mazatlan, mexico bikeless vacation(almost)

so it was supposed to be a week off the bike and just a nice vacation with the wifey. well, i tried. the pics here are in reverse order of our trip (my bad) , but i give a quick story first.---- Day1 flew to phoenix to visit a good friend of mine and his family. we start our trip to flagstaff immediately. -----day2 trip to the grand canyon(yeah its large)---- day 3 fly to masatlan, mexico relax and do nothing. ----day4 same old thang ---- day 5 uh oh, found a local bike shop and find out that mazatlan hosted the 2000 world cup xc race. ------ day 6 broke down and rented the bottom of the barrel mountain bike for 195 pesos a day(16 bucks). departed the resort for my first 6hr tour with my flattop plastic pedals , baggy shorts, and no helmet. checked out some of the locals single track which was awesome till i discovered some toilet paper. then some more toilet paper. then some piles of human crap. then more crap. it was land mine city and my handling skills came in handy. so gross. twenty feet later i come across the reason. a construction site where i guess they cut costs on a porto potty. ( no pics of this trail). next i hooked together a nice road loop. ------day 7 Today i found the world cup coarse and did a few laps , followed by a dirt road tour. ----day 8 after a nice boat tour, sarah broke down and got a bike too and gave her a tour of the downtown and road to the lighthouse mountain. ---- day 9 gave sarah a best of the best tour of trail , roads , and dirt roads. I was able to google earth all the dirt roads around and connect little villages. i would write down some coordinates before we leave and check once once in a while on my old school gps. so here some pics above, sarah ripping around one of the villages we found

endless dirt roads. dejesus would be in dirt road heaven

badass pic , i thought

this is a funny shot. we road up 150 vertical dirt road, the hiked up another 150 of steps while carrying these tanker bikes. so of coarse i thought it would be a fun idea to ride down. the fork will never be the same. i felt bad renting a bike while the owner had no idea what the bike was in for . if you ever do visit mazatlan, visit kellys bikes on the main drag. if the owner , fernando kelly, is around and his knee is better, he'll give ya a tour.

seeing how an entry bike holds up to seven feet to flat

pretending i know how to wall ride

showing up the cliff diver. (in back ground). no helmet needed here because if you fall to the left your done either way. funny part was the street vendors were yelling ," otra, otra" which really means other, but in this case they wanted to see another. they really just wanted to see the tourist gringo plunge to the boulders. who wouldnt?

hardest part of the world cup course. it was nice that the caution tape was even up in places after nine years. at least i knew i was still on track. fun little loop

took a shot of this thinking about the trials unicycle guy. he would be all over this railing

ever blog needs the on the fly self taken shot. here it is . the first and last one you'll ever see

i skipped this dirt road for obvious reasons

here was the first of many flat tire breaks. lots of thorns. check out that rig. the cog on the pulley was so big it could second as a weapon.

i think i see a line here. just adjust your rebound slower for the landing

snow bowl in flagstaff

somewhere in sedona. cool place