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Sedona Flooding

1K views 24 replies 15 participants last post by  STJunkie 
#1 ·
Hmmmmm, I think Sedona is going to be requiring a bunch of trailwork in the coming season! Red rocks + red dirt + lots of rain and snow = raging rivers of red water! I guess that the Forest Service's comments about the flash flood possibilities are true.

A little Video (Realplayer)

Raging River

Note: the bridge at the midpoint is the bridge you cross going to the "Y" to downtown Sedona when coming up from Phoenix.

SN
 
#2 ·
ScottN said:
Hmmmmm, I think Sedona is going to be requiring a bunch of trailwork in the coming season! Red rocks + red dirt + lots of rain and snow = raging rivers of red water! I guess that the Forest Service's comments about the flash flood possibilities are true.

A little Video (Realplayer)

Raging River

Note: the bridge at the midpoint is the bridge you cross going to the "Y" to downtown Sedona when coming up from Phoenix.

SN
Wow. I sorta recognized the bridge, but that's about all. Lotsa water.

Monte
 
#4 ·
Scott,

How about a prediction on trail conditions/possible closures from you based upon your experience up there.

We'll be in Sedona a week from Monday for a few days and hopefully we can still hit the "classics," although I'm sure Buddha Beach will be a bit smaller.
 
#5 ·
Honestly, I think trail conditions are going to be sketchy. Anything that is in a drainage that directly goes into Oak Creek might be pretty much full of crud. Buddha Beach is probably completely under water right now. The local news said the creek is up 16 feet, which would completely cover the whole little tech section along creekside.

I was up there right after Thanksgiving, it had rained quite a bit then too, and we were riding in mud and puddles going around Buddha Beach but the trails were mostly Ok.

It might be doable if you avoid the section from the back road down to Buddha Beach and around up the climb. If you did the slickrock bench section at the top as an out and back from the other side of the highway, it would be mostly higher stuff with better drainage.

Having babbled on like that, I would call Bike N Bean later next week and see what they have to say about conditions.

If it were any other time of the year, I'd suggest a nice, newere, technical trail up there that involves death defying rolls across wet slickrock, super-narrow exposed singletrack and ends with a nice wade across the creek.

SN
 
#6 ·
ScottN said:
Hmmmmm, I think Sedona is going to be requiring a bunch of trailwork in the coming season! Red rocks + red dirt + lots of rain and snow = raging rivers of red water! I guess that the Forest Service's comments about the flash flood possibilities are true.

A little Video (Realplayer)

Raging River

Note: the bridge at the midpoint is the bridge you cross going to the "Y" to downtown Sedona when coming up from Phoenix.

SN
Last night I was watching TV and getting mad that every station had the flash flood warning going full time. The video puts things in perspective for me.
 
#9 ·
It really is.

When I was putting together that post last night, I was thinking how that flooding was relatively insignificant compared to the lives lost in Asia. I still had to comment on it though, something about it happening to a place that I was familiar with made it stick home more than the tsunami.

Not to make light of what's going on over there, but I think we react stronger to disasters happening where we're familiar with the situation or area that's effected. Had I visited that area and explored it and met the people, the effect would be stronger on me.

/soapbox/
So, how many of you have donated to the relief fund? Heck, we spend so much freakin cash on toys, maybe it's time to give a little to help people who really need it.
/end soapbox/

SN
 
#10 ·
I hope I didn't come across as being critical. Got that link yesterday, and donating today. Not sure if I've been sanitized, but when the initial death toll came out--something like 17K dead--I was almost like, geez, that does not seem so bad across 4 countries. But then I saw the paper this a.m., and it put it into perspective: That's the friggin size of Prescott proper.
 
#15 ·
Not looking good.

Pete said:
Scott,

How about a prediction on trail conditions/possible closures from you based upon your experience up there.

