It’s been a long fun season, but the end is here, finishing at home!

Last weekend kicked off my final race of the season, Tour of the White Mountains right here in Pinetop. Having the Epic Rides crew and a lot of our friends in town for the weekend made for a lot of excitement. The weather and trails were downright awesome! 50’s at the 7:00 am start of the 50-mile race and mid 70’s all day!

The pace started out hot and stayed that way for the nearly 4-hrs of racing. A little bad luck by a few racers, but on the whole it sounded like everyone had a clean race with no one getting lost this year. I managed to pull off a 3rd place finish battling some tough competition.

Afterwards, Charlie Parr rocked the stage with some fantastic blue grass tunes and Sierra Nevada kept the beer flowing, including a keg of Narwhal!

Brian Leddy took some great photos throughout the day.

A big shout out to Brent and Harry at McDowell Mountain Cycles for letting me rock in the MMC kit this season and helping me out with racing. The same goes to Mike and Melissa at Mike’s Mix. Many-a-good things have been concocted in the kitchen thanks to their great products, along with fueling us on the bike.

Hello Off-Season

Now that racing is done, it gives me more time to explore the White Mountains of Arizona via hiking. Evie, Lucy and I submitted Escudilla yesterday, a nice little 6-mile hike up to 10,900′. Next on the list is Mt. Baldy, along with a lot of other neat hidden gems here in AZ.

I’d like to get up to Aztec Peak, checkout more of the Coronado trail, Pacheta Falls, AZT, and cross the Sheep Bridge out by Bartlett Lake, that’s just scratching the surface! I’m looking forward to a fun winter, hopefully I’ll do a little more XC skiing if we get snow and maybe some fat biking too!

I’ll leave you with a few pictures from our hike up Escudilla.