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| Day 1, England -> Phoenix |
| Day 2, Phoenix , Hawes MTB Ride |
| Day 3, Phoenix, Pima & Dynamite MTB Ride |
| Day 4, Phoenix -> Flagstaff via Sedona (MTB Ride) |
| Day 5, Sedona MTB Ride |
| Day 6, Flagstaff -> St George, Flagstaff and Kingman MTB rides |
| Day 7, St George, Goosebury Mesa MTB ride |
| Day 8, St George, Little Creek Mesa & Slickrock swamp MTB rides |
| Day 9, St George -> Fruita, 18 Road MTB ride |
| Day 10, Fruita, Western Rim MTB Ride |
| Day 11, Fruita, Hike & Kokopelli trails MTB ride |
| Day 12, Fruita -> Gallup Phil's World & Sand Canyon MTB rides |
| Day 13, Gallup - High Desert Trail & Zuni Mtns MTB Ride |
| Day 14, Gallup -> Flagstaff, Zuni Mtn's MTB Ride |
| Day 15, Flagstaff -> Phoenix -> England |
| USA Spring 2009 |
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After a good nights sleep I had my usual breakfast at La Quinta Inn's - Waffle and bananas before packing up my gear for a ride over at Goosebury Mesa. |
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The road to the Mesa was in pretty good shape, But I still had to drive slowly in a couple of spots to avoid grounding out. The road had a few more signs on it than the last time I'd driven along it. |
| I parked in the car park with the cinder surface, which was almost full of vehicles, and then set out on the trail. I took the route which went through Gods Skateboard Park. The trails alternate between wide open areas of slick rock and narrow singletrack. |
Video (18MB) |
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| I decided to ride the Secret trail on this trip, which I had never ridden before. After a few false starts I managed to find the start of the trail. The trail was less defined than the other route on goosebury at the start, but soon narrowed down to easy to follow singletrack. |
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The secret trail was a quite a grind, as there weren't too many flat or down hill sections , and even on the flat there were plenty of obstacles on the trail. |
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The trail headed east along the rim of a canyon, across which you could see the parked vehicles of people camped near the trail head. |
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I must have been quite tired after the long day I had yesterday as at one point I forgot to pick my camera up after taking a tripod picture. Luckily for me this trail was not well traveled so after backtracking my camera was still on the rock where I had left it. |
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The secret trail had initially gone down from its start at God's Skateboard park , and towards the east end as it headed south it started to go up slightly. |
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As the trail headed west along the rim it started to get very sandy, and was in places un rideable. I came across a cool rattlesnake by the side of the trail on one of the rideable sections of trail. |
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The secret Trail, eventually met up with the South Rim Trail. I stopped here and a snack while watching the amazing rock swifts flying all around me. Then instead of continuing along the south rim trail I rode over the the Hidden Canyon trail. |
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The hidden canyon trail dropped down (still with plenty of up though) on a mixture of singletrack between juniper trees and between large rocks on either side, to the White trail. |
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| I then rode along the White trail west , and then connected onto the North Rim trail near the junction of the yellow trail. I like the the North Rim trail it has good rolling singletrack with the odd rock or two make things interesting, and great views. |
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From the North rim trail I continued east on to the slickrock 101 trail, which goes along wide open areas of slick rock. |
| From 101 I looped back onto the trail I originally started the ride on |
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Video (10MB) |
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Back at the SUV my bike computer said I'd ridden 19 miles. I then packed up and headed back to St George. In the evening I had a good dinner at an Outback restaurant. |
DAY 8
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