The Shaft at Fantasy Island

By Matt D
August 23, 2011 on 4:49 pm | In Employee Adventures, Random Musings | No Comments

The Sonoran Desert covers 22.3 million acres in Arizona. The average Temperature is 100º F and is still one of the wettest deserts in North America.

This is my playground.

I don’t remember thinking, I don’t even remember breathing. I am just riding.  My eyes narrow as I descended down The Shaft at Fantasy Island. The Shaft is a downhill drop of 15ft cut and molded by the monsoon storms and other MTB’ers like myself. I ride to the far right of the downhill slope to start; I hold on and let the bike do most of the work as I hit the first dip. The bike reacts to the descent and begins to fight me with every rock and dip; I grab ahold of the handlebars more tightly.   Halfway down I notice that the monsoons have created a canyon drop in the middle of the slope. I shift body position adjustment and lean my weight over the left of the bike and it helps insure my safe decent down without crashing below. I dip or rather launch off a small ledge one more time before speeding to the bottom flying through the washout of rocks, branches and other unknown materials from storms past before I begin a short climb up and out of the Shaft, which can be just a tricky because it sharply turns left halfway up.  The Landscape changes so much. Mountain biking requires me to be more alert to my surroundings and the sudden changes.

It's steeper than it looks!

I reach the other side and I take a breath. I immediately replay the events in my head because now I have time to think. My first thoughts are “Did I even use my brakes?” “How did I just do that?”  The adrenaline is pumping. This is why I mountain bike.

I began riding MTBs about 2 years ago and I’m still very new. My  posts will chronicle my adventures in mountain biking.  Tucson provides a wide variety of trails. I became a mountain bike addict after many failed attempts to try my hand at triathlon (that’s another post). There is a certain rush to MTBs that I can’t explain, maybe it’s the mystery of never knowing what the next 15ft will bring but I am for sure addicted.

Where are your favorite places to ride?

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