Sundays With Sarge

A quick introduction for those readers out there that don't know me...  I'm a former resident of Harbor Springs, MI - transplanted in Flagstaff, AZ about 7 or 8 years ago, a lifetime member of Team Terpening -  I was there in the beginning, and an avid mountain biker - I love the single speed.  I've wanted to post here on Peter's blog for quite some time, and we've finally got our act together to make it happen.  I haven't been able to keep up with a blog of my own, so I felt that a weekly "column" would be right up my alley.  In a nutshell, my plan is to make a weekly, perhaps every Sunday, posting with some bicycling related news from Flag.  I hope you all enjoy my posts, and please feel free to leave feedback via the comment link.

The View of the Schultz Fire From My Driveway,
Those Aren't Clouds in the Distance

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me as far as riding is concerned.  It all started a few weeks ago when I left the house with a course set for a Fort Valley/Schultz Creek loop.  I managed to make it 1.25 miles from the house when I had what would turn out to be a fortunate mechanical problem.  I somehow, probably on a previous ride, had managed to shear off a chainring bolt and bent the chainring itself, causing the chainring to rub on the frame a bit.  I don't normally say that a mechanical issue like this was "fortunate", but it kept me from riding right into the middle of what would turn out to be a 15,000 acre forest fire that started at the top of Schultz Creek trail, directly in the heart of some of Flag's finest trails.  The Schultz Fire kept those trails closed for a week, even longer for certain trails.  All of this because some a**hole was too lazy to put his/her campfire out.  Thanks for burning my back yard, fu**er!!!  After receiving some new parts to fix my bike, I finally got out a week later to ride the loops out at the "unburned" Campbell Mesa Trails.  The following week, my job had me working in beautiful (not!) Holbrook, AZ and scrambling to finish a deck side job in the evenings.  Unable due to time and lack of energy from working early morn til late evening, I didn't get in a single ride last week.  I was able to breath a sigh of relief when I finally finished the deck on Friday morning, though.  In lieu of riding on Saturday, Kristina and I attended the first annual Flagstaff Hullabaloo, a festival of all things Flagstaff (primarily bikes, beer, and live music).  It was set up as an alternative to the New Belgium Tour de Fat which made it's last appearance in Flag in 2007.  The New Belgium festival has not returned due to several reasons, but primarily underage drinking, extremely intoxicated people being served even more beer, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, etc.  It has been said in the past that the Flagstaff festival consumed more kegs of New Belgium than any other stop on the tour, and I believe it.  It's Sunday now, the Schultz fire is out, the trails are opening back up, and it's a beautiful day (a little overcast).  With that said, it's time to get back in the saddle again and go ride a few laps out at Campbell Mesa.  Happy trails everyone.

Flagstaff Schultz Fire from Charlie McCallie on Vimeo.