Today we hit the Hawes trail. A two hour XC loop in the Senora desert. Sounds hot and it was in comparison to the nippy climate of Bonny Scotland, it was nothing short of scorchio. 
As far as an average day in the desert goes, it was cool. It has been raining here the last few days which has hydrated the terrain and made it niiiiiice and grippy. 
There was a great bunch of us, loads of fun banter. One of the couples owned the local bike shop, Global Bikes. Nichole the owners wife was so cool, she rides the trails all the time, there is a mecca out there and really easy to get lost. As a cartographer, she took matters into her own hands and decided with the help of her trusty Garmin to map the trails. So, if you are ever in Phoenix and fancy a spin out, all you have to do is nip along to Global, see Mark and Nichole and grab a map! Happy days.
Riding in the desert was cool, it is very much alive with vegetation, cacti are 10 a penny and there are loads of other random shrubs of blooming greenery! It is rocky as hell, like something from a Flintstones film set and dry as bone. There are few big mountains, so the trails are fast and lightly undulating. An awesome stomping ground for winter training. Melissa kindly learnt me her 4X rig which was just perfect, the one chain ring enabled me to sprint down the trails and excuse myself from blasting up the uphills!! My uphill allergy didn't break out all day!! The pedals caused me problems tho, Melissa rides them super tight and I have a weak ankle, so struggle to unclip if they are not slack. I got my feet stuck in em a few times and ended up keeling over like a full scale weekend warrior...it was hilarious!! I also had my first encounter with a flippin cactus....I 'brushed' past one on the trail with my hand, it was pretty sore, like a being subjected to a session with an untrained acupuncture therapist, random, sharp and very unsatisfying!!
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