Fat Tire 2009

We had yet another great adventure! We wish we had taken more pictures, so this trip won't be represented as well as we would have liked. Besides, we were too busy having fun to slow down and take many! Enough with the mumbo jumbo and on with the event!

Fat Tire is a 65 mile bike ride from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, that the Arizona Xterra Club supports every year. We usually try and make it, and since I don't own an Xterra anymore the club was nice enough to let me tag along.

Most years we head straight up to Flagstaff on a Friday and meet everyone for our first night of camp. This year Preston and I decided we would get on the trails a couple days prior to the event. We spent the week prior plotting out a route, ensuring that it would be higher in elevation and link us to where we needed to be on Friday to meet the rest of the group for the event. So, I left Tucson after work on Wednesday, arrived in Phoenix around 7:00pm, went grocery shopping and we hit the road at 9:00pm. We arrived at the trail head at around 10:30pm just south of Payson. The trail proved hard to find, but once we did it was found to be loose, rocky, narrow and overgrown. The trucks were then decorated by some nice Arizona pin striping. As we navigated all of this we ran into cattle, and since the road was so narrow we ended up unintentionally herding them all the way up the mountain. We finally arrived at our camp at 12:30am, set camp and didn't fall asleep until 2:00am.

Taking a brief rest at the first trail head.

Woke up the next morning to enjoy this view. We could actually see Phoenix the previous evening.
Trucks all packed up and ready to head off to our next destination.

On the way back down the mountain. You can see how overgrown it was in some spots.

Preston leading the way.

After our descent we arrived in Payson to gas up.

Preston felt it especially important to wash off the center section of my hood.

Once Preston had finished cleaning my truck we hit the road again toward our next camp north of Payson. This would prove to be my favorite spot during the entire trip. Elevation was nice and high and it was truly a pleasure to be immersed in Pine.

We saw this surviroman-esq shelter.

I was playing around on this log as Preston drove around looking for a spot to camp. As Preston was doing this he ran into someones camp and their dog. The dog was ferocious and I think it would have ripped somebodies face off had we continued any further.

A nice overlook from the end of the rim.

You can see the top of my head an arm in this one!

View from our camp.

The sun went down eventually.

The goldfish were pivotal during this trip.

The next morning we headed toward Flagstaff for lunch. We had sandwiches and beer at a local tavern and hit the road to meet up with everyone in the mountains for the event. We were one of the first to arrive and ended up reuniting with friends we hadn't seen for 2 years. It was certainly a great evening with amazing company, and we didn't get any pictures!

Preston and I woke up at 4:30am the next morning as we were put in charge of placing signs to reroute the race away from a nearby fire. It was brutal to be up that early from the previous evening.

We successfully got all the signs placed and no bikers were lost, so we popped open a bottle of Vino at 8:00am and began the festivities!

Why we were there...

We manned this gate to ensure cattle did not escape.

After the race was over we all headed into camp to enjoy fajitas and free Fat Tire beer! The conversation was great around the campfire that evening and we had a great time with all the free beer!

On our way back down to Flagstaff we stopped in this little church.

The reunion tour (Preston, Travis and family, Dan and Jessica and I) decided to stop in Flagstaff for some delicious pizza at Nimarcos, take the scenic drive through Sedona and then on home. It was great seeing all the old faces again and I feel fortunate having met up with them again. As a result of this, we have begun to plan bigger and better adventures. Check back for our trip to Southwestern Utah in September! By the way, everyone must blame Preston for not taking enough pictures!

Jason