2009 was my first visit to Phoenix, AZ with a bike. My wifes family has a house that's, fortunately, only a 10 minute bike ride to South Mountain park. It's like being at a ski in/ski out condo right on the mountain. 2 years ago I said, "I'll be back. Next time, though, I think I'll have to nab the car for a day to check out some other riding areas around Phoenix."
Needless to say when Christmas rolled around this year and there was talk of an AZ road trip, I said "Sign me up!"
Having heard so many great things about the Pueblo Reservoir and having never been there, the powers that be decided it was time for a REEB Cycles road trip to the south! Thursday pm, 4 of us loaded the car with REEBs, several cases of beer, good attitudes, and a serious desire for some Colorado desert riding.
Given that, it should probably go without saying that we all woke up
early Friday with thundering headaches and a lot of empty Dales Pale Ale
cans.
[edit - clicky on the pics for full view. They're hosted by photobucket and are cropped funky]
Since I don't really know where to start, I guess I will start at the beginning. My wife's 2 brothers live in Phoenix and one of them recently bought a house. It went something like this. "Dave, want to go to Phoenix for Chrismas this year?" "No." "hmmm, hey Dave, want to go to Phoenix for Christmas?" "No." "We'll drive - you should bring your bike." "Ok. We should go to Phoenix for Christmas after all. Great idea." I was in!
We packed up the kids and the car to make the long, long, long trek to the AZ desert. We were left the day after our very successful 1st Ever Redstone Cyclery White Elephant 6 Pack Exchange (in which, I thought it was implicit that it would be a 6 pack of alcoholic beer but I guess I'll have to be more explicit next time). Clay! **cough, cough** Anyway...
The drive was shaping up to be exciting, especially given that the worst storm so far this winter was pounding everything from the southwest to the midwest. The drive ended up being not so bad once we got past Glenwood Canyon. A few sketchy bits in southern UT and we were good to go. Funny thing driving across the desert - there was snow on the ground the ENTIRE way until we dropped into the desert after leaving Flagstaff. But enough of that, on to the good stuff. Day one and the family took off for something leaving me alone at Uncle James' house with the girls. I peered over his concrete block "fence" and saw and empty lot and a Walmart in one direction. In the other direction, I see South Mountain!
S. Mountain is the largest municipal park in the country. City of Phoenix owns and maintains this 18,000 acre monster. Just how big is it, you ask? Well, it's damn big and what you see here is just barely a little bit of it. South Mountain is more like a complex of desert mountains rising up from the Valley of the Sun. I would later find that Uncle James' house is much like having a ski in/ski out condo at the base of a mountain. :)
After the family returned from errand running, it would be time to check out the trails. But first, some bike cleaning was in order. 15+ hours driving on gunky roads does not equal a beautiful ready to ride bike. You could imagine what the rest of it looked like.
Finally, ride time! The Mormon Trail, or 24th St as it's locally known was the closest trailhead. It was recommended to me by locals to not try to climb Mormon. As my wife would say, though, I am not a good listener. It was hard as hell, but a great climb nonetheless. I walked quite a bit climbing up this technical beast of a trail.
My plan was to hit National Trail - a trail at S Mt that is ironically nationally known to be quite good.
It was. I rode it as an out and back as I didn't really know what to expect for time and effort and all that good stuff. Last thing I wanted to be was late getting back to the inlaws on Christmas Eve. That could have a suboptimal impact on my riding other days in Phoenix. The return trip included riding (and cleaning) the infamous "Waterfall on National Trail."
Definitely mind over matter, even though I took one of the easier lines. Later down the trail, not knowing the line, I left a little Stan's on the trail in a super chunky section that left me gasping for air as well as needing to reinflate my majorly burped (but still sealed) tire. Back down Mormon trail did not dissapoint. It was techy going down. I think I walked 5 times in the superchunk.
Day 2, Christmas Day. Up Mormon again, but this time my plan was to climb National a ways and drop down the "backside" of the mountain, loop back around a swoopy trail called Desert Classic, then up the frontside and back down Mormon. That was a good day. I was able to climb a little more of Mormon than the day before.
