Cactus Cup, Tortilla Flats, Sedona, Dead Horse Ranch & Cave Creek
We’ve been out and about exploring a LOT the last few weeks with some solid van adventures, a rad mountain bike race, plenty of work and adulting mixed in (plus some relationship repair/restart {referenced in my last blog]), and some fitness/form coming back as well.
I’m honestly not sure if anyone finds these adventure recaps helpful or useful or even entertaining, but I sure like writing about them ;) So if you’re here reading, WELCOME! And enjoy!
Last year I raced my first cactus cup- a 3 day mountain bike race- and learned a LOT of lessons. This year I was back with all of that intel and was determined to improve on my 2021 results- even if just shaving time off my own times and racing against myself … I had to keep in mind that from mid September into late December 2021, I wasn’t riding or training at all due to chronic back pain /injury …. so to even be lining up evoked big feels of gratitude… those months of chronic pain just about did me in mentally-not being able to ride was SO hard. And then I found myself fearful of the bike, fearful it would hurt me and make my back awful again. It’s been a slow road coming back, one with consistency being the primary focus.
So with around 2.5 months of rides and consistency in me, I gave the 3-stage race my all. I was most proud of shaving 30 minutes off my time in the 40-mile XC loop from last year. That felt amazing. And then shockingly two of the women in my AG no-showed for Sundays enduro, so I moved up to 3rd Place and got to stand on the podium- yeasssssss!!! 🥉
**If you are visiting the Scottsdale area and want a nice long 43-ish mile Mountain Bike Loop to ride, I recommend check out the Cactus cup website, route page, and downloading the saturday course to your computer so you’ve got turn-by-turn help… you can just follow the computer and enjoy a really lovely 3-4 hour ride!!
It was such a fun weekend overall — van camping in the big parking lot with all the other racers was so much fun and it was great to see friends and just feel a hint of post-two-year pandemic times morphing into more normalcy. 🙏🏼 It felt amazing to be back in the bike community once again.
After the race wrapped up Sunday, I moved us to a campsite I’d booked for us in the park (McDowell), since we had a couple more days of exploring and adventuring to come. For me and vanlife, I’ve found as the quote says, “it’s easier to stay out than to get out.” So once I’m out with the van loaded and my vanlife mindset, I try to make the trips 3-5 days to make the loading/unloading worth it.
As with almost all of our nights in the park, it was magical and lovely. The evening hikes/walks and sunsets, and then the quiet with the stars overhead -it’s truly special. We’ve never stayed at the same place in the park, we’ve tried out different campsites in the main campground as well as the tent sites. All are winners (**except for the tent sites when you’re sandwiched between two other spots-those offer NO privacy and I don’t recommend those unless you’re actually in a tent and can be away from the parking spots).
TORTILLA FLATS/CANYON LAKE
From McDowell, we made our way out to Tortilla Flats- to the Tortilla Campground and the site I’d booked us. On the way there we drove past Canyon Lake, truly gorgeous and unexpected out there in the desert! We hung out at the lake’s edge for hours, watching people boat, jetski, paddleboard and watching dogs swim out chasing after balls thrown by their owners. I had originally set this as a hiking destination I wanted to try, and the lake added a true bonus - next time I’ll definitely try to find a campsite closer to the water. NOTE: the tortilla campground is closed a good chunk of the year (it closes at the end of March, as temps start to rise). This campground was nice - though not much to do and sadly, no trailheads nearby (which is a first, I’m used to us being able to hike from our campgrounds). For me that is a deal-breaker, as I don’t want to have to drive the van to get to our recreation activities….
** Here’s where I’ll add one of my big personal takeaways so far in my first 15 months of vancamping- I don’t do boondocking or off-grid, remote van camps. I just don’t. I don’t like it, I don’t like being way out away from people, often in areas with lots of ATVs/Side-by-Sides and places people go to shoot off their guns- and often in spots that are super dusty, and pretty hard on a vehicle to get to. It’s not to say I’ll NEVER do it, but it’s not my preference.
I am ok spending the $ fees on campsites in parks with bathrooms and friendly campers- where I feel much safer, and have resources near me (like water hookups at some sites), if we need them. Yes-sometimes you are tooo close to your neighbors and you can hear everyone’s business, but in general everyone is out there for some peace and quiet; people usually keep to themselves other than a little friendly chit-chat…. so that’s why I choose campgrounds.
The next morning we drove back toward the lake and started our hike - up Boulder Canyon trail, ironically ;) It was there I began to realize my brand new phone case for my new iphone 13 (new as of December) had somehow scratched or fogged from the inside, and my photos were getting blurrier and blurrier! The hike was great- though by then I was itching to “plug back into the matrix” (aka re-engage in adulting stuff) after being relatively-offline for 5 days. I’ve found 4 days is kinda my sweet spot… after that I get a little angsty as things start to stack up, and am ready to re-engage with emails, work, daily tasks).
**Another van camping/exploration/adventure tip: I LOVE TrailForks - the app is AMAZING. WELL worth the $35/year fee! You download all trails in the state you want to your phone, so it doesn’t matter if you have signal or not- and you can just so easily find trails wherever you are, color-coded by difficulty (similar to skiing gradient, where black is hardest, then blue, then green is easiest). PLUS you often get other users’ input, photos, intel to help plan a route…. I use this app EVERY time we are out exploring somewhere new. And of course, the Garmin InReach is always along too just in case I ever get into trouble and need help or need to text someone and don’t have a cell signal.
