The final flight

First, some background:

For the last 19 years Jim Wilcox and his wife Kim have put on an event called "Flight of the Pigs". It happens on the day after thanksgiving and is a bike ride that hits the major dirt trails around Phoenix - in a 75 mile loop. The ride is pretty diverse. It includes a very tough end-to-end traverse of South Mountain as well as spinning on relatively flat roads in the city. This ride is not for beginners due to it's length and difficulty. However, over the years the Flight has a attracted about 80 people each year who are willing to spend their entire day riding around the city.

Jim and Kim moved to Utah during the last year. So they were no longer around to run the event. However, due to this being the 20th year, they conned some friends (The Bingham's) into hosting the start/finish festivities and came back for one last Flight of the Pigs. This one was was a bit different since there would be a special finishers award to all who finished and everyone would get a special run of FOTP XX socks. To cover the cost of all that Jim had to raise the usual price by almost 250%. He was worried that he wouldn't get the 80 folks needed to sign up so he didn't lose money on the deal. On race day 157 people started the final flight.  

One more VERY important component of the day. It was Nancy's birthday. For some guys, this would mean they had to skip the ride and stay home to do all those things you do on a birthday. But not with my gal. When asked if she wanted to spend her birthday riding around Phoenix she said "heck yeah". I'm a lucky guy. 

On to the day.

As always the flight starts very early with the weigh in. Each person is weighed with their gear. The heaviest one to finish gets a special recognition.

The weigh in

It was a rather cold (for Phoenix) morning. Fortunately there were a  few fires to keep us warm until the sun came up. As people arrived, it started to get pretty crowded. 

One of the mainstays of the Flight in recent years has been Beverly Rogers (The Bevinator) and her very tasty chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately Bev was out with an injury - but she still brought cookies. Awesome.

Better than a Clif bar any day

Keeping warm by the fire

Sun is coming out. It is go time.

Our hosts for this year live right off the Desert Classic trail, so we were able to hit dirt right away. 

On Desert Classic

Here comes the sun

Up Pima Canyon and onto Mormon. 

The first big challenge of the morning. I hear that there are people who can clean this climb. I've never seen it done. Time to practice hike-a-bike.

Near the top of that first tough climb I took a picture and put my camera back in the harness on my pack. Or so I thought. A couple of miles later at the "waterfall" section I stopped to take a picture. No camera. Oh no. This was a new camera and not a cheap one. However, I had written my phone number and email address on it. If an honest person picked it up, I'd likely get it back - hopefully. At that point there was not much I could do but continue on.So, no more pics of South Mountain for a while. 

Last pic on SoMo

When I got down to Telegraph pass I stopped to wait for Nancy. Took my phone out in the hope that someone had picked up the camera and called or emailed. Sure enough there was a phone message from a guy named Gerald - a fellow Pig on the Flight. Oh joy! We arranged to meet up at the gathering at San Juan. I'm so happy that there are good folks like Gerald out there. When Nancy lost her GPS a year ago, it had her contact information on it - but was never returned. So, not everyone is as honest as Gerald - I wish him much good Karma. 

After Telegraph is a nasty climb/HAB section, but it gets you up to the ridgeline - which is spectacular. All of Phoenix is laid out below you. This trail is really quite fun, until the end when it heads down the mountain. Then it turns scary. Lots of loose skree and pointy rocks on very steep downhills. This is where you make decisions about how much risk you can tolerate. Once you get down the mountain it is a shortish ride over to the San Juan trailhead for the first gathering stop. Time to chill, eat, talk, and wait for everyone to catch up. Here I met up with Gerald and got my camera back. Much joy!

We headed down to the pavement and prepared for the next section which would be canals and pavement to Sacks for lunch. 

Lets go, Lunch is waiting.

South Mountain in the rear view mirror

Canal riding

Getting ready to do the sprint up 7th Ave

Once we hit 7th Avenue it is a brisk ride straight north until the turnoff for Sacks. This is where the pace is usually the fastest and us singlespeeders get dropped. It was still fast this year, but we did manage to not be the last ones there. So that was nice.

This is living - lunch, sunshine, friends. 

In the past this little sandwich shop has seemed a bit overrun with 80 hungry mountain bikers. I wasn't sure how they were going to handle twice that number this year. However, they were super efficient and got it done quickly. Clearly, they have gotten this down to a science. That meant less time in line for us and more time recovering and eating.

Lots o bikes. 

All good things come to an end. Back on the streets to start working off those calories. Again we headed north on 7th Ave. This is a very busy street. But, given our numbers, we occupied one of the three lanes.

Pavement ran out and the T100 trail in the North Phoenix mountains began. These mountains are smaller and less challenging than South Mountain, but there is still plenty of work here. 

In any big group like this you'll see lots of interpretations of mountain biking. Fat bikes, full rigid single speeds, etc. However, this is the first time I have seen someone on a ride of this length on a BMX bike. Just watching this guy made my back and legs ache. And yeah, he finished the ride. Hard core for sure. 

