Putting my lungs AND my bike to the test

Day 2 with no job down here and I have GOT to find something to do.

Decided to take my bike out for a ride, try to find a trail that gets me to work quicker than driving down Route 66, and was EXTREMELY successful. In fact, the first trail I took, took me straight to the observatory road. LOL. Go mental map!

After succeeding MUCH too quickly at what I thought was going to take me hours, I decided to visit a local bike shop and get some kind of map for biking trails around town. Got one that was awesome, and also contains trails around Sedona, and a bunch of other towns. (I keep hearing from EVERYONE, even strangers on the street, that Sedona is where its at... gonna have to check that out soon.) I found an easy trail, just to warm up, and there were directions to a canyon just outside of town.

Headed into NAU, so I got to see some of the campus, including the telescope on campus. (Hopefully in a year or two I'll be spending LOTS of time there.) The trail started right at the edge of campus and headed off into the wilderness.

Biking through a dry forest, where there was lots of evidence of trees that had been burned... Maybe to prevent fires later on in the season? The trail was awesome! Lots of ups and downs, and places to rest and enjoy the view. There were actually a bunch of areas that ended up in jumps after a long downhill, and I ended up taking a bunch of them. One shot me up probably about 4-5 feet high! Very rocky terrain, and I was moderately concerned that my bike was going to blow a tire. Thankfully I have Kevlar re-enforced tires, so no problems there. (DEFINITELY need to bring things to patch tires next time though...)

After about 4 miles of biking, I came upon Walnut Canyon. There was a turn off to go to the top of the canyon, called Fisher Point, and I think I'll take that route next time. After playing around in a little cave right at the entrance of the canyon, I decided to head in. Unfortunately, the trail became un-bikeable, so I walked my bike off the trail a bit and hid it in some bushes and locked it to a recognizable tree.

The hike was awesome. Got to check out a cave a little further in, and luckily I had brought a flashlight, so I was able to explore to the back of it. I was a little nervous as I don't really know what kinds of wildlife is out here yet, but I didn't get mauled or attacked, so success? Gonna look into what I need to watch out for before I head out next time. LOL. Saw some awesome wildlife, there were so many different bird calls I heard, and it was almost like all the different birds were talking to each other in multiple languages. Had to trek over some snowy areas, which I was amazed were still there, cause the sun was hitting the bottom of the canyon pretty hard the entire time. I didn't notice till later, but it was a bit cooler at the bottom... more on that in a bit.

About 3/4 of the way into my hike, I started noticing big tracks on the ground. I'm fairly sure they were elk or deer or something, but still... Facing a fully grown Elk wasn't high on my list of things to do today, so I decided I'd call it pretty soon. Another half mile, and the trail had gotten harder to find and I was starting to have to trudge through some kind of prickly bush. Right when I told myself I should turn around and head back, I noticed that the canyon wall had only a slight inclination, so I decided to try climbing up a ways.

It was a fairly easy climb, pretty much walked up with the exception of having to lift myself up twice onto a higher ledge. I started noticing the temperature was rising pretty steadily, so I worked up quite a sweat in the 10 mins I was climbing. Got about halfway up and started thinking about getting down (which at this point was going to be fairly difficult without slipping down) so I took some pictures from up there and started heading down. It was during my jump down from one of the ledges I had pulled myself up onto that I noticed there was suddenly cacti EVERYWHERE. I'm so glad I didn't land on one or pull myself into one! I'll have to pay more attention to that next time...

Started hiking out of the canyon after that, and ended up right behind two other hikers who had turned around right before the spot I had stopped at, so I (it felt this way, even though I wasn't trying to make it seem like it) creepily followed them out of the canyon. After retrieving my bike and wishing them a good rest of their hike (they had stopped at the first cave to rest) I headed on home. The ride back was uneventful, though the return trip was JUST as fun as the trip there. That's one thing I love about a good mountain bike trail, it isn't just uphill OR downhill, there is enough variety that you can power up a hill cause you know there is flat ground or a descent up ahead. This trail was a great one in this aspect too.

The one thing that did happen on the way back was that I almost ran over a little lizard! I managed to avoid him (while almost wrecking horribly) and went back to try and poke him with a stick until he would move off the path. Took me 5 minutes of prodding at him before he decided he'd had enough and scurried off the trail. Good deed for the day done! I saved some wildlife!

Swung by the campus of NAU to get a HUGE salad and rest my (at this point) exhausted legs. Got to bask in the sun and see what the campus life felt like. I think I'll like going here when I start up again. :) Overheard a petitioner greet one of his friends and I could have SWORE I heard him say quidditch... Walked up to him after my lunch and asked him about it... turns out, NAU has a quidditch team! Gonna check out some of their games in the fall. I'm thinking it will be much more interesting to watch than football though.

I have a great trail guide to use to explore around the area in the next few months, and I really wanna get hard into mountain biking. There are just SO many great areas to do it around here, and it was a fantastic workout. OH... that's the other thing. Apparently there is 25% less oxygen up here, so for the first part of the ride, my lungs were on FIRE. My legs were noticeably getting less oxygen, as I couldn't push them as hard as I normally can. By the end of the ride I had gotten used to it though, and was able to push myself a lot further than when I started out. I'm really excited to train up and become a mountain person! It'll make my lungs super strong and I'll be able to do SO much more when I visit back at sea level. ;)

Another great day, in another great state. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.

Be well everyone!