Phillips Canyon

Well today was to be another Jackson Hole Classic, the Phillips Canyon ride. The ride directions had us starting at the same place we did for the Black Canyon, the start of the old pass road, but that was a couple miles and a couple hundred feet above where the the single track finshed outside of Wilson, so howie's suggestion was to park in wilson and get all the climbing outta the way first. So thats what we did, parking at the rodeo/park grounds in wilson then climbing the couple hundred feet along the highway on the bike path to the old pass road. Then the climbing started, i started feeling a little bonky so i stopped to ingest a few gummy bears and get the blood sugar back up where it should be but that gave howie a bit of a gap on me. Feeling better i kept pace with him but unable to gain. As I rounded the last switch back before the turn to Phillips, I saw him standing there with a hot looking blond. Not sure how it all happend but by the time i got there he had asked her if she wanted to join us as she was alone. She certainly did not look like she had a baby 7 months ago and certainly didn't look like nor as we found out later decended like she was 43 years old, she also has great taste in vehicles. (also great taste in bikes, same blur as mine, and gloves, same AXO gloves i used to have that they don't make anymore). Anyways, this mariage and baby thing had put a bit of a damper on her riding lately not that it showed. After a few more gummie bears, we headed up toward phillisps canyon, i owe don one for turning me on to those treats. Just after passing the highway, we picked up a brand new trail that the boyscouts had just put in a month or so ago, not on our maps and im sure we would not have had the courage to explore without our local riding diva. So up we went on Arrow trail, basically parralleling the dirt road we would have been on otherwise, great piece of track. We continued to follow it, I think ending up bypassing a bit of the orginal Phillis Canyon trail, but this trail was SWEET, great grade, really fast, just plain fun. Julia was not quite up to her prime climbing state(although she never slowed us down a bit) and i was in front on the Arrow trail as it climbed then started down, with her right behind me, keeping up a conversation. After a stop to wait up for howie, she started out in front and I only caught her due to a slight mishap in a creek crossing, as i found her sitting in it as i rounded the corner. She has some major skill. We continued down this relatively buff, gradual down hill, me starting out on her wheel and soon loosing it, damn was she good. We met up with the old Phillips downhill and she let me go first, I think mainly to make sure she survived to feed her darling baby, as she had not ridden this trail in a while and I could tell she had the potential to take it really fast. After another stop she couldn't take my lame downhilling skills and took the lead again, leaving me in the dust after a few hundred yards, but it was a lot of fun to follow her until i lost her, the girls has game. The bottom mile or so was a bit of up and down, still alot of fun then it all ended as we hit the paved road back to Wilson where we parked and she lives. She invited us back to her place where we decided to go grab some mexican at the corner, and have her husband and son meet us (they were up buying their skiing season passes, even the 7 mo old got one, they start early in Jackson Hole). What a great family, it was really a pleasure to hang out and get to know them for a bit before they needed to head out and we back over the mountain to Victor. Sorry for no pictures, this ride was all about the ride, not so much about the views. We do have to change our lexicon a bit, no longer can we refer to not doing something hard or technical as putting our pretty pink skirts, because Julia had on a great pretty pink skirt and schooled us on everything technical, tough, and fast today.