TRIP RECAP
Day 1:
Flew out Wednesday on United direct to Phoenix out of EWR at 7am. Brutal, but gets you in at 9:30 local time, get a car, lunch, drive 2 hrs to Sedona, rent bikes, and you are riding that afternoon. Fortunately I live close enough to the airport that I can forget my wallet and do an extra round trip to the airport and still make the flight. That didn't happen, I'm just saying it's possible.
Rented from Over the Edge (
http://otesports.com/locations/sedona/). Two of us got Intense FS and two got Evil bikes. One of the Evil bikes needed a new cassette the first day and then had an issue with the rear hub the second day, both requiring 10 mile rides back to the shop for repairs. So not an A+ on rental fleet maintenance, but overall the bikes were pretty good. There was a shop down the road renting Yetis, Bike & Bean in Oak Creek has Santa Cruz, and Absolute Bikes also looked like a good shop.
Get the $12 trail map, well worth it.
First day we had a few hours before checking into our Air B&B so got changed and rode from the shop. Stayed in the zone close to town; we were all pretty wrecked but wanted to check out the rental bikes and get a few miles.
https://www.strava.com/activities/993351185
Really couldn't be more different than NNJ; dry, loose, dusty, lots of rock stairs, bouldery downhills, dry creek crossings, short punchy climbs, but also lots of flowy red dirt sections. Stunning scenery, absolutely stunning. This is the first photo I took:
View attachment 52357
I'm sure you could ride it on any bike, but for me, at 47 years and 200lbs, I was glad I had an all-mountain style bike. There is just no way I could have ridden all day on a hard tail.
Had dinner at Oak Creek Grill (
http://oakcreekgrill.com/). Decent food and beer, good service.
We had an Air B&B house off Brewer Road between Sedona and Oak Creek. 3 BR (two full, one room with two twins), hot tub, great for six people. PM me for details if you're interested.
Stocked up at the Safeway (one stop shop for food, beer, liquor) but there is also a Whole Foods and a Natural Grocer on 89A if you go that way.
Day 2:
https://www.strava.com/activities/994861179
Best trails: Broken Arrow, Submarine Rock, Little Horse, Slim Shady, Templeton.
Ice coffee and snacks at Bike & Bean in Oak Creek.
Good spot to cool off in Oak Creek on Templeton below the switchbacks. Rare photo of Alan Verdun not on his bike:
View attachment 52360
Had dinner at Pisa Lisa (
http://pisalisa.com/), highly recommend.
Day 3:
https://www.strava.com/activities/995986557
Best trails: Teacup, Andante, Chuck Wagon (CCW).
View attachment 52362
View attachment 52359
Didn't mean to end up in the tourist zone, but ate at Open Range Grill, not recommended.
Day 4:
https://www.strava.com/activities/997513691
Had to see what all the fuss was about so we parked at Bike & Bean and headed up to HiLine. Can't recommend parking in that lot, as there is a big push to enforce NO TRAILHEAD PARKING, apparently a recent development.
HiLine is about 1.5mi up with rocks and a good deal of exposure, then a 1 mi flowy/slickrock downhill, then a 1/4 mile of rocky chutes at 25-30 degree angles, then you flow out to the end. These don't really do it justice:
View attachment 52364
View attachment 52365
I walked a ton of it, but totally worth it for the views and experience. This was sketchy enough for me, so we didn't move on to Hog's Heaven or Hangover. We looped back to the car and called it a day.
Pretty good swimming spot at Grasshopper Point:
https://goo.gl/maps/QcM7UGDkeWN2
View attachment 52366
We returned the bikes and headed to the airport to catch the red eye back.
Totally amazing place, highly recommend.