the fun.

Bellies full of high-cal chow and what must have been many gallons of coffee, down down the hill we went, back to the Village of Oak Creek where we parked near Bike & Bean. We started at the Slim Shady trailhead and made our way up. Slim Shady is pretty flowy, but as I would start to learn, you have to work like hell in Sedona. There ain't no free lunches here. A fact that would become more and more apparent through the long weekend. There was at least one very fun descent with a little tech thrown in for good measure on this trail. It's a super fun trail.















At the top of Slim Shady, we took the left fork and up the Hiline. Yikes. This was a particularly technical climb with plenty of exposure. You really had to work hard and make smart line choices in order to clean the technical challenges. At the top, the trail mellowed with some light descent (mixed with plenty of pedaly areas) over the slick rock. Pretty fun. From there, down to a steep chute that added some pucker factor. It was getting better. Another dh section through some trees and it started flattening out again. Lots of continuous little ups and downs define the riding here, with the addition of tons and tons of little ledges, rocks, rock step ups and grunts to get up and over which starts to take it's toll on the old quadriceps...big time. The entire trail, you're basically traversing around a mountain. We wound back around and connected to Templeton, and then back down through Slim Shady. We later learned that we should have only gone a short way on Templeton before dropping into Easy Breezy, instead of taking all of Templeton back to Slim Shady. Take heed if you do this one.
At the end, I believe it was less than a measly 12 miles, but it felt like more than 20. Back at the Bike & Bean we grabbed a quick beverage and some local knowledge. We left armed with a potential plan for Sunday's ride.

Later on, after some cold drinks, we enjoyed our own home-away-from-homemade dinner of fresh steamed green beens, salad, garlic roasted baby potatoes and many lbs of Cardiff crack we'd smuggled across the state line.

Plenty more laughs were had as well as some back and forth about the ride the next day. Kimba picked up the guitar (as he had the night before) and got some live music started, with Tfitz's brother Mike playing harmonica (and alternating with a mandolin), and Belizean on the hand drum. A pleasant way to wind down the day.

Gabe slept outside again...

Hangover had previously been the plan, but after discussing with one of the B&B guys, we decided on doing the Hogs trails. Supposedly, the standard progression is Hiline first, then Hogs, and finally, Hangover. Ok, let's progress.

We started at Slim Shady again, then over to HT across the road to Little Horse to Chicken Point (look up and you'll see the Whiteline trail. Good Lord...). Tfitz's bro was on a schedule. He pealed off and headed back to Phoenix. We kept moving to and throuh Broken Arrow. During the entire ride, the amazing scenic views just keep coming at you, the next more amazing than the last. What a great experience.





To this point, there wasn't anything overly challenging, but it's probably fair to say, most of us were starting to feel this 3rd day of riding. Hog Heaven and Hog Wash were next.There were a couple of challenging features, but really, it seemed more tame than Hiline. Lost One 2 had to work Monday, so he took the opportunity to bail out after Hog Heaven and hit the road. Over to Broken Arrow for our thinning group, and then "down" Llama. From there we connected with a really fun little bermy flow trail called Single Track Parkway that runs between the road and a big walking path.

This ride totaled about 17 miles. We rode back to B&B and headed in to Famous Pizza. Green Flash Tangerine Soul Style IPA's hit the spot like crazy and the White Pizza's we ordered.....wow. I get irritated with pizza reviews. It's just fricken pizza. Not any more. Consensus was it might be the best pizza ever made. Go there. Eat White Pizza.

Back to the condo.

Gabe slept outside for the third night...

Monday morning, I was on a mission so I was up early and packed, along with Tfitz. A quick breakfast of lot's of coffee, fruit and some bagels with cream cheese and lox. It was awesome, right Fred?

With sore legs and a tighter schedule (on my part), we agreed to ride the Chuckwagon trail. There is nothing too challenging on this trail, but still a gem. It is actually a ton of fun. Back to the truck and we're out.

Picked up another White pizza for the trip back. Home by 7P and in time for a good night's sleep before work today.

Kimba, Belizean and Gabe Keating stayed and rode more trails that afternoon, and I presume Tuesday morning before heading home.

Here's how I always picture Gabe; lurking behind some bush or rock, waiting for it all to come together to capture the perfect pic. I didn't get one of him sniffing my tires unfortunately.



What a great trip! My final take is that I may go back at least one more time if not more. It's so worth the experience. It's a unique, massive, well thought out and expertly maintained trail system with one stunning vista after another. It's a damned taxing place to ride though. Extremely pedaly. Ultimately, I prefer a more Downieville'esque type trail. The whole Sedona experience is awfully hard to beat though and I'm compelled to go back at least one more time if not more. Gotta check Hangover off the list next time.

Thanks to the compadres on this trip for all the laughs, good vibes, great riding, and just plain ol' good times. Maybe they will add their thoughts and better pics to this post. Cheers!

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"it can go full porno alley"

- Kimba - One love, many bikes - 2020

Great TR!

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

Avidtest shredding in Sedona.