It was back to work for the rest of that week and weekend which -after the 3 day race weekend, was a recovery week, training-wise. **This serves me well as then I can truly buckle down on work and other life tasks with low levels of training intensity. It set me up for success as we embarked on a second van adventure the following week….
SEDONA
Last winter I’d set a goal to get to Sedona and wasn’t able to pull it off, so this winter getting there was a top priority. Months ago, I’d located a large and lovely group campsite and booked it, thinking surely a few of my arizona friends might want to come join me for camping, hiking, biking, etc. But as the dates grew closer, everyone’s response was some version of, “sorry, work has really blown up on me, I can’t make it….” So that’s how I found myself enjoying a really awesome HUGE campsite RIGHT on Oak Creek- all to myself! (This spot is intended to host up to 50 people/ 10 vehicles). And while it’s the most expensive campsite I’ve ever stayed at, it is still likely one of the least-expensive places to stay in Sedona !!! The traffic here has gone WILD, so having a bike to use for errands was handy- as to drive in town adds 30+ minutes since it’s backed up almost all day, every day.
The creek RIGHT outside the van door- -AMAZING.
Other than bike commutes, I didn’t have plans to ride in Sedona, however. The trails there are candidly, too tech for me and that translates to Megan isn’t having fun- so my goal all along was to nab 2 solid hikes and one 10-mile run… which I did. Add to that some cold creek soaks for the legs, some bike commutes to Whole Foods and the Hike House, checking emails using my cell phone hotspot, making awesome meals, soaking up the red dirt and amazing vortex vibes there, and I’d call it a GRAND success. I loved every minute of my time there and can’t wait to go back. (I hadn’t been to Sedona since 2019 and would really love to make it an annual visit if I can possibly pull that off). If you’re going- plan ahead! This town is PACKED and expensive!
DEAD HORSE RANCH
From Sedona I decided to break up the drive back to Phoenix by first stopping at Dead Horse Ranch State Park for a night. I could see on TrailForks there were lots of nice green/blue trails right from the campground and I was itching to get some mtn biking in, so that’s what we did!
NOTE: if you are in a small van and don’t need hook-ups, you can almost always reserve and stay at the tent-only sites. Those spots will have strong NO RV language because they are smaller and don’t have any hookups- but if you have a small vehicle or van like mine, you are good to go (which is good, since these sites are often the only ones available!) . Once we arrived and setup the van, I popped out for a late afternoon mtn bike recon ride to scope out the trails a little bit. Then it was a gorgeous evening, as the park sits up higher than surrounding areas, and the stars were SO bright and visible.
The next morning I enjoyed another short mtn bike spin, and then it was time to pack up & hit the road!
CAVE CREEK REGIONAL PARK
And…for our final stop, we paid a second visit to Cave Creek Regional Park. (We stayed here back on Superbowl Sunday and I felt I’d only just sampled some of the offerings of this area so I wanted to return for a second stay). It’s a VERY quiet park- no water sports so no boats and trailers, and it’s a much smaller campground/park than Mcdowell, so the number of people camping there is much lower. It’s just super chill- lots of horses in the area, and I think it’s absolutely gorgeous… plus we can see the hot air balloons off to the west rising in the mornings… that is really something to witness on your morning walk!
My parents arrived at the park right around the time I did, to meet me for a campsite lunch -we had Such a great time hanging out and chatting while chasing the shade underneath my awning… the higher elevations in Sedona and Dead Horse had mitigated the rising temps and it was much warmer “down” in town (still at 2k elev).
After they left, Rams and I enjoyed a nice long sunset hike. Then the next morning, I got out for a 3- hour mtn bike ride exploring some more new-to-me trails in the area, and then we made our way home!
Overall these were ALL solid places to stay, ride, hike, and hang out. I enjoyed these adventures very much, and I continue to learn more about myself on each outing.
The COFFEE/ANXIOUS THOUGHTS EXPERIMENT:
On these recent outings I really began experimenting with removing coffee to see if it affected my mood/anxiety levels- and it DOES! I was having lots of anxious mind middle-of-the-night wakeups on the McDowell race weekend (coffee each morning), so I switched to match tea on the second outing and the anxious brain was gone. I have removed coffee from my daily routine now, and am drinking only Matcha Tea or MUD/WTR instead, and am noticing a big difference in my daily headspace.
ON the van life topic in general- I believe that keeping it basic and uncomplicated is the key to getting out there as often as possible….
I try to keep all of the van life stuff as simple as possible to make popping out like this as easy and low-stress as I can. I try to keep the van mostly clean, I restock the water and rewash the towels between trips, I try to keep basics like dog food and instant meals always packed in there…. With so many people “working from anywhere” these days and so many like me adopting the vanlife, it is no longer possible to “wing it” and book campsites on the fly- campgrounds especially in warmer areas this time of year, are all booked to the gills…. so I can’t emphasize enough the need to plan ahead.
If you have questions, hit me up in the comments, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned so far!
