Airstreaming T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park

Emily & Silent Partner

Evening, Peeps.

In our continuing series on places we’ve stayed in the Airstream, I am proud to introduce T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.

Booking

Florida’s state park system portal can be used for searching availability and making reservations here. This park sits deep in Florida’s “Forgotten Coast“, a stretch of low-speed roads and lazy beach towns stretching from Mexico Beach to St. Marks. You will need to put forth some patience to get here but possibly for this reason T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park was easy to book, quiet and we managed a single site for our entire stay.

Amenities & Activities

T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park has one entrance on Cape San Blas Rd., which follows an utterly mind-boggling route beginning at Port St. Joe on the mainland all the way to the edge of the park’s wilderness preserve. I describe this as mind-boggling because there are parts of this peninsula that couldn’t be more than a hundred yards (91 m) wide, granting you incredible views of the Gulf Coast and St. Joseph Bay simultaneously as you make your way in.

There are two campgrounds in this park, the Sandy Pines northern camp and the Gulf Breeze southern camp, which is where we stayed. There is a rather extraordinary system of boardwalks connecting these camps which offers not only convenience but truly exceptional access to the peninsula’s wetlands, bird watching and sunsets.

Our site had 50-Amp electric and city water but no sewer so we towed to the dump station once a week. Traffic through the campground was generally light, noise was very low and the people were friendly. Pads were white sand and crushed coral so we spent a fair amount of time vacuuming the Airstream.

There wasn’t a single location in these campgrounds that wasn’t far from one water feature or another – I estimate our site was hundred yards (182 m) from the gulf-side beach and a quarter mile (.4 km) from the bay side.

Trees were sparse making satellite reception a snap. Cell service was poor but still acceptable when combined with our booster. The entire Peninsula sits at the awkward border between the Eastern and Central time zones so cell-phones often randomly toggled between times. At the time we visited there was no WiFi.

The campsite had wonderful hot showers and very good laundry but as always no change machine and no quarters at the entrance. As with the other parks we visited the gate was closed at night and operated with a rotating code supplied to you at check in time.

Mountain Biking

There was very little choice in mountain biking here of course so I mostly took Cape San Blas Rd from the park south and back again every day at lunch time.

You can ride on the beach but we weren’t ‘rockin fat bikes so the effort was fruitless.

I did speak to one man who rode a 27+ all the way from Sandy Pines to the northern tip of the preserve and he gave it a very good review.

Wildlife

This park was bursting with incredible wildlife as the northern half is a wildlife refuge, and therefore prohibits most human activity except with a pass. We routinely saw deer, bird, crabs, turtles, otters and even dolphins.

Snorkeling

My silent partner and I snorkeled in several locations around the park and we had the best success at Eagle Harbor which is immediately before the campgrounds. The water was shallow and warm(ish) considering it was winter. We did need our 3mm wet-suits including head protection. In these adventures we saw scallops, jelly fish, sponges, conch shell and a variety of fish.

Below is a some video of a small inlet close to where we snorkeled.

Beachcombing

T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park offered endless walks along the beaches and boardwalks. We enjoyed a particularly intense storm which stirred up quite a bit of sea-life onto the beach including Portuguese man o’ war which the local crabs feasted on.

There was also somewhat of an unspoken tradition around sunset where everyone migrated to the gulf side to watch our sun disappear.

Surrounding Activities

We barely scratched the surface on activities at this park and surrounding area. I mean, we didn’t even manage to break out the kayak. This simply means we need to go back!

We also made several runs into town (keeping in mind Port St. Joe is over an hour investment round trip) where we bought some snorkeling gear, filled propane, ate some good breakfasts and found some good pizza. The locals were friendly and the traffic light.

What Could Go Wrong

Time-zones

As I mentioned earlier this area sits exactly on the border between the Eastern and Central Time zones, which makes the cell phones crazy. While mostly just annoyance we did get nailed one morning when we drove into Port St. Joe and found all the restaurants had just switched to serving lunch. Some helpful folks directed us north by 15 minutes where ‘suddenly’ it was an hour earlier and breakfast was aplenty.

Cell Coverage

Cell reception here was… odd. Signal strength was wildly variable and our MiFi absolutely refused to respond to the booster. I wound up using the iPhone tether instead which got me through but there were times where even the booted signal was poor. I suspect this might be because the towers are on the mainland making for some strange water/signal interaction. If you depend on the internet for your living like I do I would ensure you have more than one cellular device, the iPhone rescued us in this situation.

