Sedona Adventures

Surfing The Geographical Plane

September 27, 2008
by Garden Girl

I wish I could take credit for the name of this post but I can't.  I first heard this term as my husband and I traversed Schnebly Hill.  This is a 13 mile long rocky road full of switchbacks as it climbs the mountain side.  Sedona has several jeep tours that will take tourists for a ride up Schnebly Hill.  In fact we passed many as we traveled the road. We opted to drive the road ourselves in the H3 hummer.  After all it is a SUV.  I wouldn't recommend taking this road in a car or any other low riding vehicle.  You would be better off taking the Jeep Tour.  But I'm veering off the real story.

So back to the start of this adventure and where I leraned the term "surfing the geographical plane".  As we slowly pushed along the road, we noticed a mountain biker up ahead.  Now it was hard enough to drive this road in a hummer let alone peddle up the road on a mountain bike.  Right then it hit me that I wanted a picture of this amazing feat.  We pulled along side the mountain biker and ask if we could take his picture.  He agreed on one condition - that we pull him up the road with him holding on to the H3.  He wanted to do this so that he could catch up to the group he was mountain biking with.  It seems he had a little trouble with his bike and had to stop and fix it.  This put him far behind the group.  We were game for this adventure; so we rolled down a back window and he grabbed on.  As we slowly proceeded, we had time to get to know a little about the mountain biker.  His name is Dave Hart aka "Dangerous" who is from 9 to 5 a chiropractor and the rest of the time an avid mountain biker. During our conversation I ask Dave if he had caught rides like this before.  His exuberant reply was YEAH and we call it "Surfing The Geographical Plane".  What a cool way to explain what he was doing.  I never come up with ingenious terms like that.  About that time, we caught up to his roommate and fellow mountain biker Mark Bernhardt aka Cafn8ed (by the way I love this nickname - he recived this name because he evidently has amazing bursts of energy during long rides similar to the bursts associated with a caffeine high  -- Hmm could the fact that he works in the coffee industry be a factor in this phenomenon?).  For a short while we had Mark on one side holding on and Dave on the other side holding on.  I guess you could say we had tandem geographical surfing going on.  I know I'm not as clever as Dave.

I tried to capture a photo of "Dangerous" surfing the geographical plane but this was the best I could do.

                    Dave Hart Surfing The Geographical Plane

                               You Show Those Trucks Dave!

                       Dangerous Dave Living Life To the Fullest

                      Cafn8ed (aka Mark) Ready For Another Burst

Dangerous (Dave) and Cafn8ed (Mark) caught up to their mountain biking group here.  There were lots of mountain bikers taking a break. This was an all day activity for them and a recurring weekly event.  The mountain bikers seems to be from all over.  One guy was from Texas.  I wish I would have had more time to talk to them. Dave and Mark were very interesting and the group seem very fun. Meeting all of them was at the top of my great experiences while in Sedona. 

                        Group Of Weekend Mountain Bikers

Along with the jeep tours and mountain bikers, ATV enthusiasts seem to enjoy Schnebly Hill as well. Just like the one below.  

The scenery along the road was fantastic.  The panoramic views were amazing and there were several spots in which you could see them.  At one of the areas, we met a couple from New York who rented a dune buggy to travel up Schnebly Hill.  We were all stopped at this plateau that was a photgrapger dream.  Wonderful opportunities for some fantastic photographs were every where you looked. While we were snapping shots of the amazing scenery, we struck up a conversation with the couple - discussing camera lens and what kind are good to have for photo opportunities like these.  We even got the sweet New York lady to take our picture against the backdrop of the panoramic view.  There is just something about the Sedona area that make everyone so friendly and happy.  People here readily share parts of their lives and are more that willing to give you information on a multitude of subjects.

The one thing we didn't get a chance to do on Schnebly Hill was to hike.  I love to hike but we didn't have the time.  But we saw several areas for hikers. I can only imagine what wonderful sights awaited anyone who hiked Schnebly Hill. 

This adventure incorporate all the things I love - meeting people, see nature in its rare form and learning new things.  As my grandmother would say "A good time was had by ALL!".

Tags: Sedona, sightseeing, mountain biking, schnebly hill, photography, ATV, jeep tours