Month: December 2021

End of year round-up, catch-up, summary post–part 3 of several, a.k.a., the last (and longest) post in this series!

~ reluctantroadie ~ 2 Comments

December was busy with outdoor activity! I started the month with a holiday ride at Browns Ranch, a popular local trail system in Scottsdale. I had a number of ladies in the HBRO mountain biking group I’m part of request a holiday-themed ride, so I organized one, complete with treats and festive attire. It was a really fun morning and everyone came dressed to impress in their holiday best.

Great turnout for the ride! This is right before we rolled out.
Because there were so many riders, I split the group into two smaller groups. This is my group looking their best!
Both groups finished at the same time!
I requested everyone to bring some treats to share. We had a tailgate-style party after the ride in the parking lot!

The next weekend was my second mountain bike race of the year: Dawn to Dusk. This event is a 12 hour endurance race held at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills. The objective is to complete as many 16 mile laps as possible in 12 hours. There are many race categories, such as solo men, co-ed duo, and four person teams (men, women, and co-ed). Those categories are further divided into age groups. All that means is that there were A LOT of racers that day on the trail! I was part of the same four person ladies’ team as my race in August because we all thought it would be fun to do another race together. This time, we raced in honour of a young girl fighting cancer; her name is Julia and she’s a friend of one of the ladies on my team.

(My team wearing our t-shirts in honour of Julia.)

I can honestly say that the day went by SO FAST! From meeting up with the HBRO crew way too early in the morning and freezing our butts off (it was just above 32F / 0 degrees celsius at 5am) to actually racing to hanging with the crew while waiting to race to eating to playing with our team dog Maya….12+ hours went by in a flash. In addition to the actual racing, the event featured several food vendors (Peddler on the Path mobile cafe, @pizzart_602, and Stanzi’s Food Truck), Active Bodyworx who offered free 10 minute massages that were amazing, and some bike repair and merchandise shops. Although my team didn’t “podium,” i.e., place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, we all achieved personal bests—woohoo! A highlight for me was passing 7 guys on the climb during my second lap and telling them “good job.” 🙂 I do enjoy passing guys when I ride!

It was REALLY COLD at 5am!
I’m starting my first lap.
Professional photo during the first lap.
“Home base” while we waited to race.
My teammate’s husband and dog, Maya.
Beautiful mountains in the distance. You can see how full the venue is with all of the RV’s, trucks, etc.
Another view of all the individual spaces.

The last major outdoor event for the month was my annual DIY 7 Summit Challenge. The event is based on the official Phoenix 7 Summit Challenge and the goal is to complete all 7 hikes in a day. The hikes are located in the Phoenix metro area. It’s basically the hiking equivalent of a pub crawl…. without the pubs or beer or food, haha. We even had stickers this year! The “DIY” part refers to a few modifications I make to the event, such as the order of the hikes and switching out a few hikes to avoid driving all the way up north. Highlights of the day include a beautiful sunrise, great conversation, an adorable husky puppy sighting, and a full moon. In a strange twist of “Fate,” we had to climb a bonus 8th summit at Fate Brewery in Tempe to get to our table for dinner. That was probably the hardest climb of the entire day! According to my GPS, total mileage for the day was 21.47 miles / 34.5 km (mileage does not include the bonus 8th summit), 5,054 ft / 1,540 m of gain, and less than 12 hours for the entire event, which includes the drive time between hikes. It was a great day and everyone did SO well!

The group photo right before we started hike #1.
View during the first hike.
Seeing the moon during the first hike.
I don’t recall this photo being taken!
Cool picture at the summit.
Group photo at summit #1.
Beautiful sunrise in process.
Christmas tree seen during hike #2.
Top of hike #4.
More than halfway done!
View during hike #5.
Steadily making our way up to summit #5.
Summit #5 photo.
Cute husky puppy named Rory!
Catching the last rays of light during the last hike.
Seeing the moon again!
Summit photo for hike #7!
Our bonus 8th summit: dinner.
Group photo for summit #8, haha!
I INHALED my fries.
Some of us found it hard to walk down the stairs!
The stickers–hard earned.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and many great adventures in 2022!

End of year round-up, catch-up, summary post–part 2 of several.

~ reluctantroadie ~ Leave a comment

….and here is part 2! At the end of 2020, I joined a Facebook group called Hawesaholics Babes Ride On, or HBRO for short. HBRO is a VERY active ladies’ mountain bike group primarily based at the Hawes Trail System in east Mesa, but members are from all over the Phoenix area. HBRO is invested in supporting women’s mountain biking events and encouraging all women to ride bikes. One such event was the first annual Saguaro Soireé, which occurred in mid-November. Aravaipa Rides put on this event and it was an entire weekend dedicated to mountain biking at Usery Mountain: skills clinics for all levels, bike mechanic workshops, lunch and games, and a race. It was a really fun weekend and I know that everyone learned (or relearned) bike skills and challenged themselves to push a bit harder during the race. I think the thing I like most about women-only mountain bike events is the supportive atmosphere. I don’t mean that co-ed events aren’t supportive, but I’m finding that a lot of ladies I ride with start biking later in life and don’t have the same depth of background in riding as most guys who ride. We’re more similar in our (lack of) experience and approach to riding, so honestly, it’s more fun riding with other ladies. 🙂 The Soireé was a great time and it was fun to hang out with some of my biking friends. (For the record, I was not last in the race!)

(Photo 1: beautiful sky to start the day. Photo 2: posing in front of the finish line. Photo 3: me and my HBRO friends.)

End of year round-up, catch-up, summary post–part 1 of several.

~ reluctantroadie ~ 1 Comment

Happy holidays, dear readers! Here we are at the end of 2021…already! I hope that this holiday season is a bit more “normal” for you than last year’s. I recall last year when we all were hoping for a “normal” 2021….well, parts of life went back to “normal,” but a lot of life was still — is still — affected by COVID and its family member variants, such as Delta and Omnicron. However, we need to grab hold of the things that bring us joy and sanity and for me, staying active does that. To that end, here is my first of several “catch-up” posts for your reading pleasure (yes, I know my last two posts were “catch-up” posts….apparently, I haven’t had a lot of time to document my outdoor adventures!).

Way back in November (haha, I know that isn’t THAT long ago, but it sure feels like it!), I went to my first mountain bike festival. I attended ROAMfest in Sedona mainly because it is an all-ladies’ mountain bike festival. What do you do at a mountain bike festival? So many things. You hang out with other people who like riding, you go on group rides, you eat great food, you watch films about mountain biking, you get to test ride fancy (read: expensive) bikes, you get to see all the coolest bike stuff…etc., etc., all in beautiful Sedona. The “vibe” was really positive and inclusive and, no joke, the portapotties were the cleanest I’ve ever seen in my life. There was even a hand washing station next to the portapotties, complete with a working faucet that you operated by foot! (I told my friends that the yummy food and clean facilities were no surprise because WOMEN organized the event!) I split the hotel room and driving with a friend and we made the most of our weekend, seeing and doing as much as we could. I would definitely go again. Let me know if you have any questions!

Waiting to enter the festival venue.
One of many bike shuttles.
Beautiful Sedona.
I “demoed” (i.e., borrowed a bike to test out on a ride) a Pivot Mach 6.
Heidi and I being dorky.
The vegan meal option on Friday night. Kimchi!
Movie night on Friday night.
Mountain biking can be dangerous.
There was a panel with several speakers who talked about diversity and inclusion in mountain biking.
The Friday group ride.
The Saturday group ride.
Near the end of the Saturday ride.