Recommendation

I’ve mentioned the “it” factor in previous posts, and boy does T. H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park have “it”. Endless sugar-white beaches, snorkeling, biking and bird-watching kept us busy for days. The park rangers were incredibly friendly and everybody was easy going. Guests not interested in camping can even rent cabins.

To this day we talk about our visit and we absolutely can’t wait to go back. If that’s not the sign of someplace with a soul, I don’t know what is. I give this park two thumbs and two big toes up. If you have the time and means absolutely put this park on your to-do list.

Episode 1.2 Now Available

Fred & Emily

Evening, Peeps.

Episode 1.2 is now available on our YouTube channel. Settle in and enjoy a Sunday ride with us at the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve.

LINE-X

Emily

Evening, Peeps.

Today I have a brief mention about LINE-X.

When I ordered my truck, Dee, I went down the options list like a kid in a candy store and checked every box they had. The only boxes I couldn’t check were ones that conflicted with other options…and when the sales manager took my pen away. Among these choices are the LINE-X spray-in bed liner. For those of you not in the know, LINE-X is a plastic-like resin you can have sprayed on your truck bed to protect it from damage.

LINE-X’s primary advantage is supposed to be that it doesn’t trap water like the drop-in liners do, and it’s supposed to be pretty indestructible. This stuff has such a good reputation people cover their entire vehicle with it.

I mention this because this is what my LINE-X looked like not long after I bought the truck.

That little beauty was caused by a plastic dog fence that, evidently, rubbed on the bed during a tow in Florida. Not, you know, by bricks, steel rods, boulders….piles of aggregate dramatically dropped in by a front-end loader.

As annoying as this was, I also noticed another blemish.

That discoloration was caused by running our generator with the exhaust too close to the sides. I kind of suck, I wasn’t paying attention.

Repair

Monday Dee’s going in for a new coat of LINE-X. After showing this stuff to the local Chevy Dealer they seemed fairly unimpressed. Considering Dee is under warranty I wasn’t entirely sure what they’d say. Admittedly baking your LINE-X with a generator is not cool (literally), so I could see that being outside the warranty parameters.

But suffering under the ravages of a vicious small plastic dog fence? Now that’s just low.

The verdict? The dealer saw their way clear to re-doing the LINE-X with a new coat for the low low price of $375. That’s down from the sticker-shock price of $450. Draw your own conclusions.

Recommendation

After self-actualizing for a while my conclusion is I still give LINE-X a thumbs up. Our truck has done a hell of a lot of towing in her short life and already carried bursting bed-loads of stuff all over the country including a 300lb (136 kg) generator, leaking gasoline cans, bikes, toolboxes, compressors and an embarrassing array of RV accouterments. With that kind of duty, I suppose one scratch isn’t too bad. Considering the LINE-X got baked by a generator, that’s really not bad.

That said, anyone will tell you I don’t trust anything. I feel like these days, even very expensive stuff is cheap. That’s why even though I have LINE-X in my pickup bed I doubled down with rubber anti-fatigue mats from Costco before our trip. They’ve looked like this for over two years.

20180203_170030450_iOS

I suspect this might be why I have damage on the sides of the bed but not the bottom. I stand by my choice. LINE-X – yes. Additional rubber mats – yes.

Six Seconds for YouTube

Fred, Emily & Anna

Evening, Peeps.

We’re exhausted.

Today was the culmination of an astonishing amount of work to make just six seconds of video for our YouTube introduction sequence. This is more or less Emily’s fault as she insisted on an aerial opening which triggered a quixotic quest to find someplace in Arizona that actually allowed drones.

Alas, we found the ideal location on some Arizona trust land north of Phoenix.

OK, the site took some prep but seriously, it was incredible. Tall saguaros, beautiful scenery – baby blue skies. We really couldn’t have had a better day for the shoot. Look at this place!

Flag Aerial

Flag Aerial performed all the videography. These guys are incredibly friendly and clearly excited to work their craft. Meet the team, Scott and Gary respectively.

Who wouldn’t be excited, they get to play with this stuff for a living.

The Shoot

We accumulated an immense amount of aerial video today, which we will feed into future episodes. But the primary objective for this shoot was our introduction sequence. Getting right down to business we begin with a creative meeting.

