Forecasts of a cold front dropping lows to below freezing for the weekend caused our wimpy Arizonan group to say "no thanks" on camping. So, we altered the plan to do a Gila River ramble that John came up with. John is the most prolific creator of "routes" that I know. He's always got 5+ adventures on his list of rides to do.
The plan was to start at Kelvin Bridge, take the AZT along the Gila river for a while then some dirt roads to the Artesian Well. There were rumours of a fountain of youth at the well, so I was quite interested. Then we'd head back to AZT and across the Gila river (none of us were "quite" sure how deep it was). More dirt roads to the top of Ripsey and down Ripsey to the cars. That was the plan anyhow.
The day started out quite brisk, as advertised.
But that didn't stop a few hardy souls from showing up at the Ripsey trailhead. Caroline, Ray, John, Derek, Randy, Nancy and I made up the group for the day.
It was definitely a chilly start - heading down to the river, but everyone was stoked.
After a bit of riding on a most excellent section of AZT along the Gila river Ray broke out some pizza for snack time.
More of the excellent AZT along the Gila river.
Then we came to the turnoff. From here we'd take dirt roads to (theoretically) get to the Artesian Well. This was an area none of us had explored so we were excited to see what was up there. Scott Morris (who supplied the track for this section) had mentioned to John that we "might" be doing some hike-a-bike (HAB). That translates into "bring your hiking boots".
We set off down the sandy road toward some cool rock formations.
And then there was the HAB that we "might" be doing.
All good things eventually come to an end, so we finally reached the top of the first big climb.
That squiggly line below the big rock. That's the NEXT big climb. John and I remarked to each other that "it looks rideable from here". Yeah, sure it does.
But before we climb, we must descend. Part of the "road" was lined with rocks. Needless to say, our progress was rather slow.
Down at the bottom was a camping spot with a really cool view. As challenging as this area was - it was way beautiful.
On the way up from the bottom, our track to the Artesian Well diverged from the road we were on. It appear to just go off into the brush. At the time we figured maybe the road would rejoin the track somewhere and we'd get to the well. However, after some consulting of our GPS units, it was decided that the track to the well was a bushwhack up a wash. Given the fact that it was already 11:30 and we were making really slow progress due to the nature of these roads, it was decided to blow off the Artesian well - despite the fact that this was why we did this whole alternative route. There goes the fountain of youth...
It should be mentioned that although we did not get to see what we came for, this was a VERY scenic area and the route was worth doing - once.
Finally, at the top of the second big climb. Nice rock.
From here it was a series of ups and downs along dirt roads. Finally we made it back to the AZT and found our crossing point for the Gila River. The water was ice cold. Nancy wouldn't smile for this picture because by this point in the crossing the freezing water translated into a good amount of pain.
Don't quite know what to say about Derek's style. At least his shorts didn't get wet.
Time to dry off, soak up some sun, and have a little lunch.
And filter some water for the rest of the trip.
And off from the river under a canopy of trees. Not something you see a lot of in AZ. Caroline is going to want me to point out that she is not wearing a helmet since she forgot to bring that and her sunglasses.She's not some kind of "no helmet" rebel.
We got to a point where we could see the coke ovens across the river. A little about them here:
Coke Ovens
And onward up a long stretch of continous climbing up dirt roads. These were WAY more rideable than the ones we did earlier in the day.
Way up high.
Once we reached Florence-Kelvin highway (which is a graded dirt road) we had a decision to make. Go right and do the whole Ripsey section or go left and take the highway about 5 miles to the end. Ripsey was likley to be another 3ish hours and we would be pushing darkness. Ray didn't have lights and Caroline was not excited about doing the Ripsey descent with no helmet, in the dark. While we hated to miss Ripsey (we were hoping to meet Max, who was supposed to be bivvying out there), we were all ready to take the highway back.
We ended up finishing with about an hour left of daylight. All were pleased with the ride. Another John Schilling epic adventure had been completed. We saw a bunch of new stuff and had a great day of riding. The cold temps turned to quite pleasant upper 50s and, of course, abundant sunshine.
Damn it's good to be in Arizona.
