Yesterday I decided I was over my cold enough to go mountain biking.  So I went up to my usual spot up at the North Mountain Preserve area which sits here in the middle of Phoenix.  I had a great ride though I was still not at 100%.  I went on a few new trails but mostly my regulars seeing how I didn’t want to push myself too much.   It was 80 degrees and the sky was overcast so I decided to grab some pictures since the mountains weren’t too blown out.  I snapped the pictures in part of hopes to lure my lil sis down here sometime to visit me and go biking with me.  I don’t think these photos does the place justice so I’ll just have to go back and get better ones.

Anyways, when I went to leave I had loaded my bike up on the roof rack.  I’ve been using the rack that I had bought for Sean’s bike the past while.  I’m not sure why but I guess in part because it looks more stable and makes the bike not sit so high.  When I went to leave I felt a little bump as i drove forward.  Then I noticed the guy down on the end of the parking lot give me a funny look.  That’s when I realized I had forgotten to put my bike’s tire in the back of my jeep 😦

After running over my tire I took it to a local bike shop to see how bad it is.  I feared for the worst but hoped for the best seeing how I had spent several hundred on that rim the last time I had an accident 😦  When I got there and told them what had happened they were surprised at the shape the rim was in .  But it was in pretty bad shape still.  He told me they might be able to get it somewhat straight but told me most likely if they did fix it that it would have more problems not too far down the road.  So I had them price out  a new set of rims.  I ended up going with a much cheaper model for now … which sucks.  But it’s all I could afford right now.  $100 was still more than I should be paying for bike parts right now but I did need it fixed so I can go on my trip to Moab in two weeks.

I finally got my bike tire picked up from the shop around 6:45 … so it was time to book it over to the Phoenix Rock Gym for my first get together with the Phoenix Rock Climbing Group off of Meetup.com.  I had a blast climbing thanks to Lori from the meetup group.  Her and her regular climbing partner Matt let me come be a third wheel with them.  We cool turns climbing, belaying, and looking for the next route.  It actually worked out pretty good I think.  I ended up climbing for about two hours before I was dead tired.  I guess next time maybe I shouldn’t go biking just before I go climbing 🙂

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