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https://gabekeatingphotography.smugmug.com/
mind wide open

Great TR !!

Brings back memories.

I was out there last weekend as well and did most of the same trails. I thought I recognized one or two of you guys from the photos. I think we crossed paths on Slim on Sunday. Cheers! Great riding out there! I was bummed out when i left. I didn't get to do Hiline this time though. I couldn't talk my buddy into it. I totally agree about your 12miles feeling like 20miles. We did a few rides in the 10-14 mile range and I was always surprised that our mileage was not higher based on how I felt. Attached a few photos.

Great TR....just discovered the Hogs trails on our last trip out there and trust me, you haven't worked until you've worked your way up to Hangover from the bottom. I'm glad I did Hangover but won't be in any rush to go back. There's plenty of opportunities to get hurt out there and there was one section that felt sketchier to walk than ride.

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If you don't go this year, you'll only be a year older when you do - Warren Miller

I'll fill in the details from the last day/night with Fred and Gabe. After Avidtest and Tfitz departed, we rode some of the other trails in the West Sedona trail system, namely Mescal, Deadmans, Airie, Cockscomb, Dawa, Arizona Cypress, and another I cannot recall. Mescal was an amazing singletrack that had a few tight rocky cliff features, and one MASSIVE section where you could feel like you were riding something like White Line (rolling on an off camber red rock face cliff) but without the huge penalty for failure. It was really easy actually but so visually stunning we were there taking pictures and whatnot for a long time. When I return to a PC I will post up some shots. (I am doing this on my phone at a mediation session during a break).

Deadmans was a connector and Airie a fun flow trail, which I think we did in the wrong direction. Oh well, more info for next time. Cockscomb and Dawa were fast wide open trails.

We returned to the car, and went into town for some needed food and drink, which was good at the Old Sedona Cafe. After a few nice Prescott IPAs, we decided that Gabe would return to Soldier Wash to shoot the sunset, while Belizean and I went back to the condo to chill for a couple hours. We just did not have riding all day in our legs at that point, but Gabe did. Oh, his photo backpack weighs like 35 pounds with all the gear in it.

Belizean and I returned with a few cold brews and after some work on the night lights, went off to hook up with Gabe for a sunset brew on top of Ant Hill. We thought it would be a mellow time...

It was dusk as we met Gabe on the hill, who as it turned out, had set up flashes in the bushes to capture us on the trail. We did our best modeling for Gabe, while polishing off the brews. Gabe takes great pictures and uses flash at night on trail like no other. We felt like rock stars, literally.

As blackness enveloped us, we looked out on Sedona, finished the brews, turned on our lights and followEd Gabe down the hill and out.

Turns out Gabe had scoped some new trails we had not done there the first day, so off we went.

Holy cow! I rarely night ride so when we rode the Jordan and Javelina trails, it was amazing, scary and so rewarding. Jordan has some hairy rock chutes and drops that just pop out of nowhere. The trail just disappears from below you. I am certain the night made it more gnarly looking, but it was significant any way you slice it. Javelina was more of the same but with more flow and exposure. I personally was not prepared for such a ride at night on day 4, but it turned out to be one of the most stoke inspiring rides for me in some time. As Belizean said, "Javelina en noche!"

We had a few more cold ones at the van, celebrating the ride. Made it back to the condo by 10 pm or so and ate lots of tasty leftovers. Got the fire roaring, more beers. And Gabe slept outside again.

Woke up, packed and made it home in good time. Thanks everybody for a great trip! Let's go back tomorrow!

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"We'll ride it until they pave it."

-Big Clyde

One more note: Hiline has a section that is pure DH evil. Starting with a loose rocky chute, the descent is constant, chunky, twisty and the craziest stuff I have ever walked. Think Spaceballs if it was placed on a 45 degree slope the entire way. Gabe and Avidtest cleaned most, if not all of it. That was 5 times harder at least than anything on Hogs, at least for me.

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"We'll ride it until they pave it."

-Big Clyde

I rode that chute ONCE and survived but it gets worse every year. We had two guys in our group ride the chute and that entire next section on our last trip. I walked it and went to the sketchiest section, thinking I'd stand there to help out in case they fell and were by me before I could even set up. I won't be doing that section in this lifetime.

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If you don't go this year, you'll only be a year older when you do - Warren Miller

Mescal trail


More Mescal trail


Hog's


Upon arrival, on Adobe Jack trail


Singletrack traffic jam

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"We'll ride it until they pave it."

-Big Clyde

Had a great time and will be trying to get back there as soon as possible. Thank you guys for all the good food beer and cheer. It was a total blast.
https://gabekeatingphotography.smugmug.com/Sedona-3-016

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https://gabekeatingphotography.smugmug.com/
mind wide open

^^^ Nice photos Gabe! Too bad Shannon wouldn't let you sleep inside.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

Incredible pics Gabe.

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"it can go full porno alley"

- Kimba - One love, many bikes - 2020

Such a beautiful place, I found the scenery to be as hazardous to my health as the techy trails they have.

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Scum on a Bike

Man, I really need to make another trip out there.