32 Days and Counting...

Wow!  Today is August 1st, which means there are only 32 days left until my race...time is flying by now, and I'm sure it will continue to accelerate.  This past weekend I took a trip with a lifelong friend up to Northern Arizona, to do some high-altitude training...and believe me...it was tough!

The plan was for myself, my friend Bob, and a riding buddy of his, to meet up at the Bike and Bean...a bike store (of sorts...more on that later) and coffee bar, located in the Village of Oak Creek.  The Village of Oak Creek is located on the outskirts of Sedona, so...it was time to give the Sedona mountain bike scene one more chance to live up the the hype.  

Me taking pictures on the slick rock

Well...I did not intend to use this blog as a platform to bash on anything, but today I feel I must say something about my experience at the Bike and Bean.  One of my pet peeves is being belittled by people within specific industries, who (for some reason) think they are above others, simply because they are in that particular industry, and may or may not possess a level of knowledge that their customer does not.  For example...mechanics...oh sorry guys...automotive technicians.  Many mechanics treat others with little very little courtesy and customer service...as if to say "I know something you don't, therefore I will treat you like an idiot."  That kind of behavior drives me crazy.  I mean come on...what if I treated my customers that way when they were having a heart attack or stroke?  

Well, the Bike and Bean doesn't employ automotive technicians, but they do employ bike mechanics...more commonly referred to as wrenches.  Anyway, I walked into the store to buy some compressed air canisters (used in place of pumps for fixing flat tires out on the trail).  I asked if they had a particular type called 'Big Air'...which contains 40 grams of compressed air (actually propane)...enough to inflate 29" tires, like the ones on my bike.  The employee's response involved an exaggerated eye-roll, followed by a rude "NO...but we have the smaller ones right there on the shelf."  I told him I was looking for the Big Air, and that I didn't care for the smaller canisters.  My comment elicited yet another eye-roll response from my customer service expert, followed by this unbelievable comment... "Yea, everyone thinks those things make them cool, just because the racers use them."  Professionalism and customer service at it's finest...belittle your potential customer so that they are just dying to spend money in your store...I love that tactic!  Sorry...no sale.  Bye Bye.

The Big Air canister

So that was the start of the day that was supposed to make me feel like I had unfairly rated the Sedona mountain bike scene poorly two weeks ago.  Hmmm.  My friends arrived, and Alex (Bob's friend) went inside to buy a trail map and get some insider information from the locals..."good luck" I thought.  Armed with what he needed, Alex emerged from the store ready to go.  The trail-head for our ride was about five miles west of the store, so we jumped into our vehicles and set out in search of the elusive red rock mountain bike paradise.

What we found was certainly better than what I had ridden a couple weeks ago, yet it still lacked what the three of us were looking for...fun, fast, flowing single track.  What we got was beautiful scenery, a short ride under the canopy of towering cottonwood trees that lined a cool, refreshing creek...and alot of un-rideable, rocky areas that required more hiking than biking.  As we attempted to ascend a very difficult, steep climb (which we would later learn would have led us into Sedona's finest trails), frustration began to set in, and we decided to turn around and search for something better.  Our search led us to some interesting terrain, the likes of which I have not ridden on before...slick rock.  Slick rock is the common term for the large, relatively flat sections of Sedona's red sandstone, that when wet, are very slick.  Moab, Utah is another mountain bike mecca that contains a great deal of slick rock.  Anyway...we got to play around on a fair amount of slick rock, which was pretty cool.  The sticky rubber compounds which our tires are made of, felt and sounded like Velcro on the sandstone, and provided an amazing amount of traction on what looked to be very slick.  We quickly tired of this terrain however, and set out once again to find something better.   This time our search led us to an area that had been recommended by my new friend, Mr. Customer Service, back at the Bike and Bean.  We had to ride for a couple miles on blacktop to access this trail-head.  The trail was named the Ridge Trail, and was reported to be made up of great single-track that ran along the ridge of the mountain range upon which the trail was cut. 

Bob Taking a pic of me taking a pic of him on the slick rock

The Ridge Trail access was crazy difficult...so much so, that once again we elected to turn around, deeming it un-ride able

more slick rock

Finally, we found a small loop of trails that provided us with some fun, fast single-track to ride.  Unfortunately however, there was a large storm beginning to roll in that was putting out some good lightning and thunder.  I don't mind riding in the rain, but when the lightning starts...it's time to shut it down.  Plus...we were all running very low on water after our three hour search for a decent trail, so we decided to head back to the vehicles...where ever they were!

When we made it back to where we had begun, Bob mentioned that he needed to go back to the Bike and Bean and have them make a quick repair to his bike.  "Oh Joy" I thought.  So back to customer service heaven we went, hoping for a quick and professional repair.  To my surprise, they told Bob they would throw his bike up on the stand in just a couple minutes, and take a look at it.  "Okay" I thought, "That's a little better."  As the wrench began to work on Bob's bike, the three of us had a seat at the coffee bar while we waited.  Soon, my customer service buddy asked us (with attitude of course) "Which one of you owns the brown Honda Element?"  "I do" I replied (maybe with a little of my own attitude at this point).  "You need to move it...you parked right in front of my rack of rental bikes" was customer service-boy's response.  Not "could you please move it"...just "you need to move it."  Well...my thought was that there were a couple of things that I really needed to do, and move my vehicle was not on the list at that time.  A cold beer, a hot shower, and something to eat were certainly much higher on my list of needs at that time.  All of which were being delayed by the bicycle technician who had decided to drop working on Bob's bike to help out some big boobed Blondie with a British accent, who had some questions about where to go hike.  Nice...more great customer service!

View from my "perfect parking spot" at the Bike and Bean

Well, I ended up moving my car, and they ended up finishing Bob's bike repair.  We all ended up driving to Mund's Park where Bob's townhouse welcomed us with ice cold beer, a hot shower, and food to refuel our tired, old bodies.  We definitely need to fuel, because the next day we would be climbing Mt. Eldon...on our bikes!  

Heading out as the storm rolls in!

Don't miss my next post to find out if we made it all the way up Mt. Eldon!