Flagstaff and Albuquerque

What better way to break up the 1,427 mile trip from California to Texas than with a couple of stops in the mountains?  First stop:  Flagstaff, Arizona.

We scoped out the town on our way out.  This is a local eatery where we enjoyed some healthy fare.  The guys at the local bike shop recommended it.

We stopped into Absolute Bikes (they have a location in Salida, CO as well) both times in Flagstaff.  The second time through they gave us some good information on the local "must do" trails. 

 We headed to the Schutlz Creek trailhead, where the famous Sunset Trail and Mt. Elden overlook interconnect.  We ended up riding for half a day (4:18 hours, 36 miles, approximately 8, 000 ft. total climbing.)  We were also sitting at around 9,000 feet elevation.  Talk about a great training day, getting used to climbing at altitude.  I loved it!

 

 There was about a 7-8 mile climb from the trailhead to the Mt. Elden lookout.  I never get tired of these views.

 We had seen several horned toads on our trip.  Aaron finally caught one and put it to sleep by rubbing his belly.  Sweet thang.

 Did I mention we did a lot of climbing?

Aaron and Andrew got some cool pics on this kicker.  These boys got game!

 After a solid day in the saddle, we wiped off some of the dust, loaded up and continued East.  Next stop:  Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We planned on riding Sandia peak (Buzzy's backyard growing up), but it was closed due to extreme fire danger.  We settled on riding around in the foothills below.

 Signs throughout Sandia mountain warn visitors of the fire danger.  Due to a lack of rain, the mountain has been forced to close down.  One local rider we met at the trailhead quipped, "If the mountain caught fire, the whole city would burn down."

We had some gorgeous views of the city and cool mountainside houses.  Aaron's dream house is one made of adobe one with a zeroscape lawn.

 Aaron and Andrew

  Aaron and I.  

Aaron and I rode about 17 miles (Andrew got in close to 25).  We wove our way on the multi-trail network from where we parked to the tramway at the foot of Sandia Peak.  After refilling our camelbaks, we took the shortest route back to our car and began our final push home to Texas.

All in all, it was a great trip.  24 hours in the Canyon seem like ages ago, although it was the first leg of our journey.  Stay tuned for a 10 day recap, including an interview with Andrew after his 24 hour ride and some mileage and elevation summaries from the trip.