My New Favorite Place...!

It seems like everytime we ride at a new place it becomes "my new favorite place" to ride. Last weekend was no exception. The Brothers Keller called and invited us riding at one of their favorite places to ride in phoenix. It is called 'hawes", though I don't really know why (it is not really near "hawes" road). It was described as technical in places, but not really too hard, even the youngest Keller brother was going (Ezra is only about 11). I figured why not?, and called Brandon and off we went.

It started out really poorly for me as I fell over, unable to unclip in time, right in the parking lot before we even started to ride. I decided it was just good warm up, even if a little embarassing. I am still getting used to riding in clip ins and don't have the left foot extraction down quite yet - right foot is great, but i fell to the left, oops.

You have to cross a potentially busy road to start the trail, so, carefully, we embarked. Zac, Eric and Brandon immediately outdistanced the rest of us and we didn't see them again for a while. Ezra was doing great riding along with his dad, and Eric's dad Chris and I rode together for a while.

Ezra Shows Great Potential!

The trail is a great single track through the desert. Some cactus made me nervous in places (Brandon had to extract some from his fingers at one point), but the area is beautiful. after climbing up a ways, the trail splits a couple of different directions. I was just following along for the ride and soon found myself a little nervous. Part of the trail (Ian called it the "switchbacks" were very rocky and steep. Visions of the youtube video of the guy careening down the mountainside came to mind, but slow careful going turned fear into fun. We made it and I fell in love with the area. I think more time in the saddle would really help my confidence and ability on the rocky technical stuff.

Here is some video of the trail....

Brandon finally got his new helmet and wore it. He likes the full face type since he likes to ride very fast. It also keeps his ears warm in the winter, but I think it will be hot in the summer. Anyway, he looks cool and safe as he speeds past me!

Hawes is definitely on my favorits list, and I hope to be back regularly. If only I didn't have to work all week!

Get out! Get on! and Get riding!
CycleFreak!