Some trails are just excellent, and today I got to ride one.

Tapering is good for having energy at work, but the mind demands some fun. So I skirted out right after the kids cleared out, a blessing allowed to me by coming in early and working hard to finish everything off. It was a fortunate coincidence, as the person who was to tell me I had a meeting at 1430 failed to do so, so at 1428 when my boss called I was already home. Too late, and I’m too valuable to drag back in. Score.

Grabbed a snack and threw the bike on the truck. Off to Thumb Butte!

Prescott has a great trail network west of town (and south, and northwest), with some great stretches of singletrack cut into the desert-alpine transition area between 5 and 7 thousand feet. It provides a wide variety of flora and fauna, as well as riding terrain.

The day started with a short climb on a dirt road, enough to hint that, big hike nonewithstanding, my legs are in truly outstanding shape. Soon enough you reach this:

The singletrack shoots of just behind the bullet-riddled sign. That dead end road leads to a girl scout camp.

318 itself scoots along an old logging/mining road for a bit, gradually becoming a broad ridge and turning in to true singletrack. You get some fast sections, fun turns, and mild rocks to play on. Then things turn downhill.

This shot is looking downtrail into “the rut.”

Here’s a better view uptrail. It’s a bit steeper than the photo shows, not hazardous, but entertaining given the kitty litter trail surface.

More blooming cacti.

After the rut there’s a good, short downhill run with roots to hop and rocks to dodge. Again, just fast and engaging enough to be truly fun.

Then things flatten briefly and you hit an intersecting dirt road, and head uphill on the lower section of 318.

There’s a good track through the old road, with plenty of eroded pebbles to enforce good technique. The Weirwolves are great in these conditions.

Things flatten out and traverse the ridge for a piece, with some good views. Here’s Granite Mountain to the north.

After a quarter mile or so the trail turns north for a brief downhill into a series of basins. A superb section with great variety.

Some good switchbacks (photo looking back uphill).

Swooping fast turns with vintage AZ traction to keep you honest.

If you’re not familiar with the area, do zoom in on the above, and get a hint on how, 10 minutes after this photo was taken, I managed to eat shit in a spectacular fashion when both wheels gave way at once on a similar (a little more sand) turn lower down. As I went down and my front wheel wandered towards a large rock, my only though was “don’t taco it now! Where would I get another???” It was a pretty cool wreck.

Eventually 318 descends enough to get into more broken, sedimentary layers. Thus the fun changes character.

Photo looking back at a short technical up.

None of the rocky section are sustained, but they are frequent and interesting enough to punish laziness.

Looking back at the culmination:

Do keep in mind, typical Prescott terrain, and pretty buff riding for the state as a whole. An excellent way to spend a leisurely hour.

In rock climbing the modern American system rates climbs as 5.0 through 5.15, the bigger the number the harder. Given the inherent subjectivity in giving out such numbers, the vast physical disparity between climbers, and the extent to which the system varies (massively) between different areas, the whole endeavor has always seemed rather silly. Most new routes I’ve done have been left as long as they have because they’re scary, which obviously makes things feel much more difficult (when you’re digging for the next hold in moss 20′ out front a sling on a horn held down with a bungee, for example). So, I always gave those routes the lowest grade I could say with a straight face, then added a +. A + in many areas is code to the wise for “watch the fuck out.”

Anyway, a brilliant alternate rating system is the following. I find it very utilitarian.

5.easy something you don’t have to think about
5.fun hard enough to be entertaining without stretching the mind much
5.hard mind stretching in various ways
5.icantdoit self-explanatory

Today’s ride was easy 5.fun.

In other news, Julie got the full pre-race makeover this evening. New tubes, checked bolts, cleaned rotors, and a bright and sparkle-new PC-68. The 6 month old one seemed fine, but the stretch was very noticeable comparing the two. Counting on the mythic “new chain” effect to do me proud this weekend. I also seemed to have misplaced my patch kit, which is more annoying than it is inconvenient. I’ve never used the thing since slime came into my life. So now all that is left is to finish the short week at work and get through tomorrow evening without driving M crazy, and then get outta town on Thursday afternoon!

And laundry, gotta do laundry. Bleah.