This Weekends Adventures

Friday was the end of a short 4 day week at SUBWAY, but that was made longer by our P.O.S. POS-IBM cash register going down Wednesday morning.  Made worse only when the possible 5 people that can repair it neither called us back or were able to help(lame).  Friday we got it back from GEEK SQUAD,last resort, and we were up and running again after 2 and a half days of doing manual transactions.  

Saturday we got together and did a group ride on trail 396/Feldmeyer off of White Spar.  The both of us and Toby, Dan, Milliken, Steve and Micki. Steve and Micki came up from Phoenix once again to ride here in the pines and cooler weather. Micki had called Todd to see if wanted to hitch a ride up to Prescott with them, but he was busy and his "taint" was sore.  We usually do 396, but not the Feldmeyer section, to our suprise, it was rather fun and you can mix it up a little to make each one different.  There's even a technical "log section" (see vid) which is doable---next time.  Towards the end of the ride we got sprinkled on to cool us off.  

        

396 Ride                                                                       Milliken, Andy & Steve

  

Steve Riding the log                                              Micki riding the log

Sunday was the day to do the "Jerome Ride".  Toby, Steven Milliken, Steve and Michelle and the 2 of us met up @ 10am for the ride.(yes, there are a lot of "Steve's" round these parts)   Before we set out, we called everyone to make sure that everyone brought money for some lunch in Jerome, check.  The Jerome ride consists of riding up to Jerome Arizona, an old mining town/tourist attraction on the east side of the Mingus Mountains @ about 8000 ft.  You climb up an old railroad grade bed from the Prescott Valley/Chino Valley side of the Mingus Mtns. (5000 ft.) The west side.

     

                                                                                Brooke,Andy,Toby,Milliken,Steve

Last climb before dropping into Jerome on rail road bed.

 Once up there, you can look out over the Verde Valley and see the west end of Sedona at about 4000 ft.  We actually climb up above Jerome and extra 5-800 ft.(8500 total) and then drop in by the Jerome Fire Station.  As we rolled into town, we were getting plenty of strange looks.  As in.......what the.........they're on mountain bikes.  Where did they come from?  "That's how we roll."  We stopped and had a small bite to eat and realized, that "WE" did not bring money for lunch, nice!!  Millikin was nice enough to let us lick his plate after he was done, which sustained us for the rest of the ride.  No, not really, he paid for our lunch.  

       

Crazy mtn. bikers                                                      Toby,Michelle,Steve,Milliken,Brooke 

After lunch, we hopped back in the saddles and we were off back to our side of the mountain.  The total mileage was 36.37 miles for Brooke and I, and about mid 40's for the rest since they parked a couple miles away and had that detour.  Brooke keeps getting stronger and stronger as we get deeper into the season. Her technical skills are improving with each ride too.  She cleared a couple of "log jams" (ha ha) on 396 without hesitation.  Nice job riding this weekend Brooke, I am VERY proud of you....... "Sweetness."