A Mormon Lake Adventure

For many years, both solo and with a variety of family and friends, I've done one of my favorite bike rides:  from home to Mormon Lake Lodge, or vice versa.  The Mormon Lake settlement includes the rustic Lodge restaurant and saloon, small cabins and motel rooms to rent, a trailer village, a little store, horse rides, and lots of camping .

 

This photo is from a previous Adventure..friend Pat and the bear...another story!

 

 

There is more than one route; the one I choose is a gorgeous 25 mile ride through the forest on unimproved roads.  Mostly it's a reasonable, somewhat rolling ride.  There is one particularly challenging uphill that I've always had to walk more or less of.  I always think of one of Mom's Rules of Riding:  there's no shame in walking the bike. With that rule in place, she rode thousands of miles, so I always feel comfortable when I find myself in situations that require it be invoked. Or what, give up?  Turn around?  THAT'S not happenin'!!!

I had a three-day weekend from work in July, and solicited Ron's willing support to do a ride-hike-ride version this year. The Plan:  Thursday, ride out to Mormon Lake and meet Ron and the dogs there for camping.  Friday, hike Mormon Mountain, a pleasant 6 mile round trip, with more camping that night.  Saturday, ride back home.

Yep, that was best laid version of the plan.  More and more, I say "make a plan, see what happens!"

I rode out from home Thursday morning on my brand new Kona mountain bike, fresh off the boat from China and fitted just to me.

 

 

 I left early enough to arrive before the monsoon, which comes in after 11:00am during the season.  I arrived about 10:30, and called Ron to see where he was and make a decision about whether I should go to the campground or meet him at the Lodge, where I would be protected if the weather came in.  It was cloudy as I was talking to him, but my very insufficient personal weather radar did not detect anything imminent.  Until there was a crack of thunder.  I told Ron I'd meet him at the Lodge, and jumped on the bike for the final 3 miles.  Less than five minutes into the ride, the sky opened, and it proceeded to rain buckets.  I quickly became soaked-even my shoes filled.  Then to add some spice, it began to hail.  Fortunately not of a size to cause injury, but plenty of sting!  Nothing for it but to keep going.  I made it to the Lodge in record time.  I stayed outside for a bit, not wanting to go in dripping, but that quickly became too cold.  I went inside and discovered I wasn't the only bicyclist getting out of the rain.  There's a paved ride from Flagstaff that many road-bikers take, and one of them was inside waiting out the storm.  When the hostess came and offered me coffee or hot chocolate, I realized further that I wasn't the first dripping biker to come in! 

It kept raining, so when Ron came out we decided that rather than risk our old, leaky Walmart tent, we'd make modification #1 to the plan.   We rented one of the motel rooms that are part of the Lodge area. Rustic, small, clean, reasonably priced, and dog-friendly. 

 

There was a ramada with picnic tables, so we were able to enjoy our camp food.  That's Ron's enjoying face.  Maybe it was the food.

 

 

At bedtime, modification #2 became evident.  Ron discovered that his CPAP machine really did need that part he left at home.  He ended up with a not-very-restful night.

Next morning, after some discussion, we decided to hike, then go home for the machine part and make a decision from there.  The hike was beautiful, through a mixed forest of juniper, oak, pine and fir, mostly shady.  The dogs had a great time dashing about, sniffing and being doggish.

 

As we arrived back at the van, it started to sprinkle.  We drove the 45 minutes home and decided the likelihood of continuing rain was 100%.  Rather than go back out and spend the money on the motel again, we made modificaiton #3:  stay home for free and Ron could take me back out in the morning for the ride back.  These things get convoluted, don't they?  I'm pretty goal oriented, though, so driving back out so I could ride home made sense.  Which he did and I did.  The road conditions riding home indicated there had been a significant monsoon event, so we made the correct choice.  With only a few sprinkles, I made it home with mostly self-produced dampness. 

I liked this Adventure a lot.  The three days of activities challenged me physically in a very satisfactory way.  The several modifications challenged us mentally--very important as one closes in on their retirement years!!!!!