This weekend is the 20th annual Tour of the White Mountains right here in Pinetop-Lakeside. A hint of fall is in the air with the leaves starting to change color and morning temps dipping into the low 50’s with day temps in the 70’s.

The trails are in great shape with a big help from the local mtbers and the TRACKS organization. Bluegrass musician Charlie Parr from Duluth, MN is booked for the after party festivities. it should be an all around great weekend!

If you’re coming up for the Tour here are a few places I recommend checking out.

Where to Eat

• La Vie – Trendy, Hip & Modern Cafe (across from Charlie Clark’s Steakhouse)
• Thai Promise – Healthy Asian food with no MSG
• Pinetop Coffee Roasters – Best coffee on the mountain, a Saturday morning must! (Hwy 260 & Woodland Lake Rd.)
• Moose Henri’s – Great food & 30 AZ craft beers on tap
• Baked in Pinetop – Fantastic breads, sweet treats, and MUST TRY cinnamon rolls (closed Sun. & Mon.)
• Eddies Country Store – Groceries, meat counter, and quality beer selection
• Jalapenos – Counter service burritos, I dig the sweet pork! In Show Low near Hwy 260/77 intersection. Stop on your way into town (and again on the way out!)

Sunday Rides

All the local trail maps can printed off and just like the Tour course, are tagged with blue and white diamonds. You should have an area map in your swag bag showing how the trails link together, 200+ miles!

• Panorama Trail (9-mile loop) – Swoopy fast singletrack, a few rocky descents, one steep climb up Twin Knoll, and ripping back down to the parking lot. Take 260 west to Penrod Rd. stoplight, make a right, go about a mile then right on Porter Mtn. Rd. The trail is up the road on your left about 4-miles (trail map). I prefer to ride clockwise and think it’s the most fun ridden this direction.

• Blue Ridge/Springs Trail (9-mile loop) – Blue Ridge is really tough. Think of climbing Prospector at McDowell Mountain, very rocky and physically demanding, but fun (trail map)! If you’re staying in the Country Club and feel up for more of a challenge this would be a good one (two way, but I like riding clockwise). You can start at Springs trail head and connect into Blue Ridge. Springs has a lot of big rocks, roots, and drops.

• Los Burros/Lake Mountain – If you want more of Los Burros, you can park at the Los Burros campground (trail map) and take the short cut and make a left to re-ride the north end aka. “the fun part” of Burros. Looking for some enduro? Head up Lake Mtn. Rd. to the fire tower and then drop in Four Springs for some steep fast fun that spits your right back onto the Tour course so you can finish back at the campground.

Where to Explore

• Rim Trail – On the west side of town just past the go carts off hwy 260, look for a sign for The Rim Trail. This is a short mile or so loop that takes you out to the Mogollon rim with some great views.

• White Mountain Nature Center – The nature center is off Woodland Rd. and has a lot of interesting artifacts and history from the White Mountains.

• Woodland Lake Park – Right in the heart of town, take the dog or kids for a walk around the lake (about 1-mile). There are also Ramada’s with picnic tables and grills for a nice picnic.

I’m looking forward to a fun packed weekend!

For the past 3 years I’ve been spending Labor Day weekend in the Black Hills of South Dakota — thanks to Evie 🙂

The black hills are most famous for the faces of Mount Rushmore, but there are amazing mountain bike trails, tons of hiking, water falls, streams, and sunny skies.

This year we picked up Evie’s niece and nephew in Colorado Springs, and brought them with, meeting up with grandma and grandpa when we got to Spearfish. It’s nice to make a long weekend out of the event. Always good to see so many friends.

Sadly, this was the only picture I took on the trip, too much fun and excitement  had me forgetting to pull out the camera.