National is a good climb, too. I ran in to a Flagstaff guy escaping the snow as well. Here's a shot of him hitting the waterfall, just to give it different perspective. It was a super sweet section of tricky trail.
Thankfully, some locals provided me with a user GPSed map of South Mountain that included some trails that weren't exactly authorized by City o Phoenix. I can see why. Old Man was steeper than shite and full of loose shale and Cactus. Old Man was the type of trail that you could tell where it started, but there were no bike tracks. I picked up my bike and hiked in to preserve its authenticity ;)
It turned out to be one of my favorite trails there, until I sliced my front tire on a rock and sent Stan's spewing in every direction. I can definitely see the need for riding something beefier than a single ply tire in this terrain.
I booted the tire and used one of my 2 tubes. I walked a lot down the rest of the descent because I didn't want to burn thru all of my tubes in one ride. It would make a super long walk home, too. It turned out to be a long ride home anyway. Desert Classic was ok. Lots of pedaling in and out of desert washes with moderate up and down. Lots of pedaling. Good connector, but nothing I'd go out of my way for. The rest of the ride was good. This time, I only had to walk 3 times coming down Mormon :)
Day 3 of riding was the best, the day after Christmas. Steve-O from Smoken Spokes and part of the AZ Freeride collective was running the shuttle on South Mountain. I hooked up with Durtgurl, a local friend of a friend, to run some shuttles and see some of South Mountains finer descents. They looked at me kinda funny since they all had big dh bikes, full faced helmets, and body armor. I had on my normal get up - baggies, jersey, XC helmet. They especially looked at me funny when I declined the offer of extra armor. I told them that if I wasn't confident, I'd walk, no worries. More funny looks. There's a write up of the day on mtbr here. We made 4 runs that day. To be completely honest, I was glad to be on my Snyper. One of the trails would've been more fun on a dh bike, but the rest involved lots of pedaling. We started on Geronimo. That was a full speed, moderately technical hoot all the way to the bottom. Next up, we rode down National to an unmarked trail, 32nd street. I loved 32nd. It was a lot like North Sheep Mountain but without the trees or the fun swoopy stuff. Steep, channeled out and lots of shale rock. fun. Holbert Trail was probaby the toughest and would've been more enjoyable on a bigger bike. The upper section was smoove and swoopy, but the middle section:
and the lower section were uber gnarly. Really fun stuff. I would've walked quite a bit riding solo but I was fortunate to be following some skilled riders that knew the line. I was able to clean everything, dabbing only twice when riders in front of me got hung up. On the last run, we rode down National and out on Mormon/24th Street. This time down Mormon, I only walked once and dabbed 2 other times - sweet! Next time I'm out, I'll clean that mofo. Shuttling was good. I'm a downhiller now brah. Special thanks to Kathleen for the good hookup and personal tour guiding!
Day 4 - 2 days after the mega day of shuttling, I snuck out for a little ride. I had to say goodbye to South Mountain. I rode out the bike path to the main trailhead complex of the area. I climbed Javelina
(great climb, by the way) and made my way to another unmapped or unmarked trail that I had heard about on shuttle day. It was pretty easy to find. Steep, too. A lot like the 32nd street run but a little shorter and not quite as enjoyable.
There were some fun chunky sections, though...
I stopped close to the bottom to reflect. Life was good. Christmas trip was good. South Mountain was good. And the location of James' house was especially good!
One last reflection from this road tripper. Even though a bigger bike would've been fun on a couple of descents, I was incredibly, thoroughly impressed with my Tomac Snyper 140. It doesn't have the most sophisticated suspension in the world, but it rides so damn good in about every arena.
To say I'm please would be a complete understatement. This bike was the bees knees. Johnny Tomac knows how to make a bike handle like nobodies business. I beat the shit out of this bike and came thru with nary a scratch. Well, there was that sliced tire. Oh, and a bent der hanger. Oh yeah, broken spoke, too. The desert riding is harsh on equipment down here but the Tomac was super solid. Super duper solid.
The riding at South Mountain in Phoenix was also super duper solid. I'll be back. Next time, though, I think I'll have to nab the car for a day to check out some other riding areas around Phoenix. The escape to the Valley of the Sun was just what the doctor ordered. Now, if we can get the doctor to order away all of this snow around Lyons, we'll be set!