Then lots of very serious posing.

…in which Emily bossed everyone around.

For future episodes we also shot some very impressive riding scenes.

Our Resident Photographer

All the photos in today’s blog were taken by Fred’s better half, Anna. She has her degree in photography and that’s no accident, her work on this shoot was jaw-dropping.

You don’t need to fly to take great pictures.

We will bring you more of her incredible work in future blogs!

Wrap-Up

Despite interference from a local radio tower and a little dehydration, shooting only took an hour or so. We finished up with a selfie from on-high!

If you need drone video services we definitely recommend Flag Aerial!

And once again, feel free to visit our YouTube channel for our premier episode.

Airstreaming Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park

Emily & Silent Partner

Evening, Peeps.

In our continuing series on places we’ve stayed in the Airstream, I am proud to introduce Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park.

Booking

Florida’s state park system portal can be used for searching availability and making reservations here. If your duration is longer than a few days try searching only for one or two days as you may need to make several reservations at the same park across several sites. This is the unfortunate consequence of people mostly making reservations for the weekend.

*My recommendations to the park manager on how to make their software better were met with polite “aren’t you cute” smiles, and little else.

Amenities & Activities

Acreage-wise this park seemed small, likely even smaller than Florida Caverns State Park though I couldn’t prove it if so pressed. There’s essentially only one large loop through the camping portion of the park so you’re exposed to quite a bit of traffic no matter where you’re located. The pads are clean, large and thankfully covered with large aggregate so keeping things clean is a snap. We had water and power but no sewer so we had to tow to the dump station once a week. Noise was average though the near-by Air Force base sometimes created quite a bit of aircraft “booms”, maybe from a system they use to clear birds from the runway?

This entire park is very heavily wooded leading to the dreaded satellite reception problem so we had to tweak the trailer a number of times to eek out a signal. There weren’t any sites close to the water and even if there were the foliage is so thick you can barely see Rocky Bayou. Cell reception was very good.

The campsite had showers and laundry, though these services were shut down one day due to plumbing problems and then for another couple days due to a freeze warning. As with all the Florida state parks the laundry was coin operated but no change machine was available.

Mountain Biking

There were a number of trails to enjoy including the Rocky Bayou Trail and Sand Pine Trails on the east side and the Red Cedar trail on the west side by the boat ramps. These trails are very short but well groomed, I was able to make a light mountain bike ride out of these trails by stitching them together into a 1 to 1 and 1/2 hour ride.

I tried to catch the Timberlake East Loop Trail at Eglin Air Force Base while we were there but was severely punished for not bothering to read the write-up on MTB Project, as you must buy a pass – which I did not….pathos.

Kayaking

Anyway, there is quite a bit of Rocky Bayou access on the boat-ramp side so we used that area to launch our kayak while dodging the “don’t get eaten by an alligator” signs.

These excursions out into the bayou reminded us why kayaks are called divorce boats.

Surrounding Activities

This park is near Niceville, FL which was, well – nice. We ate some very nice food on the water.

Over at Henderson Beach State Park (take care this involves a toll road) you can enjoy the utter magnificence of the panhandle’s sugar-white beaches.

Even in January it was awesome.

What Could Go Wrong?

Ticks Ticks and More Ticks

Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park hand-delivered every tick in Florida directly to our dogs and us. We think it might be because it was nymph season (aka seed tick). We already give our dogs NexGard Chewables so the ticks, if left undiscovered, did die but there’s just something indescribably creepy about finding them on you and your dogs.

We wound up shaving the pups down to a very short cut especially on the face and ears to make discovering them after every walk easier.

Satellite vs. Trees

Same issue here as Florida Caverns State Park – the foliage is so thick it took quite a bit of tweaking the trailer to get a signal. If you have internet through your cell provider, and enough data usage, coverage was excellent and we utilized Amazon Prime Video extensively.

Recommendation

Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park was entirely suitable as a place to stay. Services were fine, we found sustenance at local restaurants and even washed the truck a time or two. That said, there wasn’t for us any “it” factor. I would give a mild thumbs up if you find yourself staying there. Henderson Beach State Park is of course, much more glamorous but reservations extended into the next century, which drove us to this park in the first place. I also didn’t especially appreciate the toll road to get out to the beach.

Airstreaming Florida Caverns State Park

Emily & Silent Partner

Evening, Peeps.

