Since he opted to do this on a Friday, we could not come along. However, he gave the loop rave reviews, so Ray and I decided we wanted to do it on Sunday. Ray conned Bart into coming along and of course Nancy was in as well. Nancy and I had intended on starting earlier than Ray and Bart, but that didn't work out. We ended up rolling into the ELH parking lot as Ray and Bart were getting ready. So we started the ride as a group of four.
Lets get going
Unfortunately, the first part of this loop is on the section of Black Canyon Trail between ELH and Carefree Highway. For all the acclaim the trail gets, this section is awful and pretty much no one rides it - for good reason.
Off on some rather uninspiring trail
This pretty much says it all
Walking across a rock covered wash...
...and up the side of said wash.
Someone obviously had a problem with that sign
Don't want to get their bikes wet
Eventually we turned west off of BCT onto the Maricopa trail. Unfortunately, this section is also pretty blah. I was starting to say bad things about John and his stupid ideas.
Ultralight buzzing around
Once we got to there the trail turned to the north a bit, it actually started improving. We came upon some trail building teams - putting the finishing touches on some sections for an upcoming race. The trail had finally gotten fun to ride.
On we went, getting closer to the lake. Suddenly the trails changed. The flats gave way to some actual hills and some nicely designed trails going up and down those hills. Now we're talking.
A rare shot with Ray, Bart and Nancy in the same frame
Reminds one of the best sections of BCT
I gotta say that the trails around the lake that I had been hearing about lived up to the hype. They were well built, interesting, fun, and had great scenery. Worth the visit. Oh, and lots of climbing.
Finally actually see the lake
Interesting terrain
Views off into the Hell's CanyonWilderness area
Always interesting things to see
Eventually, we ran out of trail on the north end of the lake and had to hit dirt road. At this point Ray and Bart had gone hyperdrive and we never saw them again. The road here wasn't bad, but it had a lot of vehicle traffic - especially quads. However, we were getting further from civilization and closer to big views. Love that stuff.
Over on the very right is a notch we'll go through - eventually.
Nice view of the lake, from the north
Cool stuff in one of the fingers of the lake
Not the nicest dirt road, but rideable
Getting closer to the "notch" we'll ride through
As the main road turned off onto a road that was far less used, we headed east. This was lots of up and down as we skirted the north end of the lake. Eventually we dropped down to lake level and had to do some workarounds on the track where roads went right into the lake.
definitely at lake level
Guess I should go around
We did a little bushwhacking in this low area, but then started climbing a bit. Here is where it started to get real. No more nice roads. Instead we had jeep trails or things that used to be jeep trails. Not sure this area had seen a vehicle in many years. This is usually where the good stuff is and it did not disappoint. For all the time I spent pushing my bike, I had time to take pics of all the cool stuff - and of Nancy riding the stuff I was walking. D'oh.
We could hear water running down there somewhere
The road isn't too bad here.
The camera flattened out those two rock formations, but they were really cool in person
Wait for me...
Then there was the tailpipe gate. Gotta love the creative ingenuity of using whatever is available.
This gate was followed by a sea of babyhead rocks - going up. I see this particular section as a test of sorts. If, after riding for 4-5 hours you come upon something like this your reactions are likely to be one of two.
Either a. What the $#@ is this? Dammit, I don't want to deal with this.
Or b. Laugh - just because.
I'm of the opinion that folks who react with a. shouldn't be doing this sort of thing. But those who just go with b, get it and are prime candidates for a patented Schilling backcountry loop. It's often the stuff that is unknown that turns out to be the most "interesting".
The test
After trudging up "babyhead hill" the trail went back down on a marginally rideable section - of course.
At least the views are great
Shred it Nancy
Finally we made it to the Agua Fria. We knew this section would be a bit iffy since the amount of terra firma was dependent on water level. I think we pretty much lucked out since it was all passable. If the water was much higher it could have presented more problems.
That is actually the road (or gulch) down to the river
Random cool rocks
The locals made a nice trail for part of the trip up river
We got to where we needed to cross the river and it was, fortunately, much narrower then where we dropped down into the riverbed. Nancy just trudged across through the water, but I wanted to get across dry. Hopped across some rocks with a final leap to the last rock. Lost my balance backward and ended up stepping back into the river. Ah well,
From here we hit Table Mesa road. The sound of gunfire told us we were back in civilization. Motored up the road aways to the BCT turnoff and headed south towards Emery Henderson.This section was well know and just a matter of churning it out.
Looking back toward the Table Mesa Road area
This was a really good route. It certainly had everything: singletrack, doubletrack, pavement, dirt road, jeep trail, and WTF trail. There was heavy hiker traffic on one section around the lake and then areas that no one appears to have been in a long time. Add in sunshine and some pretty stellar views and you have an outstanding day on the bike.
One of the really great things about a trip like this is that we got to see some areas that we've never been to. Now I know what is on the other side of those mountains to the west when I'm rolling down BCT. And I had a far away glimpse into the Hell's Canyon Wilderness area - which Nancy is threatening to make me go backpacking in. Even better, I know there is much more out there left to see. Can't wait.
GPX file here
No comments:
Post a Comment