Ah, a long tiring weekend in SG, I can’t ask for more, but I will come the end of December.

My biggest goal for Turkey Genocide day was to ride all the trails in SG over the weekend. I almost succeeded.

I arrived late Wednesday night. Thursday morning when the sun came through my window I jumped out of bed to get going. I was hoping for a 30 mile day. I had a quick breakfast and loaded up. The Barrel Roll in the Santa Clara Reserve was the first trail I bagged. It took about 45 minutes. I contemplated doing two laps and then thought it better to head over to the Barrel Ride in Green Valley to move on with my goal. I rode up the race course and jumped on over to Poppy Trail, riding it down and then back up. I hopped back on to the Barrel Ride and finished it out, taking the wash to flush my way out the bottom. Total mileage for the morning was 19.

I had to partake in the gluttony of Thanksgiving and it was planned for 2 o’clock. I got home with just enough time to shower and sit down for the big feast. Of course, there was lots of turkey, which I did not eat, but fortunately certain people had made things that were vegetarian so I got my fill. We sat around til 3 or so and then I started to get the gypsy train moving again. The afternoon ride was planned for the Church Rocks cherry loop from the Prospector trail. The Mooseknuckler-mobile was full. My three brothers-in-law loaded up and came along for the torture. We bagged the trail and made it home just in time for pie. Church Rocks tacked on another 10 miles making my Turkey day suffering 29 miles.

Friday was a no ride Friday, not so much by choice but out of necessity. My dad has a pinched nerve in his back and currently doesn’t have full use of his arm. What that means for this Knuckler is that I had to drive the truck up to Cedar Mountain in the snow and cut down Christmas trees all day. It was probably the most upper body exercise I’ve gotten in years. Apparently chain saws and pine trees are heavy and can seem to become even heavier after carrying them all day. ‘nuf said.

So Saturday was a good day. I was feeling my riding from Thursday and the tree killing/moving from Friday. It was a perfect combination for another 30 mile day. ProZac called me and we met up to do an out and back on Stucki Springs, from the bottom. We rode about 4 miles up and then turned around and bombed back down for a ride total of 8 miles. Of course, this was just the warm up for what Bryce and I had planned for the afternoon.

I left ProZac and headed directly to Pratt’s house. He was in proper form sporting his Mexican restaurant motif, Salsa bike and Tequila jersey. We loaded up and headed out to Hurricane to do the Goulds, JEM, Hurricane Rim loop. I was starving so I ate some Funyons and grabbed some Clif Bars and Perpetuem from Red Rock Bicycle. This turned out to be the only time I saw Mr. Gurr. We didn’t get our usual game of pool in this trip and yes I missed it. But anyways, I digress. Bryce and I had a great ride except Linda passed us at the top of the first climb, she was on her second lap. We didn’t see her again until the next day. The 21 mile loop was a lot easier than I had remembered it. I guess all the steep endless climbing we have been doing is finally paying off. I wish it felt like that when I ride here. Saturday ride total, somewhere around 29.

Sunday was my fun day. There were a lot of us. The Mooseknuckler-mobile was full again, Bryce, Cimarron, Kathleen and myself. We met up with Fast Eddie, the Rock Brothers, Joel Bingham, Linda, Quentin and Dj from Over the Edge in Hurricane, and Byron from Specialized. And off to the Goose we went. We rode the normal route, er I mean raced the normal route; up the South rim and down the North. We even hit up the Bowls and Ledges off shoot trail. The ride went down in more or less a racer style with lots of stops. When Quentin, Doug, Eddie or Byron were in the lead it was a sprint to the next resting place. Of course, there was also the Bryce circus going on at differing places. We were out there almost all day. As group rides go, this one was a slow moving gypsy train just like every other group ride I’ve been on. Linda has some pictures of the ride posted on her blog.

Well, that was my weekend. It is currently freezing cold and snowing up here in the Polar North. I’m guessing that I won’t ride a whole lot more until the end of December when I’m back down South and I can ride without wearing half my wardrobe.

Peace. Love. and Revolution.