Naturally, the first place I wanted to try was Papago Park. I have been training for two seasons now and it seems that this area has been extraordinarily elusive, despite its close proximity. My stubborn streak would not allow me to sway so quickly and I gathered my gear for the third attempt. I wasn't expecting this trip to one of epic proportion so I assumed a water bottle would suffice as preparation (I was wrong of course).
I never ceased to be impressed by the beauty presented by this park. Living in the city for so long, sometimes I feel like I have to travel far and wide to see anything other than buildings. I should be more grateful that this place is only about 5 miles north of my home.
Although the previous trips have been somewhat short of "epic" I did remember the first trip we made and we decided to follow the road a ways north to avoid the foot traffic. This brought us to a rest spot pretty close to the center of the park. It was here that I decided to test out my new toy :)
Yes sir! Finally got me a GoPro. It's a neat little camera and I hope to put it to great use in the future. Unfortunately, this video is short for a reason...
Yup. Immediately after I took off I flatted. Now, I should mention that normally I am a very prepared rider. Sometimes overly so. But today I figured that since the ride would be short, and not that far from civilization, I would rather leave the bulk at home. My buddy Chris is usually prepared with all the little trail necessities anyway so why not be light?
Well I certainly ended up eating my words. I walked back to the rest area and waited while Chris rode back to the truck to get his pack (he also thought today was a good day to go light). It was a nice overcast morning and still relatively cool out so it really wasn't all that bad actually. When he returned we examined my tube and discovered that I had pinched it twice! He only had 3 patches and I now had a tube with more holes in it than foreign cheese. He thought he had a spare tube but it turns out that it wasn't a tube at all but rather...
Duct tape! Yes, of all the things he could have mistaken for a tube, it was duct tape. A quick roadside repair later and we were on our way.
At this point I took lead and just followed the same trail I had started on. After a few hundred meters, however, I felt my front getting squishy. I was losing air fast and decided to pick the quickest, smoothest trail I saw and hope it went back to the parking lot. About the time I pulled up to the truck I was nearly riding on the rim. I would guess I was under 10 psi at that point. So now we had a few options: call it a day, or find a shop and get some new tubes.
Now, had we not been in Tempe, a thriving college town, I might have opted for the former. However, I was determined to conquer this dang park. We went down the road to one of the many adjacent shops (college town remember) and purchased a new tube, patches, and CO2. I was determined to not let any more silly mechanicals take me down! We rushed back to the park, changed the tube and took off again.
Finally we could enjoy the park as was meant to be. We spent the better part of an hour riding around, picking trails and just doing some good ol' fashioned exploring. There was a few spots that were on the steep side that I had to avoid. I had chosen to stick with a slightly higher gearing than he, so we had to be slightly selective in where we would go. I will say that I am feeling stronger. I did have to walk once but by that point I was really getting tired. There were many steeper areas that I felt pretty confident powering up that several months ago I would have jumped off and pushed.
As for an overall verdict? I'm still definitely skittish. I wish I could say that the few months off allowed me to find my center and accept gravity and pain as an overall fact of life, surmountable with proper zen. Not so much. There was one spot were I came to a complete stop and calculate my line, and another in the video below that I really only went for because I was recording and I knew the steepness of it wouldn't show up. Pride is good, until it is bad I guess.
