Biking Out Of Town, Rained Out

by Nick Coons
Dec 8, 2004

Last week I was all hyped about being able to make my way up to Four Peaks by mountain bike. I was planning to toss the bike in the back of my Jeep, head up to Fountain Hills, and bike the rest of the way to Four Peaks. From there, I'd like stop for a bit and hike around, take pictures, and breathe in some of the fresh air. But one thing stood in my way -- Rain.

This is Arizona

Arizona	(air-i'-ZON-u')
The State of Arizona comprises the extreme south-western portion of the United States. It is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by California and Nevada.

, and there is one constant here. It never rains. You can always plan an outdoors event without fear of the weather not cooperating. In other places, you'll always need contingency plans, but not here. But that's not what happened. I was rained out.

I woke up that morning and the clouds had not gone away. Checking with the local forecast, I noticed that it wasn't "scheduled" to rain until 5:00pm. However, it also wasn't supposed to rain on Friday, and we know how that turned out. About an hour after I woke up, I noticed it starting to drizzle, then come down harder, and harder, until all of my plans were completely rained out.

Then it was about 2:00pm, and the sky started to clear. I almost reconsidered heading out then, but then realized that I wouldn't have much time to accomplish much of anything or even enjoy myself. And it's a good thing too, because guess what happened again in about two hours. It started raining again.

So now that I won't actually have another weekend available for several weeks, this is a postponed trip, but not canceled. I still plan to hear up there by mountain bike and run the risk getting stuck -- That's really the only way it counts.