I''ve been slow to post because I've been dealing with the mother of all sinus infections.  It started in Early December, lingered through Christmas and even had the nerve to follow me to Mexico and back home.  I've been using it as an excuse not to get outside and ride...the whole "rest" thing.  Highly overrated.  

Before the holidays started, Scotty B and DB worked to book a couple of campsites for the first weekend of January.  I hemmed about booking through the holidays since there were about 900 other distractions like there is every year.  Out of respect to those guys, I didn't want to wait forever to give my commitment so one of my Christmas presents to myself was to go camping.  It didn't hurt that I booked a slot in Scotty B's popup, which is equipped with a heater and something other than a blow up mattress.

They got out Friday night for some first day debauchery.  I wanted to keep some days in the bank at home so I rolled out early Saturday morning for the big ride.  Fortunately for me, my timing was perfect.  As I was pulling in, Dave and Scott were pulling a quiche out of the smoker.  Pretty good way to start a ride.  

After what felt like about an hour of debating what we were going to ride, the decision was made to do a loop of some of what we had been riding a bunch lately mixed with a big, classic climb that we hadn't done in a while.  The loop from the campsite was to be Granite, Delsie, Pemberton, Dixie Mine, Windmill, Coachwhip, Pemberton, Tonto Tank with Granite back to the campsite.  Like a fool, I brought a single speed.  I felt good up the lesser climbs but the lack of any type of training crushed me going up Dixie Mine and Windmill.  Even though I suffered, it was still a blast.

After the ride, the real fun started, Scotty B fired up the smoker with the intent of doing three racks of ribs.  Bourbon showed up out of nowhere (Names won't be named to protect the innocent).  Beer flowed freely.  Rack ball (?) and Big Jenga came out.

The Jenga got REAL serious...
​

After dusting off ribs, my secret dirty rice burritos and mucho cerveza, someone had the bright idea to ride up to Jackass Junction from the campsite.  I wasn't thrilled but in retrospect, the fresh air did good.  It definitely made the beers go down easier when we got back to the campsite.  Back to the big campfire.   We managed to go through five bags of wood due to our resident fire stoker, Veronica.

Like most trips, it was over before it seemed to even start.  All things considered, it was another bang up success by the Riding Dirty bunch.

​When you have a passion, your hope is that your kids will someday share the same passion.  My daughter has been after me for a while to go mountain biking.  I watch her race around our neighborhood on a way too small beach cruiser with 20" wheels.  She seems to love it.  Of course, anyone that knows me knows that I never jump in with one foot so, rather than renting a bike or using some other method of gauging whether or not she'll like it, I jumped in and bought her a new mountain bike for Christmas.  

The best case scenario was she'd love it immediately.  The worst case scenario would be that it would be something that would collect dust in our already crowded garage while occasionally getting used to cruise to the park on.  
Christmas morning came and we saved what turned out to be the best gift for last.  After we opened everything else up, we walked out to my garage where her new ride was sitting on my workstand.  I received arguably the biggest hug of my life and Bella proceeded to thank me what felt like about 100 times. 
After seeing her gift, she immediately asked me if she could go mountain biking like I do.  Of course, if you buy the kid a bike, you need to take her out and ride it, right?  I thought long and hard about where I could introduce her to riding without killing her.  Santan, which is close to me, has some easy bits but enough there to scare a first time rider.  My mind went right to Usery after that which is flat and easy with just enough rollers to allow her to feel what mountain biking is like.  

One thing led to the next and we found ourselves out at the trail head the day after Christmas.  I had an easy four to five miler in mind with options to shorten or add if we needed to.  After a few moments of trepidation, she looked and felt comfortable on the flats of the Levee Trail.  From there, we dropped into Spillway up to Blevins and down NoSo back to the car.  The section that got the greatest amount of hoots and hollers from her was Blevins.  In fact, she seemed bored by the flatter sections.   All things considered, it was pretty cool to see the trails through the eyes of a new rider. 
Needless to say, she already has me planning the next trip to the trail.  
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As some if not all of you might be aware, the Pima Canyon entrance to South Mountain Park is undergoing a massive, and much needed overhaul.  The project involves replacing the old ramadas that have been there for years.  Also, gone are the pit toilets!!!  Okanongan Trail Construction has been brought in to clean up some of the trails.  Finally, the road leading into the park is getting a facelift as well.  It seems like they are going to make much better use of the existing space.  

Thanksgiving comes and goes every year.  Things slow down.  It's an opportunity to spend time with friends and family, some of whom we don't get to see at many other points throughout the year.  We eat too much.  We drink too much.  Easy living.

The day after Thanksgiving is yet another story unto itself.  We use it as a chance to hang out with family of a different sort.  We also use it as a means to atone for the sins of the day before.  Invariably, we all show up at the trailhead feeling a bit slow from all of the good stuff we got into the day before.  The motivation being the great weather, the great trails, the great friends and the promise of beer at the end of the ride. 

