Mid-year recap, part 1/3

July 27, 2025July 27, 2025 ~ reluctantroadie ~ Leave a comment

Hello, dear readers! I say this every year, but….really….THIS year has gone by SO FAST! I am yet again woefully behind on updating this blog, but I shouldn’t complain because I get to do some cool, fun things. Let’s jump right into recapping 2025!

January in the desert is lovely. It’s cool and one can get outside whenever one wants. Unlike summer in the desert, in the winter, there’s no rush to get outside at dark o’clock in the morning to “take advantage” of the “cool weather” at 5am. Most of you know that I am NOT a morning person and prefer to get as much beauty sleep as possible! 🙂

I started 2025 with a fun ladies’ theme ride: New Year’s sparkle! The next major event for me this month was a local, homegrown mountain bike festival called Hawesfest, which took place at the Hawes trail system in east Mesa. I volunteered at the Hawesfest “kitchen” with my friends Vicki, Tawnia, and Scott and we worked our buns off (pun intended) ensuring that all Hawesfest riders got lunch!

*Mountain bike gals posing in their sparkly best!*

February’s trip was a weekend getaway to Bisbee, AZ. I’ve wanted to visit Bisbee for a long time because of the artsy vibe to the town and the famous “Bisbee 1000 Stair Climb.” My SAT (self-appointed trainer) and I hiked the Stair Climb race course and had a fun time finding all 9 staircases. Another cool thing to do while in Bisbee is to drive over to Erie Street, which has been preserved as a quasi-museum of classic 1950’s cars and storefronts. In between all the hiking and sightseeing, we enjoyed some great food, some of which was at Cafe Roka. 10/10 recommend!

*We had dinner our first night at Cafe Roka — highly recommend!*

March is birthday month! My annual Sedona birthday weekend this year turned into “Snowdona” because of a huge dump of snow that weekend. However, that snow only dampened our boots (and not our spirits). We pivoted our plans to include more hiking and less mountain biking, due to the very muddy trails, and took advantage of our amazing Airbnb to cook and eat lots of yummy food (including birthday cake!) and spend some quality girl time. Fun fact: this annual birthday weekend celebrates 5 of us!

A couple weeks later, I got to hike Picketpost Mountain with my friend, Gladys. This is a hike I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and the stars finally aligned for Gladys and I to hike this fun trail together. She is very knowledgeable about the trails and hikes in the Superstition Mountains and I felt very lucky to benefit from her guiding expertise! Just take a look at the views from the top! Although the trail isn’t long, there is enough uphill to make this hike a great workout. I enjoyed the scrambling near the top and loved soaking in the views at the top.

*RIght before we got to the trailhead, we passed some friends who were doing a backpacking overnighter in the same area!*

Stay tuned for a couple more recaps in the next week! Until then, get outside. 🙂

Another catch-up post!

April 10, 2024April 10, 2024 ~ reluctantroadie ~ Leave a comment

I say this every year, but how is time going by so quickly? It’s already the middle of April! So far, 2024 hasn’t been too bad. It’s been full of much of the same things as last year: work, cats, riding bikes. However, one new unwelcome development is my recent tennis elbow diagnosis (or, as the medical types call it, “lateral elbow tendinopathy“). That diagnosis has forced me to dial back the intensity of the trails I ride and the frequency I ride. Bummer. However, I’ve been seeing a physical therapist for the past month and am seeing improvement, so I’m trying to take some comfort in that. Being patient is NOT a strength of mine!

On to happier things….last month, I got to do my now-annual Sedona weekend with some friends. There are a handful of us who have March birthdays and we’ve made a weekend celebration a tradition. This year, the weather was on the cloudy / rainy side, but that did not dampen our spirits a bit. Most of us arrived in Sedona early enough on the Friday to take a hike and promptly got drenched. It rained SO HARD! The trails dried up enough overnight though, so we got to ride the rest of the weekend. I’m so grateful for my “girl gang” and always have such a fun time with them! We booked a fantastic Airbnb and had a blast cooking, eating, watching stand-up comedy shows on Netflix, and just hanging out. Happy birthday to us, indeed!

*Coffee Pot mountain! We hiked around this on Friday afternoon…in the RAIN…*

Things coming up on the horizon include a White Rim trip next month and a Colorado trip this summer to celebrate a big anniversary. 🙂 I hope you all are enjoying a lovely spring!

Roamfest Sedona 2022

November 20, 2022 ~ reluctantroadie ~ 1 Comment

During the first weekend of November, I went to Roamfest Sedona, a women’s mountain biking festival weekend. This event is essentially a party on bikes all weekend! I went last year and had such a good time that I decided to go again. The format was the same as last year: lots of group rides, workshops, and general hang out time with old and new friends; good food and drink all weekend; lots of free stuff provided by the festival and the onsite vendors; clean portapotties, haha. The biggest difference this year is that I knew what to expect and therefore, was MUCH more efficient in what I packed. I drove up with a couple of friends and shared a hotel room with a friend 5 minutes away from the festival venue, which was VERY convenient!