Tony, Ryan and Cole drove out in the sprinter, and Corey, Justin, Karen and Butch also drove out from Wisco. We spent a few days ripping around on the “can’t wipe this smile off my face” singletrack, most of which were one way shuttles 🙂

Dakota Five-O: Home of the Pro’s, Joe’s, and Who Knows

Each year, more and more talented riders seem to show up to the Dakota Five-O. This year I was stoked when Corey get the win after making a wrong turn last year.

I had a great race following a mediocre start. I entered the singletrack about 15th, not ideal, but quickly started working my way up, making a few late race passes to finish 7th.

I could ride Five-O single track all day long! The trails were in the best shape ever and my Scott Spark crushed the descents like mad. Overall satisfied with my effort, hydration, and fueling. I’m always amazed at how after nearly 4-hrs in the saddle, the race comes down to just a few minutes.

Afterwards, free beer from Crow Peak Brewery and burritos from Barbacoa’s, plus live music and prizes, it’s quite the after party. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Hometown Race

Next up, Tour of the White Mountains, right here in Pinetop! Stay tuned for a special post next week where I’ll be highlighting some of the best places to eat, drink, and hangout when coming to town. Along with some great post race riding spots.

Cheers!

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun.

August started off with a return trip to Wisco to visit family and at weekend in Marquette, MI for Ore to Shore, one of my favorite weekends of the year. Great trails and lots of familiar faces. This year was no different. We sandwiched the race with some “can’t wipe that smile off your face” riding on some the new trails at Marquette Mtn. Incredibly fun!

The race itself went down as usual, well except for the lead group getting stopped by a train. This brought things back to maybe 40 or so riders and it got a little chaotic once we started rolling again. At some point a gap opened up and a chase group formed and we finished with a bunch sprint for 18th.

Nationals

Prior to that Evie and I hit up Mtb National’s in Mammoth Lakes, CA, what a pretty area. We rented a condo with Corey, Jeff, Joe and Corey’s two friends Michelle and Jonnie that turned out to be a stone’s throw from the venue. It was a good bunch and everyone had a good time, including Lucy!

I’m hoping that this year is just the year of bad luck between my flat at Whiskey and then Nat’ls. Had a great first few laps, but then (discovering afterwards) what turned out to be a little electrolyte overload I had to stop and get off my bike for a little while which pretty much put a damper on any hopes of finishing in the top 20. A fun course though, your standard mountain course 15-mins up, 5-mins down.

Evie crushed the downhill race, winning the overall Cat 3 on her trail bike. That being only her second DH race ever was pretty cool.

Good Ol’ WORS Racing

Back in Wisconsin, the second weekend of my trip I went up to Minooka Park to checkout the WORS race. Bummed that they did away with Crystal Ridge after which I’m told “The Rock” is no more. Anywhoo, the Minooka course was fun. Super tight, so tight that my 700mm bars barely fit through one set of trees, and twisty.

The race itself hurt! So much hammering on every small up hill and out of every single corner to gain a half second here and there. On laps 1 and 2 I was constantly out of the saddle, but my back really didn’t like. After another go around on laps 3 and 4 I started to get into a little better rhythm, but a little to late to make much out of it. 10th on the day, which is about par for the course for a “meh” kind of day. It was good to get out and mix it up with the WORS crew.

Back to the Mountains!

After returning to Arizona, I spent a week in Tucson before returning to the mountains of Flagstaff and then home to Pinetop. My birthday was on Tuesday so I took a little stroll up Mt. Lemmon and dropped in on Bug Springs, way fun! Even in 90+ degrees up there.

In Flagstaff, getting back to rocky technical goodness I took the win at The Old Fashioned Mtb Race. Bike was great and so was the nutrition. After returning to elevation after almost 3 weeks at sea level my lungs felt it. I can definitively say that there’s about a 5% gain in power for me coming down from elevation. At sea level the legs just seem to flush the lactic acid better due to more oxygen (or some other type of scientific explanation).

Next up, South Dakota for the Dakota Five-O. Rain or shine, it’s sure to be a great time!