Day 2 in the desert came with little fanfare. Must have been due to my aching body, my aching head, or... Well, I should've taken pics of all the beer cans scattered around the campground but I wasn't moving quickly enough to snap a photo. You get the idea. Bagel egg sammiches, lots of Gatorade and the prospect of a fantastic day of riding got me back around to my normal self soon enough, though. Needless to say, with others suffering from a condition similar to my own, we didn't get started to gung ho. No one felt like packing up the all the gear and getting into the truck, so we opted for another day riding at Rabbit Valley. That's part of the beauty of this area. Not only is the place extremely remote, but there is a ton of riding to be done. Our goal was to cover enough ground on Sunday to have ridden 95% of all of the riding to be done from Rabbit Valley (that we know of). I think we achieved our goal over the course of 2 days.
We rolled out of camp back towards the highway and the start of the Mountain States Cup Fruita time trial race. Like our night ride on Friday, we headed up trail 4. Trail 4 starts out tame enough, but just keeps climbing and climbing relentlessly. It's funny how the desert jacks with your head. The climb was only 400' or so but it felt like forever. Steep stuff those desert climbs.
We were heading to an unnamed bench just east of Wild Horse Mesa overlooking the Ruby Canyon area of the Colorado River. The trail is innocently enough called Rim Trail, #8. You can see the trail from a ways off and see it rising up and down near a pink and orange cliffband. What you can't see, though, is the beach sand. I knew it was there and have ridden the loop enough to know the "correct direction." Correct or not, some parts of it still kinda suck. Other parts are other worldly.
And there are plenty of super fun swoopy sections. Almost all of the swoopy sections end up with a sandy climb. Almost all of them. Until you get to this point. Here, the rim trail overlooks Ruby Canyon, which the CO River flows thru. You can see Mee Canyon on the other side. From here until the end of the Rim Trail, it's nothing but non stop technical. Tough rock moves and unending ledges and drops. It's like a little bit of Moab, but it's in Colorado. The dirt is red and the rock moves are tough. I was extra stoked that I cleaned all the drops. Going down of course. I still had to hike up a few big drops, as the trail rolls in and out of little grottos, all technical.
Then, at the end of the Rim Trail, there is, of course, just a little bit more sand. Not much, though. A brief and surprisingly do-able climb led us off the bench and back into Rabbit Valley proper. We reconnected with our Friday's night ride route that took us down and out on trail #3. It was narrow. With good views of the desert in all of its barren glory. Such a fun descent that had a little of everything. And sadly, back at the campground too soon. We packed up quickly and said another good bye to the desert. See you next Spring ;)
We originally had the crew rallied to head out to the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo about 4 hours east into Nebraska but we didn't quite make it. As the date approached, the forecast got worse. We decided to play it by ear. If the forecast was tolerable, we'd head east. If the Ballyhoo forecast was not good, we'd head 4 hours in the other direction, to Fruita and the western Colorado desert. Well, last we checked, the forecast for NE was in the twenties and snow. We made the call to head west. Apparently, it was a good call, as the site for the Ballyhoo got around 12" of snow. Bad weather was also forecast for the homefront so it was a good weekend to get out.
We departed a little behind schedule (because that's how we do it) and after stopping for food and gas in Grand Junction we arrived at our destination a little after 9. Destination - Rabbit Valley. RV is the last exit in Colorado on I70 and home to some of the best backcountry desert riding around. After getting camp all set up, we decided to make it a 3 days of riding short weekend. Night Ride!
Just up for something short, Chad, Doug, and myself rode the time trial loop that is used in the Fruita Mountain States Cup race. Up 4, down 3 and back to camp. It hit the spot perfectly.
Our crew of 8 riders rolled out of camp at 10:15 on Saturday. That's another great thing about Rabbit Valley. Wake up and ride - no need to hop in the car. Excellent. We headed north of I70 to break thru the Zion Curtain and into Utah. Here's looking back at I70 and Rabbit Valley.