In our ~~continuing series~~ premier series on places we’ve stayed in the Airstream, I am proud to introduce Florida Caverns State Park.

Booking

If I haven’t mentioned in the past, my partner and I lived in the Airstream for 15 months full-time. In the winter of 2016 we roamed all over Florida while the rest of the country froze to death. Florida has an exceptional state park system and a matching portal for searching availability and making reservations.

We used this site extensively as our planning rarely projected more than a few weeks into the future. Certainly southern Florida is more popular with the snow-birds so we stuck entirely to the northern parts. This suited us just fine – northern Florida has rolling hills, gorgeous mixed softwood/hardwood forests and not half-bad mountain biking.

* A small note on the Florida reservation system. Park attendants cannot change reservations – you have to do that online yourself. This worked against us, which I will mention in another entry in our series in the future.

Amenities & Activities

Florida Caverns State Park is small as parks go but we found it to be unpretentious, slow, quiet and exactly to out liking. There were a good mixture of spots from small car-camping areas all the way to large motorhome pads.

The campsite had showers and laundry, though no change dispenser and no change was available at the front gate. One of the washing machines was also intermittently reliable as the humid Florida air had done its worst.

There were three solidly enjoyable if short ~~hiking~~ (pfft) mountain biking paths to choose from as well as kayaking on the Chipola River and swimming in the Blue Hole Spring when alligators aren’t around.

Also the campsites are deeply wooded, as shown in the feature image above. This made satellite reception possible but dodgy and highly dependent on which site we were in. On the up side cell reception (which is how I get internet for work) was excellent.

Mountain Biking

Now you know, Fred and I blog because we love mountain biking. As it happens, my (silent) partner likes mountain biking also. Much of Florida Caverns State Park looks like this.

In my way of thinking, this is a good thing. Take some time and allow your gaze to lazily wander to the blue blaze on the side of those trees on the right. That’s marking a trail (Chipola River Trail). Indeed, this trail run through a swamp!

The Chipola River Trail was overrun much of the time by its namesake, the Chipola River. The flooding wasn’t too deep though, only a couple of inches (10 cm), and it made for one of the most unique mountain biking experiences I’ve ever had. Yeah, I really rode that – repeatedly!

And even though I’m sure riding my bike through flood-plain swampland led her into an existential crisis, I rode three major trails – the Sinkhole Trail, the Chipola River Trail and the Fence Line Trail.

The Fence Line Trail was the longest of the three though none are especially rigorous. The zen I achieved on these rides was the unworldly experience of the swamp and the panoply of living things it offered. Honestly – this is one ride that sticks with me as the most unique ride I have ever done.

Park Architecture

Buildings in the park were constructed in the 1940’s using natural stone quarried on-site. As many of you know, Florida is what remains of an ancient sea bed so the “stone” here is limestone riddled with ancient shells. It gives the entire park a singularly unique texture.

The Big Attraction

Ok, some sharp-eyed readers may have noticed this is Florida Caverns State Park. This is because this park contains the only open-air cave in northern Florida open to the public, or so they say.

For a fee, you too can enjoy an hour-long tour through the caves. The tour starts with an ominous descent into the underworld.

There are a remarkable number of rooms.

There is also a non-trivial amount of crouching involved in this tour.

This cave is still “living” indicating that the formations are growing even now.

The final room is really incredible and beautifully lit.

What Could Go Wrong?

Some of the more memorable and ultimately funny parts of RVing, especially full-time, are the things that go wrong. Below is a chronicle of what that park did to the Airstream.

Mold

Our stay at Florida Caverns State Park was our first park in Florida. The humidity there destroyed us, or more like, destroyed the Airstream. With the A/C running in the trailer virtual rivers formed on the windows and interior aluminum skin.

Though an annoyance for the most part this moisture ultimately led to a pretty severe mold problem under the mattress of all places. I think it’s because our bed is directly over the rear storage hatch. Just enough outside air seemed to pull through the hatch and flash condense…. right under the mattress.

I don’t recall what drew my attention to the issue but it taught us an invaluable lesson:

Put dehumidifiers in your trailer!

We placed one small dehumidifier directly in the compartment under the bed and another in the rear hatch area. I also placed a plastic barrier under the mattress. This seemed to solve the mold problem for the remaining duration of our stay in Florida.

