I lost a $2500 camera while mountain biking, so we went on a quest to find it

For some people, the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival marks the start of cycling season. As the snow melts across the country, people come from all over to ride in this beautiful desert landscape. And this year the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival marks the end of a long stretch of travel for me. This is the first time since Sea Otter that Eric and I will be attending a big event to meet the public, ride with fans, and post some Instagram stories on behalf of Diamondback. After checking in and stopping by the festival to pick up Eric's bike, we headed to a trail I'd never ridden before: Hangover.

According to Eric Hangover is picturesque, exposed and quite technical in places. But I'm ready for almost anything: spare tubes, sealant, plugs, multi-tools, lights, hand sanitizer, shorts, extra grips, chains, pumps, tube batteries, and derailleur hangers. Well, it turns out I didn't bring an extra derailleur hanger. I wasted a lot of time fixing things after that impact. I would make everything work and have to stop again. But eventually we got back on track and it became clear that the hangover trail deserved its reputation. It was fun, challenging and really picturesque. It also lives up to his name. So we took our time, soaked in the iconic features, and made sure to post Instagram stories along the way, since that was our job on this trip.

Although it was already getting dark, we had packed up the lights with the intention of continuing into the night. Between the two of us we were able to install two headlights for Eric and a pretty bright handlebar light for me. That wasn't ideal for this trail, but we took it slow, analyzed everything, and decided to have fun anyway. Eric had been hungover, like, 5 years ago, so although he didn't remember any specific lines, he did know that a sustained rock roll was coming. So we decided to check it out instead of driving it blind with auxiliary headlights.

We were both a little sleep deprived and needed to organize a group ride the next morning. So it was time to go back to the hotel and get some rest. Except for one thing. My Panasonic GH5 was nowhere to be found. I checked all my pockets, but that thing is pretty big. But we were pretty sure where it was since the last time we used it was during the whole light debacle. But instead of searching for my

camera

in the dark, we decided to go back, change the gear lever, and return at dawn after getting some sleep.

Since we knew exactly where the

camera

would be, I didn't stress too much. So this was a great excuse to ride Hangover for fun, without stopping to watch clips or stories. We were getting closer to where we knew the camera would be. We assumed the camera fell out of my backpack later on the trail, or that some hiker is the proud owner of a GH5. Between the camera, lens, audio transmitter, and SD card I had, there was over $2,500 at stake, plus all the irreplaceable footage on the SD drive. A glance to the right did nothing to calm either of us.

But what are you going to do? Basically, I assume all my camera equipment will disappear in service of this YouTube channel, and we still had our GoPros and phones to record footage. Furthermore, we still needed to return to the location to lead our group trip and we were determined to do so in good spirits. Seeing in broad daylight what we had put together the night before was quite interesting. It's actually less scary when you can't see it. On the way back to the car, we stopped at the trail where I had washed the night before. After all that, we found that the face-up camera was apparently undamaged, but the lens had clearly broken from its mount.

So we continued the search. The lens was toasted. It had a broken ribbon cable and was making rattling noises, but I had my wide angle with me and was curious if the camera was still okay. What I really meant is that the memories on this SD card are impossible to replace. We had to return to the place for our group trip so we took the road by jeep to save time. And in the end we did it. With the GH5 recovered and my spare lens we were able to film a full game of BIKE between Eric and I that will be live on his channel in a few weeks.

We were also able to record a video for our second channel, Berm Peak Express. Check the description so you can subscribe and watch those videos when they are published. Thank you to everyone who visited us at the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival, thank you to everyone who came to our ride. Also, thank you Sedona for all your amazing trails. Thanks for traveling with me today and we'll see you next time.