Brother Tobias—Bringer of Optimism (Spirit)

The following morning, I rolled into the first rendezvous point at Macey’s Coffee where I found familiar faces from my days living in Tucson and met new ones with whom I connected over a shared excitement for our trip. Once delicious food and coffee were consumed, we headed to the second rendezvous at the Thorpe Bark Park, where we merged with the rest of our party from Tucson, Flagstaff, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City.

With leaden bikes we gathered around Toby, Campfire’s steadfast mechanic, for a safety brief regarding our three-day loop of the San Francisco Peaks. As Toby spoke, all eyes turned skyward to see the heavens shrouded in unbroken grey, which soured the normally enthusiastic mood found at the outset of a trip.

But Toby stood before us bearing good news from a higher power: Josh’s father Kurt, a meteorologist who had worked for NOAA. Toby preached the word according to Kurt, that we had only to race for the Lava River Cave, 20 miles into our route, to find favorable riding on scoria-packed dirt made of volcanic rock. With better porosity and drainage properties, the scoria would provide a good riding surface even in wet conditions. Better yet, several miles on we would find ourselves in the rain shadow north of the San Francisco Peaks, which would relieve the storms of their moisture on the southern side.

So, we commenced our first climb up Mars Hill, navigated a stretch of mud, then cruised forest roads surrounded by ponderosa pines made fragrant by the previous night’s rain. When we finally stopped for lunch at our first milestone, the Lava River Cave, we were still ahead of the storm and celebrated our arrival on friendly volcanic dirt.

“And Toby lifted our countenance, saying, ‘Be of good cheer, for the miles yet to come are dryer than the miles behind.’”