Satellite vs. Trees

We have a Winegard TRAV’LER RV Satellite Antenna on our Airstream. It’s an excellent system but it simply couldn’t compete with the thick northern Florida forest. We had somewhat spotty reception the entire time we were there.

One trick we did learn is the SD channels seemed to make it through even when their HD counterparts did not, so configuring the satellite receiving not to remove “SD Duplicates” worked very well.

Plumbing

While we were staying at the park I found a leak in the bathroom one day. Carefully tracking its origin I found that the pressure reducer for the city water supply was dripping very slowly but steadily behind the bathroom vanity. In an incredible stroke of luck, I was able to reach under the sink service panel and tighten the fixture by hand. Considering this is nearly the only readily serviceable area I could reach in the the bathroom I still can’t believe our bad, then really good luck.

Airstream Build Quality

Though I dearly love my Airstream, it isn’t without its quality issues. One of the more curious problems that seems to plague my coach is popped rivets. Lots of them.

In this particular case, I lazily closed the front door one morning and watched in slow-motion shock as the chrome belt-line molding popped off and landed at my feet. Examination of the offending and very sad piece revealed four ruptured rivets.

Of course this was demoralizing but in an incredible stroke of luck I had very recently watched a video on my favorite YouTube channel by the wonderful folks at Long Long Honeymoon on repairing Airstream chrome trim.

I’m pretty handy so I got the gasket adhesive described in that video at a local auto parts store and restored the molding to like new myself. To accomplish this I already had a basic rivet kit from Ace Hardware, a cordless drill and a 1/8″ bit to remove the old plugs.

Recommendation

Over the time my partner and I have traveled in the Airstream we’ve noticed a recurring pattern: Some places have an “it”. This “it” is an intangible – you just begin to feel, for one reason or another, there’s a soul making this particular spot special.

Examples of other places where we felt “it” – Crested Butte, CO and Moab, UT.

Florida Caverns State Park definitely has “it”. Maybe because of the charm of small town of Marianna? Maybe because of the unique combinations of things to do in this park? Who knows. Whatever the reason I give Florida Caverns State Park a giant thumbs up. If you have the means I highly recommend you stop by and stay a while.

* We learned after leaving this park some folks we met there had to leave due to flooding. Also the caves flood from time-to-time. My only advice on this topic is to call the park and find out conditions before booking.

Lifeproof Phone Case and Quad Lock Bike Kit

Fred

Whenever we travel to mountain bike destinations, we like to plan out our rides using MTB Project or Strava. It becomes quite frustrating when you need to stop and pull out your phone at a trail intersection to determine which direction to go.

To solve this problem, I picked up the Quad Lock Universal Bike Kit which includes the stem mount, o-rings, zip ties and the universal mount (on the Lifeproof case pictured above). I had picked up the Lifeproof case about 3 years ago when I got my iPhone 6. Instead of getting a new case it made sense to pick up the universal kit and just stick it on the back.

Lifeproof FRĒ

The case is expensive but it does a great job of keeping the phone contaminant free on our dusty rides in the desert. When the occasional rain does come, the phone is well protected from water. I like the case since it’s slim and you can still fit your phone in your pants pocket. The phone has been dropped several times over the years and I have yet to damage it.

The only issues I have come across is using the speaker phone. Some people have trouble hearing me so it forces me to speak close to the microphone. I also had a few issues with the touch screen (apps I didn’t select would start up) and sometimes the finger print reader doesn’t work.

QUAD Lock Bike Kit

As you can tell from the video above, the system has been working well. All of that bouncing around and the phone stays put. When I first used the system I was paranoid and kept looking down to make sure the phone was still on the bike. When I finished the ride, I had forgotten how to get the phone free and I couldn’t pull it off (to unlock the device, you just need to push down on the blue ring).

The only concern I have is if one of the o-rings fails and my phone flies off the stem. I’m sure the phone case would hold up, as long as I can find the phone. If that were to happen we would use the Find Friends app to locate the phone.

I try not to ride crazy, but every now and then there is the opportunity to endo and break the phone. I guess that is a good reason to get insurance.

Recommendation

I would give both the Quad Lock bike mount and Lifeproof phone case a thumbs up. Eventually I will upgrade my phone and I will need a new case so maybe I’ll try the Quad Lock case and give it a review.

2016 GMC 2500 HD Denali 2018 Navigation System Map Update

Emily

Evening, Peeps.

