We began our trip Thursday morning. Gallup is about five and a half hours from Tucson. Lisa and I were both excited to be getting away for the weekend on a long overdue road trip. After a quick stop by Oro Valley Bike Shop to pick up a new set of grips (more on that later), we were on our way.
Just north of Globe, we began our descent into the Salt River Canyon. Not exactly the Grand Canyon but beautiful scenery none the less. A serious set of switchbacks takes us down from the rim to the Salt River and then back up the other side.
The entire trip was pretty uneventful. It was a perfect traveling day. Very little traffic to contend with and only a slight detour which took us out through Florence on route 79 instead of directly up route 77 to Globe.
We arrived in Gallup around 5:30 and settled in at the El Rancho Hotel where the "Charm of Yesterday meets the Convenience of Tomorrow". The slogan must have been coined in the sixties since the only convenience of tomorrow I could find was the free WiFi.
It was actually quite a charming place. The lobby walls were adorned with pictures of the old movie stars who had stayed at the hotel during its hey day when many westerns that were coming out of Hollywood were filmed in the area around Gallup.
Our room, the Robert Taylor suite, was comfortable and probably one of the better rooms in the place. It featured a set of old
french doors, leading to a balcony overlooking old route 66. The only issue I had with the room
was the absence of a shade on the round window in our sitting room which allowed the neon pink glow from the hotel's sign to shine in the room until midnight when the sign was thankfully turned off. We managed to shove a pillow in the window which helped a little.
A decent but slightly pricey meal was had in the hotel restaurant. Chef salad for Lisa and beef fajitas for me. The fajitas were very flavorful and the portions of both were quite large. The rest of the evening, I spent installing the grips on my bike.
Flashback to Wednesday evening; my grips arrived and I mounted the left grip with no problem. Then I set about mounting the right grip but it seemed a little loose. So I did what any good mechanic would do and used a little more umph to tighten the bolt on the clamp. I didn't think I was torquing it that hard but with a snap, my stomach fell as the head of the bolt broke off. Upon inspection, I found I had neglected to insert the Ergon proprietary washer the clamp uses to apply pressure to the grip and handlebar so I wasn't really tightening the grip but only the clamp bolt which must be made to snap off at certain torque preventing damage to the handlebars. I tried extracting the broken bolt to no avail.
Luckily the bike shop had a set of Ergon GE-1 grips from which I was able to scavenge the clamps to mount the GC-2 (minus the barend of course). So Thursday, at the hotel, I was able to finish installing the grips.
Friday was pre-ride day. After a morning tour of the badly gone to seed downtown Gallup and a decent lunch at Camille's (one of the race sponsors) Cafe, I dropped Lisa back at the hotel and went out to the trailhead for a quick spin around the course. The lousy photojournalist that I am, I left the camera in the car which proved to be unfortunate as it would be my only chance to photograph the trail.
The Gallup High Desert Trail system is truly a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the desert. The race was to be held on a 12.5 mile section of the system encompassing Mesa III and the Mesa II trails. The first part of the ride, a longish climb from the staging area along the ridge of the Mesa with some butt-puckering exposures and several tight switchbacks, found me walking in several spots as the 32x18 gearing on my SS proved too much for these old legs. As I rode, I found myself anticipating the next day when I would have the luxury of gears and could cleanly climb the ridge. The views from the exposed section of trail were just breathtaking. Trail art abounds so look out for mountain lions and bobcats (silhouettes) as well as a myriad of rock cairns (Bikehenge) along the way.
A very good dinner meal on Friday night at Fratelli's Pizza Bistro. I did a little carbo loading with a Murphy's Stout draft and a generous portion of homemade peach ice cream to go along with my "Kitchen Sink" pizza.
As is the norm, I slept very little Friday night before the race. I kept waiting for the sleep that had been sitting heavy on my eyelids after dinner to come but I couldn't seem to sink into sleep. I think I dozed off shortly before two a.m. so the 4:50 alarm wasn't a welcome intrusion on my slumber.
I rattled around the room a few minutes before remembering the weather forecast. I opened the balcony door and was greeted by a blast of arctic air, the sound of a gentle rain and a very wet morning. By the time we dressed and left for breakfast, the snow had begun to fall. The wet, heavy snow came down all through breakfast letting up just as we left the restaurant.
At the staging area, we found the race had been delayed until 9:00 but we made our way down the muddy road to the staging area to find a place to set-up. As the sun rose, the weather seemed to break up somewhat finally becoming sunny just before the rider's meeting
.
The decision to postpone the race at least until noon was announced at the race meeting under sunny skies but to the west I could see the clouds gathering and knew in my heart the race was doomed. Parts of the course, according to the race director, were unwalkable let alone rideable. The combination of some tricky exposures on the opening climb, muddy trail conditions and 200 or so riders made for a dangerous mix and a prudent decision to at least postpone the start to see what the weather would bring.
