A call from my normal riding partner at lunch today had me riding up to Trail 100 just after work.
Had a nice tailwind with the monsoon storm blowing in. For those of you not from Arizona, it is hard
to describe what these storms are like. Big (BIG) cloud fronts roll in, you can see the thunderhead
boiling up in the early afternoon. These days, the only storms that seem to make it through this
hell of a heat island are the big ones, the only ones with enough power to over-power the thermals
from the concrete jungle of Phoenix. Anyway, had to meet him up at the trailhead around 19:30. It
was a nice evening with the wind coming in. I lay back on the grass at the park a 1/4 mile or so
south of the trail head and wait and watch the clouds gather and grow.
El Jefe arrives and we take the small spin up to the trail pretty mellow. [censored]' about work and
coworkers. That kinda stuff. We hit the trail and the sun is starting to set, reflecting off the
bottom of the clouds and so we stop at the top of our first climb into a small saddle just up 1A. A
few sips of water and we're off. The sun is starting to die so we light up. I have him get in front
because that HID is a
up a few slow inclines and hit the first switchback which is a clean one. Roll through the track,
watching the lightning just pop off all over the place. I don't think there was a period longer than
30 seconds where we didn't see lightning. The clouds were now above us, the city glare reflecting
down, adding to our lights. We topped out after a set of switcbacks, and as soon as we came over the
saddle, the wind was blowing hard. I'd say probably about 25-30, gusting even harder. Luckily there
was no dust accompanying it.
We kicked it for a couple of minutes, just checking out the valley below us, away from the city,
looking towards Squaw Peak. We saddled up and started the descent. Not a very clean one for me and
my bar light
Pro piece of [censored]. [censored] me off. Nearly went OTB messing with it on the way down. I finally made it
down and started trying to chase down El Jefe. He had waited up a 1/2 mile or so as he didn't see my
light behind him anymore. We fussed with the connection, having it light up and then go dead after a
minute or two. By then, it started raining. Monsoon rain. Big, fat, heavy drops of rain. I pulled my
spare battery and helmet light out of the pack (I hate using it) and stuck it on. We just smiled
like a couple of kids and started into the wind, the raindrops like diamonds in our lights. The
lightning was close and the thunder could be felt. We looped around, avoiding 1A and 220 due to the
wetness factor. The trail we stayed on is pretty much a large rock garden. It is the main trail
through the park and doesn't have much in the way of technical riding or erosion problems. We went
through a wash where I *ahem* washed out. I started laughing cuz it hurt pretty bad. We continued
on, avoiding trail that we knew would be a mess. We finally made it back to his car. It was still
raining. I opted to ride home. I bummed his light, turned on the blinky and finished my ride very,
very wet. But, I did have a couple of Bass and a turkey sammich.
Oh yeah, you folks who thought I was actually seeking approval for putting that newly found
Marzocchi on my SS, I'm sorry. My sarcasm was poor.
John Spann