In our ‘about’ page we mention this blog concerns Airstreams, mountain bikes and the things we buy to feed our habit.

To that end, meet Dee. She’s my 2016 2500 HD Denali.

I like Dee.

A lot.

I bought Dee to tow the Airstream and she does a really good job at that. Witness her might in the Rocky Mountains.

See that white stuff on the mountains back there? We were up there!

Ahem – anyway, I digress.

So, Dee…

Considering that this is one of the best machines I have owned in my entire life, and that I paid somewhere around $80,000 for it, I was somewhat perplexed at the slapdash way she updates her maps.

Consider this:

Are the maps updated through that fancy built-in WiFi? No.

Are the maps updated through the fancy always on boosted cell connectivity and OnStar? No.

Are they updated with a cheesy USB stick shipped via snail-mail? Yes.

You open this very technical package and slap this little pinky into an available USB slot in the rig.

After $160 out of my pocket the first attempt at this the stick was corrupt. This triggered a month of RMAs, phone calls, lost shipments and utter ineptitude on the part of the folks who ship this silly thing.

Nonetheless, I finally received another USB stick today and alas, success!

Recommendation

I give this map update strategy a thumbs down. GMC, if you’re listening – let us update this thing over the internet, you’re so close already!

Mountain Biking the Black Canyon Trail

Fred & Emily

Good evening, Peeps.

Today Fred and I grabbed a quick ride out at the south end of the Black Canyon Trail under an unbelievable blaze of Arizona January glory. This trail forms part of an extensive system linking Southern Arizona to Northern Arizona through a winding and wicked collection of technical climbs, exposures and switchbacks.

You’ll notice as you roll your rig over the nuclear-blasted moonstone the trail changes personality quickly, shifting from green to black and green again faster than you can say “derailleur”.

Our particular ride started at the Emery Henderson Trailhead just north of Phoenix.

Did I mention the mindbogglingly good weather? This trailhead, like many in the Phoenix area, offers little in the way of services other than a small pagoda for the summer months and not too many skeletons of past warriors.

Today was in the 50s F (13° C) so we weren’t too worried about imminent death.

Dodging the teddy bear cholla (which do not abide interlopers at all well) we dropped in.

Fred and I made our way North.

We practiced our bike handling skills at the top of golf-ball-hill, as we call it, owing to the rather strange occurrence of seemingly natural volcanic golf-balls strategically placed on the trail for maximum neck-snapping danger.

Later we stopped to admire the state tree.

I kid, the official Arizona state tree is the Palo Verde, which is Spanish for “green stick” but Saguaros ought to be, they are singularly unique desert creations I just adore.

Today was a short ride so we made a lollipop out of the east and west loops.

Finally stopping for an epic desert view before heading back.

All told today we put on a paltry 10mi (16 km) and 800ft (243 m) but the zen we enjoy out here isn’t about the distance. It’s about the solitude, incredible views and making thanks we can mountain bike here as a matter of routine!

Afterthoughts

In all seriousness this trail is a big deal. As with any adventure in Arizona, bring plenty of water (we have over 100oz (3 L) each), even in the winter, and take precautions to keep your fellow riders informed about your location in case you get separated. Fred and I use the iPhone Find my Friends feature after a few separation incidents.

This trail shifts personality quickly so we recommend it for experienced riders and plenty of grip on those tires. We both run Maxxis Minions to keep the rubber side down, tubeless for plenty of puncture tolerance and lower pressures (29 psi/2 bar) for the loose stuff that characterizes this trail.

Mountain Biking the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve

Emily

Afternoon, peeps.

Today we caught a ride at the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve. one of my favorite rides in the valley.

While enjoying this superb trail system we observed an unusual event – a liquid substance began falling from the sky.

Further analysis reveals this substance to be water.

Consulting residents on local legends suggests this phenomenon is called rain. I have my doubts but I know what I saw.

As for the ride, my favorite loop is the Sonoran Desert Loop. Somewhere around 13mi (21km) and 1100ft (335m) of climbing, the ride is a mixture of easy greens and moderate blues.

This ride makes for unbelievable views of of the desert and offers a friendly cast of hikers and other mountain bikers, somewhat of a rarity here.

On days when it doesn’t rain here (aka almost all the time) you can catch some pretty amazing views of the local hot air balloons.