Guest Blogger: Shane Pasley's Wild Wild West Part 2

Dear Readers:

Here's Part 2 from Guest Blogger Shane Pasley about his recent Western Exploration. Thanks for Sharing Shane:

here’s a strange thing about being in sparsely populated areas. The scenic routes are just as fast as the interstates. The bad thing about the scenic routes is they will do things like put you in the middle of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation at 3am. I had to poop. 

The Apache’s had set up a very nice rest area. Unfortunately maintenance was lacking and the only toilet in the mens room was rendered out of commission in more ways than one. Pulling from some recent advice from John Riggs at the bike fest, I headed over to the women’s facilities. Of course, as soon as I start my business someone walks in. At 3am. In a rest area. In the middle of an Indian reservation. I decided to speak up rather than to risk an encounter with mace and a spotlight on the evening news as the women’s bathroom bandit. “I don’t want you to freak out, but…” Luckily she thought it was hilarious. 

Everyone arrived in Phoenix as expected. We planned several big days of riding with flatter, B-paced recovery days in between. 

The first big ride was a section of the Arizona Trail, an 800 mile long trail that runs from the border with Mexico to the border with Utah. We’d be doing a 40 mile section near the Picket Post trailhead. Ben Anemone, Chris Jackson, Mark Prickett, and John Ricketts had rented another house and joined us. We also had Arizona locals Jeff and Nancy as trail guides. We dropped vehicles at the finish and shuttled up to the start. Prior research was showing this to be a challenging ride that would take most of the day. 

I’d call that epic

Arizona got a lot of rain this winter, so things were a lot greener than they have been the last couple times I’ve been out there. I made comments about areas of short, perfectly manicured grass coming up in areas that made it look like a golf course. Turns out it wasn’t grass but beds of tiny flowers that weren’t quite ready to bloom.

Ben, Nancy, Bob, and wildflowers

The start of the day seemed unusually easy, everyone was having fun and enjoying the great weather.

Chris and Joe all smiles at the mile 18 refuel.

Then, we hit a wall. The next 2 and a half hours it was nothing but up. It wasn’t until we got to the top that Dave realized we were doing the trail in the opposite direction from how our research had shown.

Training vacation

The scenery was well worthwhile, but everyone was wrecked for the last 10 miles. 

 Enhanced with hypoglycemic hallucinations

Despite the wide range of fitness levels, everyone finished the ride within about an hour of each other. 

The next big ride was a return to Black Canyon. Combining fast and flowy with lots of exposed bench cut trail, this was one of everyone's favorite rides last year. While the wet winter made everything green, it also washed a lot of loose gravel onto the trails. We were advised that the section of the Black Canyon Trail we rode last year wasn’t in the best shape and that trying a section a little further south would probably be more fun.

 Joe bringing the pain

It wasn’t as much fun as the section we rode last year, but it made up for it with some short technical sections.

The last big ride planned was a loop in Sedona. With the red slickrock and evergreens, Sedona is a stunning place to ride. There are trails available for all abilities, but the trails that make area famous are narrow, difficult, and wind their way to the top of the buttes. At the last minute Jeff and Nancy figured out they’d be able to join us and set up to lead another loop. 

The ride started innocently enough, was this another 8 hours of Picket Post?

They planned an awesome loop with trails that weren’t shown on our maps but also included favorites like the Hiline Trail.

Joe, Nancy, and Jeff with Hiline in the background

Another great day in the saddle. 

We got one more quick ride the day after the trip to Sedona, then it was time to return home. I owe a thank you to Jeff and Nancy for leading us around and giving us trail advice, Joe’s friend Mike for helping with transportation and restaurant recommendations, and the hospitality of everyone in the other rental house (which also included Scotty Roberts and Heather Heinrich, but we were unable to coordinate a big ride with them). 

There were several roadblocks that tried to derail this trip. I’m still having issues in my head, my driving co-pilot had a scheduling conflict, I caught a head cold from a coworker that blossomed the day I left, and the forecast for Lajitas was showing rain for the first 2 days. Despite all that could have gone wrong and did go wrong, it turned out to be an awesome trip. I couldn’t have asked for better weather or better people to spend it with.

 I think we killed Bob

I’ve already had a lot of questions about the trip next year. The sad news is that these trips use the majority of my vacation time, and I need time to do other things. Unfortunately I have no plans for a 2016 trip (although if you’re interested, it’s likely others will be going). 

Life happens, priorities change, and opportunities come and go. Only in college would I have gone to a concert and ended up spending the night in a Dennys. I got stranded after the buses stopped running at midnight. Similarly, it’s impossible to know when a resort might block the finish line of your favorite race course, someone is going to flood Glen Canyon, or The Trailspinners are going to pave another trail (love you Jim). The world as we know it today is ephemeral. Life is finite, there are only so many summers, so many hours of sunshine. The times when everything aligns and you’re able to enjoy life are precious; the time spent with others is invaluable. There is no guarantee abouttomorrow, the only guarantee is right now. Better make the most of it.