The festival provided demo bikes for people to test ride. I demoed 6 bikes and rode them on the same trail to make it easier to compare the bikes. The bikes I tried, in order of the photos below, are: 1) Transition Scout, XS frame and S frame, 2) Pivot Shadowcat XS frame, 3) Rocky Mountain Instinct, S frame, 4) Rocky Mountain Element, S frame, 5) Pivot Mach 6, XS frame. I really liked the Shadowcat, Instinct, and Scout. Did not like the Pivot Mach 6 at all. I’m slowly narrowing down potential new bike options…

The non-biking activities I participated in included a climate advocacy discussion, a bracelet making session, and a silent disco. The disco is one of the funniest group activities I’ve ever done! Everyone had their own headphones, which connected to 2 different music playlists. You chose the song you wanted to dance to. When I took my headphones off, it was hilarious to hear the (somewhat off-key) singing of all the ladies, but no actual music recording. Most of the group wore costumes, which added to the fun.

Of course, riding mountain bikes in Sedona means sharing beautiful views with lovely people. Looking forward to next year!

Summer is over…finally!

October 22, 2022 ~ reluctantroadie ~ Leave a comment

Hello, dear readers! It’s late October, which means summer is finally OVER here in Phoenix, AZ. Mornings are actually pleasant and, dare I say, a wee bit chilly, which is such a welcome change from the months of heat, humidity, and general crankiness (I’m not referring to myself at all…). I’ve been enjoying the option of riding later in the morning or — gasp! — late afternoon.

One recent highlight I wanted to share was a spontaneous girls’ weekend in Sedona last month. A few friends and I decided to check out some new-to-us mountain bike trails and visit a couple of mountain bike coach friends in Sedona. Not much to say, other than a great time was had by all. Gorgeous scenery, silly photos, and awesome friends = wonderful time.

At the end of last year, I wrote a list of mountain bike goals for 2022. I realized today that I’ve achieved most of them! Here is my list:

Ride 2,000 miles this year.
Complete the Whiskey 30 race in one piece. (DONE! For proof, check out this blog.)
Learn how to jump intentionally, not accidentally. (I’ve taken a jump clinic and have actually jumped intentionally during rides!)
Go to a bike park for the first time. (DONE! Went to Angelfire in July. For proof, check out this blog and that blog.)
Continue working on my list of technical features. (This will always be a work in progress, but notable achievements include clearing 3 rocky sections on the lower National trail at South Mountain.)
Build endurance to ride my first dirt half century, i.e., 50 miles. (Still working on this one.)
Continue the skills practice by taking clinics and practicing specific skills on my own. (Still working on this.)
Continue to meet and encourage beginner riders to ride. (DONE! I just started my weekly ladies’ mountain bike ride again!)

Not too shabby! Still have time to knock off a couple more items….

Birthday bike bash

March 19, 2022 ~ reluctantroadie ~ Leave a comment

One of the things I wanted to do to celebrate my birthday this year is ride my bike in Sedona. I invited a few friends to join me and we happily planned 2 loops to ride, totalling 15 miles. We rode the “Rabbit Ears” loop first, which is a 7 mile loop with a good climb in the first half and a fun descent in the second half. I think the name “Rabbit Ears” comes from a tall rock formation that *could* be interpreted as a pair of rabbit’s ears. There wasn’t anything super technical about this loop, which is a nice way to start a day of riding. Weather was perfect and spirits were high as we drank in the beauty of our surroundings. After we finished the loop, we enjoyed some homemade brownies and other snacks.

The second loop, which included the Slim Shady, Templeton, and Easy Breezy trails, was more technical and I was happy to observe that I rode all of the features! It’s always encouraging to have some solid evidence of progress. A couple of the drops I rode were more steep than I anticipated, but my riding technique was solid enough that I didn’t panic and crash. 🙂 The day was a really memorable one and I enjoyed spending some great biking time with some wonderful friends. One friend, Gladys, even brought some wine and we all toasted to a great day and even better year. Sedona is such a fun place to visit and it’s convenient that it’s only a 2 hour drive away from me. I’ll be coming back again!

Me, Vanessa, and Jess. All of our birthdays are in March, so “my” birthday ride was kind of shared with them. 🙂

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

December 28, 2021 ~ 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!

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reluctantroadie

Originally a journal to document my training towards my first double-century, this blog is now a journal of my outdoor adventures.

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