Back in Montana

Arizona was a good time, and now I'm back in Montana with a few miles in my legs just in time for spring riding and racing. The weather has been a little unpleasant, but mostly just during the week.  The first weekend back I rode in the Bitterroot Saturday with Mobi to Stevensville for lunch and on some nice back roads. That's about the only mobi ride I do these days because they take kind of a long time. This one usually has a lot of the mountain bike crew and it's pretty scenic down there.

Winter trip to AZ

I have an aunt in Canada who has a house in Arizona. She has been spending jan-feb down there lately and asked if I wanted to come and visit for awhile. I've spent some time here before, like two years ago when we drove all the way from her house in Toronto. That first time, I basically spent a month and a half sitting around drinking by the pool, and got a little heavier and out of shape than I wanted to be. I feel like it slowed me down for the entire bike season. This time, I wasn't going without a bike, so thanks to bikeflights.com I was able to send one down here for not too much money. The guys at Missoula Bicycle Works were also nice enough to give me all the packaging materials I needed and let me use a workstand and their tools to get the bike boxed up.

So it made it, and I've been getting in some cool rides in the Phoenix area. Since I'm in the north part of Scottsdale it is easiest for me to head north toward Cave Creek and such, where there are lots good places to ride. The first big one I did was to Bartlett lake, which is about a 70mi round trip with nearly 5000ft of climbing. Possibly a little ambitious for so early in the season and I was not feeling so great by the end. For anyone looking to do this ride, there is a fountain at the top before you go down to the lake which was not working, and then at the lake there is a store with drinks and snacks. Their potato chip selection is not very good though, and if the store is closed I think you could still probably sneak around the balcony to the back where they have water fountains. The sheriff's office thing probably has water too.