Scottsdale and Mount Everest

It has been a couple of years since I've gone mountain biking at Scottsdale, and I am glad we decided to return because the last trip there left a bad taste in my mouth. The last ride at Scottsdale we ended up with 3 flat tires – mine being the last. And of course, the nail in the coffin was that we were out of tubes. Luckily it was only a slow leak, so I thought I would be able to pump it up a few times to get me out of the trail and back to Ivan’s house. As I was taking the pump off the valve, and amidst a story, I forgot to release the pump lock and managed to rip the valve straight off the tube. Stupid Bugger! Lesson learned – pay attention to what you are doing. So much for getting back to Ivan’s house easily.

So here I was last night at Scottsdale with 2 extra tubes and ready to rock. I was pretty excited as this was going to be my first ride with my friend Adam, who in the past has summited Mount Everest. However, he showed up late by an hour and half and one sunset. By then we were starting to work our way back out of the trail. Oh well, he still managed to get 30 minutes of riding in.

The trail has several entrances, but the easiest to find is the parking lot at the Scottsdale Farm (where they filmed part of the movie, The Recruit starring Colin Farrell and Al Pacino). The Scottsdale ride is part of the Bruce Trail, and also goes through Silver Creek Conservation Area. The trail was primarily designed for hikers, so it gets quite technical in places with rocks strategically placed on steep climbs, downhills and corners.

There is also a long downhill section of steps and rocks that I love and is a bit tricky to handle.


Here I just managed to get a picture of Keith before biting it pretty good.

No flat tires but still one broken chain. But that is mountain biking for you....got to love it!

Andrew Nause