I met up with Thomas in Sedona, as Thomas was pushed for time he suggested we should shuttle the ride by taking his truck up to the parking lot near the cow pie slick rock area. As you can see it the pictures it was a amazing sunny day.

After a fairly bumpy drive up Schnebly Hill ride we arrived at the car park, I discovered at the car park that my fork was really soft , but I'd left my shock pump back in my SUV, it was too late to go back so I had to ride with the fork bottoming out all the time which was not fun. We headed out on the Cow Pies trail. The trail was a mixture of narrow singletrack and slick rock, and had quite a few tricky spots to navigate.

Cow Pies Video (14MB)

Video cow pies to Darnifno (6 MB)

Before we got to the saddle we had a bit of ride around on the slick rock, before finding the best route to get up to the saddle it steeper than it looks in the photos.

Video its tougher than it looks (3 MB)

View from the high point of the Darnifno trail

From the ridge we headed east along the slick rock, to the start of the single track. So far the trail has been pretty tough and it got tougher as it headed downwards 8-; , and with a fork with hardly any pressure it was hard going as the front end of my bike kept on diving down.

I found the trail quite hairy at times, with rocky steps and drop offs and interesting drops off to the left. Where as Thomas managed to ride most of the stuff without any problems.

More off Camber than it looks !!

Video (6 MB)

The trail opened up onto a large slick rock area, which headed down until we started riding on singletrack in the brush. This section of the trail was great fast and all rideable for me unlike the upper section of the trail.

Video - Back on Singletrack (3MB)

This lower section of the trail was for me the most fun, as the Darnifno trails twisted down through the tress and scrub.

Video (21MB) - Darnifno lower

Video Darnifno near Creek (3 MB)

After dropping down a good steep section of singletrack through the tress we came out down by Oak Creek.

Oak Creek river crossing (11 MB)

There was no way to cross Oak Creek other than getting your feet wet, it was thigh deep in places, and refreshing cool

We then rode along the other side of the creek to get to Midgley bridge, Thomas has a tumble when his SPD cleat got jammed, as we rode up one section.

Trail to Midgley bridge (3 MB)

View from Midgley Bridge

As Thomas needed to get home , we headed back to where we had left the car on the road. Then I drove us back up to the Cowpies , on the way we got stuck for ages in a traffic Jam, so when we did get back to Thomas's truck he headed up Schnebly Hill Rd to the Interstate to get home. Riding with Thomas had been good fun , and I'll look him up again when I return to Flagstaff & Sedona.

Before Thomas left he suggested I should go and ride the Lost Watch wash as it had very good singletrack so I drove over into a part of Sedona I'd not been to before, parked up on the road and rode and headed up the Lost Watch trail.

After the rather full on Darnifno trail it was good to get back onto for me 100% rideable rolling singletrack.

Lost Watch Singletrack (12 MB)

The lost watch trail did not have too many big ups or downs, but rolled along on nice singletrack.

Lost Watch video (22 MB)

Lost Watch video (7 MB)

I reached the end of the trail just as the sun was beginning to set, As I didn't have big lights with me I decided to ride back down the dirt road rather than back along the singletrack.

I got back to the SUV and packed up, it was only as I started to drive off that i noticed I'd left my shades on the hood of the SUV, I was pretty tiered after my rides today. I cant remember what I did for food that evening either. But I did have a swim and use the Hot Tub back at the Hotel.

Lost Watch Map