I couldn't see the course conditions improving much in the ensuing two hours and decided to head back to the hotel and call it a day. After showering and packing, I peeked outside where it was pouring rain. When we checked out the snow had begun and we had near white out conditions as we left Gallup. I knew for sure at that point there would be no Dawn til Dusk race for me, or anyone else, this year.
At least I had pre-ridden the course on the day before which as it turned out was the best day of the weekend but I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get a chance to compete.
It was actually quite a charming place. The lobby walls were adorned with pictures of the old movie stars who had stayed at the hotel during its hey day when many westerns that were coming out of Hollywood were filmed in the area around Gallup.
Our room, the Robert Taylor suite, was comfortable and probably one of the better rooms in the place. It featured a set of old
french doors, leading to a balcony overlooking old route 66. The only issue I had with the room
was the absence of a shade on the round window in our sitting room which allowed the neon pink glow from the hotel's sign to shine in the room until midnight when the sign was thankfully turned off. We managed to shove a pillow in the window which helped a little.A decent but slightly pricey meal was had in the hotel restaurant. Chef salad for Lisa and beef fajitas for me. The fajitas were very flavorful and the portions of both were quite large. The rest of the evening, I spent installing the grips on my bike.
Flashback to Wednesday evening; my grips arrived and I mounted the left grip with no problem. Then I set about mounting the right grip but it seemed a little loose. So I did what any good mechanic would do and used a little more umph to tighten the bolt on the clamp. I didn't think I was torquing it that hard but with a snap, my stomach fell as the head of the bolt broke off. Upon inspection, I found I had neglected to insert the Ergon proprietary washer the clamp uses to apply pressure to the grip and handlebar so I wasn't really tightening the grip but only the clamp bolt which must be made to snap off at certain torque preventing damage to the handlebars. I tried extracting the broken bolt to no avail.
Luckily the bike shop had a set of Ergon GE-1 grips from which I was able to scavenge the clamps to mount the GC-2 (minus the barend of course). So Thursday, at the hotel, I was able to finish installing the grips.
Friday was pre-ride day. After a morning tour of the badly gone to seed downtown Gallup and a decent lunch at Camille's (one of the race sponsors) Cafe, I dropped Lisa back at the hotel and went out to the trailhead for a quick spin around the course. The lousy photojournalist that I am, I left the camera in the car which proved to be unfortunate as it would be my only chance to photograph the trail.
The Gallup High Desert Trail system is truly a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the desert. The race was to be held on a 12.5 mile section of the system encompassing Mesa III and the Mesa II trails. The first part of the ride, a longish climb from the staging area along the ridge of the Mesa with some butt-puckering exposures and several tight switchbacks, found me walking in several spots as the 32x18 gearing on my SS proved too much for these old legs. As I rode, I found myself anticipating the next day when I would have the luxury of gears and could cleanly climb the ridge. The views from the exposed section of trail were just breathtaking. Trail art abounds so look out for mountain lions and bobcats (silhouettes) as well as a myriad of rock cairns (Bikehenge) along the way.
A very good dinner meal on Friday night at Fratelli's Pizza Bistro. I did a little carbo loading with a Murphy's Stout draft and a generous portion of homemade peach ice cream to go along with my "Kitchen Sink" pizza.
As is the norm, I slept very little Friday night before the race. I kept waiting for the sleep that had been sitting heavy on my eyelids after dinner to come but I couldn't seem to sink into sleep. I think I dozed off shortly before two a.m. so the 4:50 alarm wasn't a welcome intrusion on my slumber.
I rattled around the room a few minutes before remembering the weather forecast. I opened the balcony door and was greeted by a blast of arctic air, the sound of a gentle rain and a very wet morning. By the time we dressed and left for breakfast, the snow had begun to fall. The wet, heavy snow came down all through breakfast letting up just as we left the restaurant.
At the staging area, we found the race had been delayed until 9:00 but we made our way down the muddy road to the staging area to find a place to set-up. As the sun rose, the weather seemed to break up somewhat finally becoming sunny just before the rider's meeting
.
The decision to postpone the race at least until noon was announced at the race meeting under sunny skies but to the west I could see the clouds gathering and knew in my heart the race was doomed. Parts of the course, according to the race director, were unwalkable let alone rideable. The combination of some tricky exposures on the opening climb, muddy trail conditions and 200 or so riders made for a dangerous mix and a prudent decision to at least postpone the start to see what the weather would bring.
I couldn't see the course conditions improving much in the ensuing two hours and decided to head back to the hotel and call it a day. After showering and packing, I peeked outside where it was pouring rain. When we checked out the snow had begun and we had near white out conditions as we left Gallup. I knew for sure at that point there would be no Dawn til Dusk race for me, or anyone else, this year.
At least I had pre-ridden the course on the day before which as it turned out was the best day of the weekend but I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get a chance to compete.
No comments:
Post a Comment