I had a fantastic day riding with Chad on Elden. One of the best I’ve had in a very long time (KTR weekend excepted, another category). Before the KTR I felt pressured to prepare well, after I was afflicted with a post-race malaise. I’m shaking that off, finally.

The one thing which did not go as planned was the camera. I took it knowing that we’d have a very photogenic day, remember to pull it out after two hours, and the batteries are dead. After that I was too busy having fun to replace them with Chad’s headlamp batteries, or to care much.

We were out for 6.5 hours, and though I didn’t log it we agreed a good 5k of climbing was done. Our route: Up Schultz, up Little Gnarly, down Jedi, back up LG, down Brookbank to the road, up the road, across Sunset (?) down through the Hobbit Forest to Little Bear, down LB, back to Schultz Tank parking lot, up the road on the north side, across and down Super Moto to fort valley and back to the car. A damn good greatest hits tour, in my opinion.

And in contrast to yesterday, I was rocking the descents and getting gapped on the tough parts going up. Getting used to gears, blahblahblah. Chad is a strong mother, with a great will to learn and a helluva engine built from lots of Tri’s and running. He has a generic Rocky Mountain hardtail he got for $500 on Craigslist in Tucson, and took it for a helluva run at the AZT this year. We’re the same age, in the same field, have many of the same hobbies and have been to many of the same places. It was a good day, both to ride and sit under trees eating and chatting.

I was also riding really well, at least downhill. Chad, being a native (south) Arizonan, has not been initiated in to the at that is the big log pile. Experience and my fat bashring gave me supremacy on Jedi. Lamentably, some of the cool log piles have been cut out, and one large on has a downhill stack which is quite poorly built. Without a saw, there was nothing we could do to improve that situation. My good mojo continued into the Hobbit Forest, and fantastic series of steep and mildly rocky switchbacks followed by a garden of fat and well-spaced rocks. Some hikers at the top let us pass, and commented that they had been wondering how folks ride it. I was only to happy to oblige, and flowed through the rocks with ease taking a few aggressive alternates while keeping the wheels firmly planted. Butt to tire is the name of the game.

The swooping finish down to Little Bear is the perfect denouement, made better by the Reba eating brake bumps and small rocks alive, full speed ahead at last. LB was the same, and though on the short climbs back to the road I paid for not eating enough soon enough, I had enough guts left to insist (or comply with) one more climb for one last descent.

The newly (as of last fall) rerouted SuperMoto was the highlight of the day. I’m glad I didn’t try to ride it in the snow this spring. Eric, this is your trail, and whenever you can get time to go ride it I will drop things to show you the way. Take a moderate rock garden from Mint, sink it in spongy alpine soil, tilt it slightly downhill, twist it like crazy, add some big rollers and boulder gaps to thread, and make it over a mile long. SuperMoto is the most relentlessly technical trail I’ve ever ridden with the exception of Milagrosa, and is exponentially more scenic and fun (for me). Constant low-speed tech, with plenty of short rises to power up. I almost endo’d a few times, and crashed once when my front tire slid off a rock and lost itself in the dust. I got my flow back fairly well, and generally enjoyed the hell out of myself. When we made it to the gasline trail and the end of the difficulties, my calves were screaming from the effort of constant attention.

You need to ride this trail. Top five.

All that was left was a screaming descent through the dust of fort valley, and an hour and a half of beer drinking and bullshiting in the shade by the trucks. Downright sublime, really.

Now, I’ve got next weekend. I think the party’s gonna be good. I owe Chad a beer, anyway.

And then the weekend after that.

I feel like I’ve finally put my head back on straight.