With not much time on a dirt road, we found ourselves on some excellent shared use singletrack, very similar to the riding you find at 18 road. Steep ups and even steeper downs. With a ribbon of long flowy singletrack on the desert floor. But, alas, we were mountain biking. There was hiking. This is shortly after we found a motorcyclist flipped onto his back and pinned between his moto and a rock. I think he was in a little over his head. Chad had his first mechanical of the day. One of the impressive things about Man compared to other creatures is our ability to use complex tools. After riding Zion Curtain, we had the option to bail south on Kokopelli or forge on ahead (on Kokopelli). Ahead meant a stiff climb up to the top of Westwater Mesa but we'd be rewarded with excellent singletrack on the mesa rim. The climb was, indeed, tough. And the singletrack was excellent. It was getting late in the day at this point. I think we'd been out for about 4 hours. The wind picked up on top of the mesa, but skies were still beautifuly clear blue. A lunch break was in order. Mmmmm, burrito. More excellent rocky singletrack. With some fun chutes, drops, and techy challenges We dropped off Westwater Mesa finally and headed back to Rabbit Valley on Western Rim. The outer reaches of Western Rim are wide open and desert fast. The further east you get, the riding becomes slower and more tech, with excellent views. Western Rim ends at a junction with the Kokopelli Trail. It's steep and sandy and again we were "mountain biking."
Sand and long shadows late in the day. It was getting late. We'd been out for about 6 hours at this point.
Instead of taking the road back, we opted for the always excellent and super fast trail #2. It does have some hiking on it as well. This particular one is super fun as a descent.
Made it back to camp right at the 7 hour mark. Way to go fellas! That was a long tough ride.
Almost all of the swoopy sections end up with a sandy climb. Almost all of them.
Until you get to this point. Here, the rim trail overlooks Ruby Canyon, which the CO River flows thru. You can see Mee Canyon on the other side. From here until the end of the Rim Trail, it's nothing but non stop technical. Tough rock moves and unending ledges and drops. It's like a little bit of Moab, but it's in Colorado. The dirt is red and the rock moves are tough. 
I was extra stoked that I cleaned all the drops. Going down of course. I still had to hike up a few big drops, as the trail rolls in and out of little grottos, all technical.
A brief and surprisingly do-able climb led us off the bench and back into Rabbit Valley proper. We reconnected with our Friday's night ride route that took us down and out on trail #3. It was narrow.
With good views of the desert in all of its barren glory.
Such a fun descent that had a little of everything.
And sadly, back at the campground too soon. We packed up quickly and said another good bye to the desert.
See you next Spring ;)
Just up for something short, Chad, Doug, and myself rode the time trial loop that is used in the Fruita Mountain States Cup race. Up 4, down 3 and back to camp. It hit the spot perfectly.
With not much time on a dirt road, we found ourselves on some excellent shared use singletrack, very similar to the riding you find at 18 road. Steep ups and even steeper downs.
With a ribbon of long flowy singletrack on the desert floor.
But, alas, we were mountain biking. There was hiking. This is shortly after we found a motorcyclist flipped onto his back and pinned between his moto and a rock. I think he was in a little over his head.
Chad had his first mechanical of the day. One of the impressive things about Man compared to other creatures is our ability to use complex tools.
After riding Zion Curtain, we had the option to bail south on Kokopelli or forge on ahead (on Kokopelli). Ahead meant a stiff climb up to the top of Westwater Mesa but we'd be rewarded with excellent singletrack on the mesa rim. The climb was, indeed, tough.
And the singletrack was excellent. It was getting late in the day at this point. I think we'd been out for about 4 hours. The wind picked up on top of the mesa, but skies were still beautifuly clear blue.
A lunch break was in order. Mmmmm, burrito.
More excellent rocky singletrack.
With some fun chutes, drops, and techy challenges
We dropped off Westwater Mesa finally and headed back to Rabbit Valley on Western Rim. The outer reaches of Western Rim are wide open and desert fast.
The further east you get, the riding becomes slower and more tech, with excellent views.
Sand and long shadows late in the day. It was getting late. We'd been out for about 6 hours at this point.
Instead of taking the road back, we opted for the always excellent and super fast trail #2. It does have some hiking on it as well. This particular one is super fun as a descent.