On the T100 trail there are usually a couple of stops. This year, some kind soul had a case of PBRs at the top of a climb - mandatory stop for single speeders. 

Break time

Carbo loading

I've seen folks on tandems in many different rides, but this one kind of amazed me. South Mountain is a challenging trail on a regular bike. I can't even figure out how these two got that thing over the mountain. Fortunately T100 is a bit more open.

This trail was not without it's challenges. This climb is a tough one. Good for practicing those bike pushing skills.

Random Christmas tree in the background

In the last couple of years, the wife and kids of one of the regular FOTP riders has set up a lemonade stand by the side of the trail. This is another excellent stop. Especially since there is an option of "hard" lemonade. And this year there were piggie cookies. Another chance to stop and chat and enjoy the day. Thanks to Doug and his family.  

Tasty lemonade and cookies

For the rest of T100 I rode with some folks keeping a pretty good pace, so didn't stop for pics. Besides I knew that the trail ended at the "grassy knoll", where various treats would likely be waiting. 

Sure enough, there was ham, cookies, beer and other consumables. None of this was part of the fee for the race and none was organized by Jim. This was all just various folks pitching in to make the Flight extra fun. To all who did that I say thank you. Most excellent.

Tasty, tasty ham

The "grassy knoll"

Chill time before hitting the road

After a nice long rest we were back on the streets again.

Jim was giving Nancy a push down the hill

At the front of the pack - a rare thing. 

Shadows are getting long

Jamming up another intersection

On through streets and canals to Papago park. We did a quick circuit through there and then on to the Pyramid for the final gathering spot. Time to put on lights. This is the tomb of a former Governor or something. Very odd. 

Sun going down.

The tourists were wondering what the heck was going on

I brought a string of  battery powered Christmas lights for my bike this year. They don't look like much in the pic, but they looked great when it got dark. 

From the pyramid we made our way to Tempe and rolled down Mill Street. This is the main drag near ASU where there are lots of restaurants and such. Lot's of folks out walking - surely wondering what we were all about. 

From there the pace picked up and Nancy and I tried our best to spin fast enough to keep some folks in sight. We were semi-successful and eventually made it back to the finish. 

Hot barbecue, kegs, and warm fires were waiting. Oh yeah. We ate, drank and swapped stories. Of course there was the awarding of the FOTP XX finishers awards. Jim decided to do the awards in weight order this year, lightest first (remember, that includes rider/bike/gear). First name announced - Nancy Gray. I wasn't surprised. Super light single speed, one water bottle, no pack. and that little dynamo of a rider. Yep. Lightest piggie of the ride. 

About the finisher's award. We had gotten little pig's wings in past years. This year Jim stepped it up by having a local jeweler (Hoss Rogers) do a special sterling silver medallion that could be a pin or could be used as a bike stem top cap. He did a really nice job - as you can see below 

It was an excellent end to a really outstanding day. I think that everyone agreed that they were happy to have been a part of this event and sad to see it end. But at least it went out with a bang. 

Thanks to Jim and Kim for many years of fun flights. It's been great. 

Big loop around/through Phoenix

Plans, Shmans

Chad posted up on Facebook looking for someone to go bikepacking. We had a free weekend, hadn't seen Chad in quite a while and were definitely up for a weekend out in the desert. Plus temps were supposed to be in the high 70s with ZERO chance of rain. Perfect. Chad sent me a proposed route and some ideas for things to see. We talked it through a bit and figured it was a solid plan.So, the plan was to...
Doesn't matter. Plans were made to be changed and that is sort of how the weekend went - right to the very end.

We started up near Cochran Road and Florence-Kelvin Hwy. The plan was to meet at about 4:30 Friday afternoon and ride down to area 52 - getting there right around dark. So we would likely need lights. First change in the plan was that Max was coming along - but that was a good thing. We hadn't seen Max in quite a while either and when you get Chad and Max together it is always interesting. We met up, found a spot to stash the cars and headed down the road.

We are headed down there somewhere for the weekend

Down into the Gila River valley

There was just a little bit of climbing

Getting late

Turned out we made it to Area 52 in good time and had enough daylight to find a spot for the night and set up camp. We dragged those lights with us for nothing. Or so we thought. 

The start of Area 52

We set up camp, got a fire going and broke out dinner and libations. We had wine, beer, and whiskey. Nancy passed around some smoked salmon and cheddar cheese on crackers. Max broke out the bacon. This is how bikepacking is supposed to be. 

Chad knows how to build a REAL campfire. 

Morning came and the campfire still had plenty of life and offered warmth to go along with breakfast.

 Once we were fed, we headed over to the main event to play around before the day's ride. Area 52 is an intriguing area. One could ride around there all day discovering new places.

Once we finished playing around there, we headed back to camp to finish packing up and on to the next leg of the adventure. From here there is a "standard" way to get to box canyon. But we discarded that part of the plan in favor of riding through a train tunnel. Exactly how to get to this tunnel was not completely clear, but we had a general idea of where it was. What could possibly go wrong.

