TR - AZ for New Years 2018

**evdog** · 01-05-2019, 07:39 PM

With New Year's Day on a Tuesday this year and not wanting to work on Monday, a road trip was a good excuse to take the day off and get out of town. Found a couple riders who were interested in Tucson or Phoenix. Still hadn't decided by mid-week but the temps were looking a little less chilly in Phx, so that's what we did. Also decided on an AirBnB in fairly central Tempe rather than freezing our butts off camping.

We ended up leaving Saturday morning so a ride in Yuma made the most sense. I rode there a few years ago and always mean to stop in, but it never seems to happen. Today we'd have much of the afternoon to ride.

A trailhead sign and map has appeared since my last visit

We headed out on Backyard planning to turn north and head around that perimeter of trails

In the end we took a more direct approach up 8-ball which is a doubletrack that climbs gently up a central valley in the middle of the trail system. Higher up we came across an old steam shovel

We took a left and climbed up adjacent Steamshovel Trail to the ridge top

We were going to loop around south here but one of the bypass trails around a high point on the jeep trail unexpectedly turned back north and sent us off the map and toward a completely different area

The trail was nice but definitely less travelled

We eventually joined back with Champagne Trail which runs along the ridge top for quite a ways

Local resident

Continuing north

Views of water mean we're almost as far as we can get here

Dropping off the ridgeline

We circled around to the left and started making our way west, climbing over and around some smaller ridges

This was a pretty distinct feature and made for a scenic backdrop

Cool rock field

Getting into the golden hour. This outer loop took longer than expected so it was time to head back to the truck

Makes me wish we had more time to ride.

I liked this northern side better than what I rode last time but there is still lots to explore. I'll be back....at some point.

17mi and around +/- 2,000ft

**evdog** · 01-06-2019, 04:29 AM

The Arizona Trail from Picketpost to Kelvin is one of my favorite rides. I've talked it up for years and years but have only ever gotten a couple people to make the trip from Socal to ride it. So I wanted to try and get Dom and Cristen out there. While I knew they both capable of pulling it off they were skeptical as its a pretty big day. And the 10 hours of daylight we get this time of year isn't much more than the time it normally takes me to do the ride. Add in cold temps and a lack of local riders able to come with us and help shuttle, we opted for an out and back from Picketpost. This would allow for a later start with less worry about finishing in the dark. We brought lights anyways along with extra layers.

The joys of AirBnB. The rental we picked was newly set up and turns out the owner had forgotten pots, pans and most kitchen utensils. So we had to make do for breakfast. Fortunately the owner dropped off these items while we were out riding and all was good.

Temps were around 40* by the time we rolled out shortly after 9

The climb went pretty quick and we were soon at the first overlook

I never get tired of the cactus out there

Lots of cars in the parking lot but we had the trail almost to ourselves. Saw 3-4 hikers and one pair of bikepackers on the climb up

We were all smiles despite the climbing

Dropping down towards the FR4 jeep road

Dom will always take on any technical section and made short work of this tricky g-out

Checking out the views which keep getting better the further you ride

My goal was to get to the 14 mile overlook to get in the best views. Martinez Canyon looks daunting but it really isn't a huge elevation change from the 12 mile overlook

There was a bit of pushback to continuing on but the best views were just around the corner

Dropping down to the saddle

I pushed and prodded a bit more to get us the last 1/4 mile to the final overlook

Views are so rad through here....

The final overlook - you can see all the way to Mt Lemmon above Tucson

Heading back

We made it back to the 12 mile overlook in about an hour an a half, which seemed pretty good to me

And since most of the uphill work was on the way out, we made pretty good time getting back toward Picketpost

Just a few short climbs, none of which are terrible

Final miles in the golden hour

Group shot and time for a beer

And a spectacular sunset on the drive home. Pic does not do it justice

New biking shoes. Got fed up of 5.10s falling apart on me so I'll try some trail runners. Hopefully they hold up better. Not quite as grippy but great on the HABs. Light gaiters kept all the rocks and debris out. So far, so good!

**MakersTeleMark** · 01-06-2019, 04:39 AM

Yep. Noice.

**Groomer Gambler** · 01-06-2019, 10:37 AM

Thanks for the rad trip reports and suggestions (from your other threads)! I spent about 2 weeks in Tucson before and after xmas and got some great local rides in. GF lives there and is relatively new to mtn biking so we did a bunch of local easier rides but still had a blast! I'm considering making the move down there when I finish my grad program later this year. Cheers!

**evdog** · 01-06-2019, 02:14 PM

The plan for our third day was South Mountain. We had tried to coordinate with some friends of Dom's for the AZT ride but that didn't work out, possibly due to his repeated butchering of the name Picketpost on the phone (Pickpocket, Picklepost, Picketpocketpost). But we would meet up with one of them, Steph, today to ride. She lives nearby so we met her at the Pima Canyon lot. Despite a later start it was cold and windy, so we wasted no time before heading off.

We headed up Pima Canyon to Mormon and National. Steph is a racer and was charging everything, getting this step up first try. Dom did as well, I couldn't get up it except on foot.

Lots of fun chunky climbing to be had on this route

It got even windier up top on Mormon and National

Taking time to play on a few of the side features

A sea of rock

Dom took a lap down the waterfall, but it was getting too cold to play around much

Not as many hikers with the wind, but we did come across this group of robed monks. They were stoked on our pedal bikes so I can only assume they were up there sacrificing e-bike riders to appease the gods

No way we'd be doing two laps today so our choices were go back down National or hit Corona do Loma. I hadn't been on CDL in ages so suggested that.

I'd heard complaints it had been sanitized but it still seemed plenty chunky and fun to me

We saw occasional rain drops to this point but coming back across Desert classic we got rained on for real and were good and wet by the time we got back to the truck. So soup or noodles was a unanimous choice for food. Chen's Noodle House in Tempe was pretty good!

We weren't sure what it would be like trying to get dinner on NYE but called around and found room at one of Steph's suggestions. Food was great, then we wandered over to the main drag in Tempe. Home before midnight...

**evdog** · 01-06-2019, 02:33 PM

Final ride for the trip would be nearby and not too long so we could get home at a decent time.

I had never ridden PMP and considering it was close by and reportedly good after the rain, it seemed like a good option.

This would be a pure exploratory since I hadn't done any research. Fortunately we arrived early enough there were still parking spots in the lot

The ride started with a beat up climb coming out of this underpass

We stayed on Trail 100 for a while but I think we were on the wrong version of it? Since it was all doubletrack. So we ditched that and headed off on some trails we saw

A bit of tough climbing and descending took us close to a southern trailhead and it looked like our best option was a gnarly hike a bike up to a pass.

Dropping down some steep stair steps

Top of the HAB

We looped around on better trails to the north side and picked up Chunky Monkey around to Zipper where we picked up another trail back to the trailhead. Fun little ride. I'd like to go back sometime with someone who knows the place as the trails were very hit or miss and trailforks descriptions weren't very helpful.

We made it home around 6pm which is great compared to most of my trips. Another fun trip in the books. Was later sent pics from friends in Tucson who were riding through a bunch of snow on the ground, so I think Phx was the correct choice!

Happy New Year everyone