Viva Las Vegas!

Russ and I took a rare 4 day weekend together and headed to Vegas (Yea!) and I was able to fit some biking in while we were there. I looked up Bicycling.com's recommendations for tours in Las Vegas and made a reservation online with McGhie's Ski, Bike, and Board for a mountain bike ride a few days before we were scheduled to leave Michigan. Within an hour a bike tour guide, Amy Farnsworth, called me to check and see what kind of ride we were looking for. I gave her some info on Russ and I and we were set to ride on Saturday. As luck would have it, it rained Saturday, but Amy was very accomodating and we rescheduled for Sunday. 

Amy, Tour Guide Extraordinaire

Amy picked us up from our hotel and took us out to their rental shop which is conveniently located by the Blue Diamond trailhead. This was the first time I had left the strip and it was nice to see the mountains and terrain of Nevada on the drive there. It was a nice break after all the insanity on the strip! Chris Tuma was in the shop and had our bikes ready for us and told us his fascinating theory of the "spirograph". He also had homemade espresso and homemade bread ready for us to eat. Talk about some great hospitality!

Chris Tuma, Happy Guy

The weather was better than on Saturday, but it was very windy, with gusts of about 30 mph at least. In the mountains where we were there wasn't a lot of shelter from the wind, like we have in the woods here. It was also a tad colder than I had anticipated, around high 50's low 60's and all I had was a short sleeve jersey and arm warmers. As we were getting on our bikes and ready to head out, I shivered and wondered if I would warm up enough on the ride. Amy then literally offered the shirt off her back, her base layer, to me. I accepted it gratefully, and it made a huge difference since the wind wasn't cutting through my clothes so much.

Finally we were ready and we headed out. It took a few minutes for me to get used to the bike, and the trail felt really soft and unstable to me. I struggled a little up the first hill getting used to the trail, the bike, and the conditions. Amy did a great job of prepping us as we came across some obstacles and coached us right through them. There was a large rock, about 4 feet tall that we stopped at and she showed us how to ride over it. The old fear started to creep in as I wondered if I could really do it. I was already feeling shaky on this new terrain, and that rock looked huge. Russ also encouraged me and told me I could do it. After watching them both go over it, I went for it. I know that once you go, you have to commit and can't change your mind. I kept up my speed and pretty much just rolled over it like Amy said I would. With a smile on my face I was ready to see what else was out there.

There were a few areas where we were very exposed to the wind, and as I came up a hill, the wind rushed down it and almost pushed me off of my bike. I waited at the top of the hill for Russ and Amy for a few minutes and the wind was just insane. Russ was struggling and I asked him if he was ok- he said was having problems with the wind because he has holes in his eardrums and the pain of the wind in his ears was making him nauseous. Super Amy to the rescue again- in her handy dandy backpack she had a first aid kit with some scissors and gauze and Russ packed his ears with the gauze to block the wind. We started riding again and Russ felt immediately better and started flying past us on sections-he just couldn't contain his happiness.

Eventually I got used to all of the rocks and remembered how to roll through, look ahead, and ride with soft arms. I was enjoying myself even though we were often fighting through some wind, but Amy took us through the headwind first so that we could have a tailwind on the way back. She promised us the work would be worth it as she was going to take us on some of her favorite trails, and that we would even forget about the wind by the time we were done.  We soon came up on them, and they were hard packed dirt that just flowed through the desert. It was a blast! We came up on some roller's and some technical downhills with larger rocks, and I was thrilled that I went through them without a hitch. Amy was a fantastic coach, and did a lot to help my confidence on the bike. We finished up our ride and headed back to the shop. We were out about two hours. Between the wind, and a nagging naseous feeling I had in my own stomach, I was ready to be back. Russ said he could have rode all day.

Back in the shop we were again greeted with gatorade, espresso, and homemade bread by a smiling Chris. A 12 year old volunteer who likes to hang around the shop took our bikes and I watched him ride my bike up the 5 cement steps to the shop. Impressive. I took some gatorade, but didn't feel I could eat anything. Amy took us back to our hotel, after stopping by the main McGhies shop, which was awesome, but I was feeling increasingly worse. Turns out I had a stomach virus, and my daughter was struggling with the same thing back at home with Heather, her Godmother who was watching our kids for us. Last day in Vegas was not a whole lotta fun, but I was at least able to fly home ok.

I think it goes a long way to say that I was able to have a great time on my bike despite high winds, and coming down with a pretty nasty virus. It was absolutely beautiful there, which you can see in the pictures. Hard to not enjoy that! Amy also did everything she could to make sure we had fun and that we were taken care of. She is a great human being (as well as photographer, she took all of these pictures!) and I am happy to have made another cycling friend in a new town. The whole experience with McGhie's was seamless, and made getting out to ride on vacation so easy. I will definitely be looking them up again on our next trip out to Vegas! Hopefully next time I will be a little more lucky in weather, health, and in the casinos.


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