Down to the Gila River

Crossing the Gila without getting wet. Score.

Once we got across the river it got a little hazy as to where to go next. I could see on my Garmin that there were railroad tracks about 750 feet "in that direction". Since there was no clear route, we just went "in that direction". 

Let the bushwhacking begin

I'm sure it'll open up on the other side of this.

We definitely have to be getting close.

Seriously, enough.

Unfortunately that 750 feet was packed full of brush and deadfall that had been washed down in previous floodings of the river. We did eventually make it to the tracks though. But that was one of the more "interesting" bushwhacks I've done. Worthy of a John Schilling adventure.

So, what time does the next train roll through?

Fortunately the tunnel was only 1/4 mile long. We had heard a train the previous night, but nothing since then.

They seriously don't want vehicles driving into the tunnel.

Doubletrack?

Ouch

We eventually found our way off the train tracks, after an erroneous detour on my part, and headed up toward Box Canyon.

This is a pretty cool canyon to ride through. As you can see, it gets pretty narrow in spots. Wouldn't want to be there when it is raining. 

We weren't the only ones drawn to the canyon. We saw this 4 wheeler tour as well as individuals in 4x4s, 4 wheelers, and motorcyles. This area isn't exactly a secret, but it is still pretty remote. You gotta have some good clearance on your vehicle to get out here.

Unfortunately, box canyon eventually came to an end. The only way for us to get over to where we wanted to go was Martinez Canyon. That meant lots of up and down and plenty of high quality hike-a-bike.

Time to go up...

...and down

Rinse and repeat.

There was a nice solid surface here, so climbing was good.

The views out here are so great.

Of course pictures don't capture how amazing this area is.

Shredding the gnar.

Of course we are heading up there. 

Surprisingly, Chad's sidewall slice was the only mechanical of the weekend. 

We originally had some idea of hitting the AZT after this to Kelvin, but we decided to head over to the Coke Ovens instead. We had all seen them from afar, but not up close. So, again, our plans changed. It seems that these structures were used for turning Mesquite into a hotter burning fuel used for purifying gold and silver. A cool bit of AZ history. A dirt biker we met up with said that the area had been fenced off, due to some people damaging some of the property. I can't understand why someone would go all the way out there just to do dumb stuff. We decided to get a closer look at the ovens anyhow. Besides, we didn't really have any options for moving forward.

One of the things that struck us was how big these things were. From across the river, where everyone had seen them from, they look tiny. They are anything but tiny.

Nancy agreed this was worth seeing up close

Unfortunately, the only way forward from there was UP. We could see where we wanted to go, down below us at the river. It was "just over there" though those bushes. We learned our lesson from the day's earlier adventure and headed up the big grunt. 

After a big up and a super sketchy down, we made it the the "usual" crossing of the Gila river. It was lower than Nancy and I had every seen it. Usually it is above the thighs, but today we hardly got our ankles wet. It was actually rather refreshing. 

Snack time

From here it is about 10 miles and 1500 feet of climbing to get back to Florence Kelvin Highway (and by highway, we mean a dirt road in good condition that sees maybe a few cars an hour). We didn't want to go that far and it was still fairly early in the day so we began a leisurely climb up the road. There was some discussion about whether to find a place to camp up high, near the Highway, or to continue all the way back to the cars and spend the night there. We figured it would be more fun to camp out up near the highway. So, up we went.

The river is down there somewhere

I love this country. So remote. So beautiful.

We eventually found a little clearing off the dirt road a ways that was suitable for spending the night. 

Inflating the sleeping pad

 We had our various meals, enjoyed a more modest campfire and got to sleep good and early. Around 3:30 am I noticed the sound of something small falling on my bivy - multiple times. Then a rain drop hit me in the face. Say what! Zero percent chance of rain. No way is it raining. Dug out my phone and turned it on. Looked at a weather app and saw a large green area heading our way. Woke everyone else up and we decided, since no one had rain gear of any type, to get up and go back to the cars before it got worse.

Scrambling to pack up before the rain got heavy.

Max was ready to go in about 60 seconds, with Chad right behind him. Nancy and I followed up and we all hit the road out for a bit more climbing. It continued to rain steady, but not heavy. Once we hit FK Hwy it was some up and down with lots of down, so we made the final 12 miles of the trip in 1 hour flat. You can make pretty good time when properly motivated. When we got back to the cars at around 5:30am it was still raining a little - but not too bad. So, once again, our plans were altered - but this time by nature. And we ended up needing those lights after all. 

We didn't do huge miles this weekend, but we did see lots of cool stuff. I can now check Area 52 and the Coke Ovens off my "places to go" list - with the expectation that I will visit again. Some people  have difficulty dealing when things don't go according to plan, but the changes we made on the fly helped to make this a very memorable weekend. Seeing cool stuff on a non-stress ride with friends - doesn't get better than that.