ANOTHER Epic Flag ride

This blog is probably getting to be a bit boring to read...yes, another epic Flag ride... PaulD reached out to me earlier in the week looking for a long ride up by Flagstaff. In his training for Leadville, he training plan called for a 8ish hour ride and I figured I had just the ticket. Up Shultz, west on AZT, up SB road, AZT north at Aspen corner, north and around Walker Lake, then back south. We took the new section of AZT till it ended then HAB'd up to the road where we climbed back up to Snow Bowl. Jumping on the Aspen nature loop trail and dodging the throngs of hikers, we hit the AZT again went south till it ended, HAB'd to the road then down the road to the AZT, east on AZT to Schultz, then bombed like madmen down Schultz...or at least in our minds we were bombing down it. The trails, albeit kinda dry and dusty, were almost deserted the further north we were. Tons of great wildflowers, ferns and single track. Always a good sign when my brake levers have remnants of ferns stuck in them.
Super day on the bike...Something about a long ride, far away from the car just has such appeal to me. Yesterdays ride fit the bill well.... 58.7 miles, 6261vft of climbing.