There were three this year.  Scoottay, El Gobernador and DB.  The action plan was to park between Brown's Ranch and McDowell and to get a loop in each with the thought that those that wanted to jump in or drop out after a loop could do so.  8 o'clock sharp got us to the Fraesfield trailhead.  We boogied south into McDowell hitting some of the highlights like Gooseneck and Bluff down and Delsie on the way back to Gooseneck.  For the day after Thanksgiving, the trails were remarkably uncrowded.  We were super stoked to see that the powers that be replaced the old ramada at the intersect of Pemberton and Delsie that was there for years.  They rather appropriately named it Jackass Junction.  It has a bunch of cool bike and beer related bits.

Dave had enough at that point after riding the day before so it was up to two to carry on the action.  We rolled up Whiskey Bottle, Watershed, Cholla Mountain and down Balanced Rock and Black Rock to complete the day's mission of doing a double loop.  

As a consistent theme, with wives and kids to get home to, we hit the road after a couple of beers.  Parting was, as they say, such sweet sorrow, but it only increases the jones to return.  

I'm going to preface my remarks by saying I hike.  I'm fortunate to work really close to a great trail system (SoMo) that allows me to sneak out for an hour to clear my head and get some exercise in.  It's not a bike ride but it might be the next best thing.  Typically, there are three things that set me free:

• People that trailblaze
• People that drag their trekking poles
• People that use motorized transport on the trails

I feel like I am being an elitist and that isn't what I'm attempting to do here.  All three are bad for the trails.  To put things into context, this week is Thanksgiving week which means that there are a ton of tourists and people that just simply don't know better here in town on the trails. 

As I'm hiking today, I come upon a group of people including small children up on a ridge that has no trail leading to it.  I'm sure that the intent was to get a view to show off to the kids and to snap some selfies.  Great.  There are two issues I have with the trailblazers.  A.)  Our desert is composed of cryptogamic soil, also referred to as biological crust soil.  You see, here in Arizona, our soil is a living, breathing thing.  When you cross cut off the trail, you're killing our soil.  If you walk on it, it takes GENERATIONS for the soil to recover.  The second thing that gets to me about these knuckleheads is that,  on a daily basis, we have people that have to be rescued for doing the very thing they were engaged in.

Trekking poles on their own don't drive me nuts but there are those that drag the poles across the dirt creating a mini trench.  I'm sorry, but if you're walking across a flat surface, do you really need the support that a trekking pole is going to give you?  Answer is "NO".  Pick the damn things up!!!

Idiot number three is the guy I run into on an Ebike.  I think I might get some flak for my opinion here but the right for mtb'ers to use the trail has been hard fought over.  The concern that I have is that if Ebikes access the trails, how long until all mountain bikers are kicked off.  The concern is that, through the misinterpretation of the Wilderness Act, mountain bikers are already being kicked off of trails, since the Act interprets mountain bikers to be using "mechanized" transport, which the Act prohibits.  If Ebikes are allowed, how long until you have guys riding dirt bikes tearing the trails up and we all get kicked off.

I probably need to adjust my tampon and have a beer.  Rarely am I pissed off after being outside but today kinda tweaked me.  Sorry about the rant.

I imagine having the time...
I imagine having the money to do it...
I imagine the having the fitness to crush 1000 km and 21 Alpine Mountain Passes in three days...
​When I grow up, I want to be Mike Cotty.  

Probably my favorite beer right now.  A couple of cold ones after about 15 miles in the saddle and I'm like..."That'll DO!"

Brewed locally right here in Tempe, AZ and according to the Huss website it's a year-round brew.  About $10/ 6-pack

Here are the stats:
Brewed by: 
Huss Brewing Co
Tempe, AZ
hussbrewing.com
Style: American IPA 
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 7.10% 
Availability: Year-round 
Notes / Commercial Description: 
Fucking delicious!
​

It's no secret.  We ride on Thursday.  Usually, if our wives, kids or lives in general permit, we sneak in some South Mountain or Santan.  It's only on a rare occasions that luck taps any of us on the shoulder and points us out towards what we really love, like some Brown's Ranch.  In the most organic way possible, a ride was thrown together with Ryan and I to meet out there.  He had work until 2 and I had a couple of appointments that miraculously got scheduled out in that general direction.   Almost immediately, our two went to four when DB and Scotty B relayed that they were on board.  From there, the day of, I got the call from Gritz that he was very much interested in participating in our bike hoedown.  ​

My hands get sweaty every time I watch the Red Bull Rampage.  These guys must have one hell of a time walking with junk that big!!

I'm not sure who if anyone is reading this hot mic at this point, but there is the standard, industrial strength South Mountain Ride planned for 4:30 today (Thursday, 11/2) for anyone interested.  We are meeting at my office.  DC and some other stuff with beer after.  If you're interested, let me know.

​The mission statement of our site is to provide content on where we ride and to give you a look at a wacky group of friends loosely organized under the moniker "Riding Dirty".  Hopefully, you'll hop aboard and enjoy our wacky little ride.

We definitely encourage participation so feel free to chime in what you see here.  After all, there are no strangers here, only friends we haven't made yet.