Day 8 – Flagstaff – 16 miles 2600 vertical.. Feel the pain.. The crash brothers collide!! So off to Flag, dressed for blizzard conditions we arrive to 60 degree and sunny weather. Find the trailhead and Start climbing up awesome super rocky single track – very New England esque. Focker flats, LUTC bonks after 300 feet but we eventually get it together and make it 1/2 way up the 7 mile climb, The rest on the forever vertical road marked by squashed beer cans. CT pulls way ahead, Me focker and CB trade positions until CB finds energy to chase bro. I tell focker - "im drafting you" - in granny 2 mind you - he replies - That might not be a good idea!! (thrusters - new term for translator), and knee slapping too when you legs are too tired to climb. 7 miles later we are finally at the top. Phew.. We took a spur to elden lookout, that was a very cool single track rocky trail through dead trees, and you feel like your on top of the world but the view was less than spectacular. Focker breads his hangar and derailure and is ready to BAIL – I wouldn’t let him so some bizarre bike fix’s were in order.. Used a trick I learned at bike building school of flinstones that includes a bottle opener and a rock. Back in business.. Back to Sunset where the some of the crew talked of biking babes that passed by. At this point in the trip any women between the ages of 11 and 51, with more than 3 teeth is a babe. Anyway, we take the supposed evil danger catwalk??? Not , but a cool trail that’s off camber on the side of golden blonde mountain.. Finally downhill – awesome stuff – super rocky tech stuff, drops, switchbacks YEEEHAAWWW… Scooter flats, CB gets some sun, I take pics of dead trees and we are on for more downhill, fast smooth downhill with many small logs and such to hop at speed.. What ?? Uphill?? Just 600 feet or so – suck the life out of all of us.. Downhill again for more high speed action. I scout ahead for jumps, ditch my bike 5’ OFF THE TRAIL, near an S-turn (after the jump) and wait for craig. He sees the camera and accelerates to crash dummy speed ignoring the landing strip s-turn – I estimate 30 mph air, crashing into my bike. 5 seconds later here comes CB same thing, nice jump then sandy over the bars dismount into my bike and bro.. See video – highly entertaining.. Next section CB over the bars after mud I assume, then I build a ramp drop – CT tries it – a bit wobbly… Onward again I find the FIRST homemade ramp of the trip – 4 foot ramp to log. CT crashes twice, Scooter spots, CB crashes once. Then I try it backwards and kiss the tree.. Meanwhile scooter falls down because his sock is caught in his chain – What a crew. Back to the car to end an epic last day ride – after 160 miles my legs are pretty dead. To tired to ride the see saw we built in the front yard..
Rating – 4.5 gallons of golden shower is all you have to bath with on this frosty cold morning, you might want to jump into the milky frothy hotub to clean off.