We'll be in Sedona a week from Monday for a few days and hopefully we can still hit the "classics," although I'm sure Buddha Beach will be a bit smaller.
Not looking good right now. Obvious from Scott's video that ground saturation is an issue (haha) and we are supposed to have at least two more storms in before your trip. We received considerable rain at fairly high altitudes for the last couple of days. Much of the snow is now gone and conditions are remaining above freezing with high humidity, our higher altitude deserts may stay slogged out for a while. As you aleady know, Sedona's soil is great when its dry but is a complete mess when its saturated.
My wife is up at the cabin right now, just above 7000ft. and they have got nothing but rain for the last couple days.
Preciptation forecasts for the valley don't look that bad, several of the trails are already rideable with a little extra consideration thrown in.
 
#16 ·
bones said:
We'll just miss you, were going to be there on the 15th.
You damn Canucks. You wrote that you were going to be ther "next week," I thought.

Just when the hell are you going to be there?

We'll be at Goose on 1/8 and 1/9, Sedona 1/10-1/11, Phoenix 1/12-1/13.

Let's try to hook up in AZ if we can convert that Canuck calender to an American one.
 
#18 ·
Funny how psychology works. There are so many natural disasters worldwide in a year, and even if they wipe out tens of thousands, they usually occur so far away, so unconnected to our lives that they pass almost unnoticed. Who remembers that 43,000 people died in the ancient city of Bam in Iran, which was leveled by a quake on Christmas Day last year?

The magnitude of the recent disaster helps the awareness, but what really does it in our part of the world is the fact that 23 Norwegians are confirmed dead and 460 is missing, half of them children.

With more than 0.01% of our population possibly killed, what happened physically far away thing suddenly got a lot closer.
 
#19 ·
damn murricans...

Pete said:
You damn Canucks. You wrote that you were going to be ther "next week," I thought.

Just when the hell are you going to be there?

We'll be at Goose on 1/8 and 1/9, Sedona 1/10-1/11, Phoenix 1/12-1/13.

Let's try to hook up in AZ if we can convert that Canuck calender to an American one.
You know for a Califronian, you sure are mean and nasty. Chill duuuude.

We'll be in Phoenix/Gold Canyon from the 6th until the 14th or 15th, then to Veeegas. Let's hook up for a ride and some mexican fosho on the 12th and/or the 13th. I'll wear my pink kit.

I'll email you with our contact info.

Canadian Calendar is unvisible right now with the -23 ambient and -36 w/ windchill today.

b.
 
#21 ·
There is riding here in Prescott. I just did little granite mtn trail 37 and some other stuff, and it's ok. It's a very sandy area so when it gets ultra-wet, it is not nearly as bad as other places. Right pretty much any other trail area is out of the question, and we are scheduled to get a few more rounds of weather here in a few days. Except for riding in phoenix, this may be the only decent riding option. There's a few other trails that are generally ridable with weather (305) but it's still going to mean a slop-fest.
 
#23 ·
Melt said:
i wonder how conditions are gonna be in febuary, plan to roll down there with unclemtb
with arizona, there's usually an 85-95% it will be great.

If you do happen to come when we are experiencing a storm, it's just some bad luck, but compared to other parts of the country, we have the most days of sunshine and least amount of weather.

The trails and junk will probably be in fine condition then.

That said, there are a few more storms lined up for us now, but the difference is that once those storms pass we'll have great weather again and it will be sunny and the temps will shoot up....well, that's the plan at least.
 
#24 ·
i really like arizona ... never done any serious mtn biking out there but been to the grand canyon, and lake havasu city ... plan to come to havasu this year too and maybe ride some stuff over in nevada on the way home.
 
#25 ·
I just got back from a week of riding in Sedona. The trails are in great shape except for the upper part of the Airport Loop. I thought we would run into a lot of clay type mud but it never happened. There were a couple soupy spots but not nearly as bad as you would expect. The sandy soil sucked it up like a sponge. We didn't go all the way to Buddha Bch but could see a few different streams running through the area from up above. The Huckaby creek crossing would be out of the question. On the way home today (Sat) the creek level had dropped quite a bit but still flowing a lot more than normal. Every trail we did had water flowing in places I've never seen before. It was one of the best times I've had in Sedona.
 
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