Flagstaff!

Lucky for me we spent our anniversary up in Flagstaff and was able to bring my bike along for at least 1 ride. I have heard such great things about the heart trail so that was the mission and fill in the rest after that. The fastest route to the top of Heart was to climb up the Elden lookout rd. The ride up through the neighborhood before I got to the rd was distracting as I desperately want to move into one of those nice homes! Once I got onto the dirt road things were fine, started gradual and then a steady solid climb, not much to see but the destruction fire left of the mountain. Once I got higher there was some tree regrowth but not nearly as much as I would expect from a fire a few years ago. I had the option to ride the road all the way out but after an hour of that I hopped onto upper sunset. The view was absolutely spectacular! There was nice cloud cover and it was coolish, some signs of green stuff as I rode down hill finally. It was narrow and rocky in spots before as I rode in and out of pine and aspen. I was at the top of heart in not time. Then I got to charge down some nice flowy picturesque trail, I was constantly distracted by the views. The trail was not forested at all so wide open and able to see every bit of trail ahead, quite pretty even without the wildlife. I went in and out of red dirt which was a trip. That descent went on for a good bit of time and as I got lower it got more flowy and entered the pines. I saw what I thought was a Javalina and turns out it was a black bear! He was about 50 ft from me and was just as spooked as I was! I was still crusing real nice around MT Elden on really great trail. Then I began to climb my way back up shultz pass. Legs were doing just fine and I was on coud 9. I knew I still had plenty of time once I got to the pass and decided to try some stuff I haven't got to. I rode Secret which was pretty good, some chunky sections but mostly a cozy pedal in the pines. The onto twisted sister for more of the same. Lower moto was next, nice mellow trail. I hopped onto easter island which was awesome, ran down a ravine real fast. Then the rest was a quick ride to the car. Even after 3.3 hours of riding man I wanted much more! So happy, so lucky!