October 10, 2019

Mountain Biking on the Arizona Trail

Particularly recommended to me is Ripsey Hill. The hill itself is a tough climb and everyone hikes their bike, but once on top, cruising the ridge is spectacular! Search on "Arizona Endurance Series" for this and others.

The Arizona Trail website is terrible. Apart from being woefully out of date, they have put all the mountain biking information into a guidebook behind a paywall! I find this insulting, annoying, and it simply makes me mad. But if the information is as useless and out of date as the website itself, it probably doesn't matter.

Gila River corridor (segment 16)

I biked the first part of this in November of 2019. There is now nice trailhead parking (not described on the out of date website). Drive north of Kearney and turn onto the Riverside Kelvin road. In about a mile there is a bridge over the Gila river. Just before (north of) the bridge is a road right (west). This is the Centurion road mentioned in some of the guidebooks, but it is not labeled as such on the ground (it is on Google Earth). Drive this to a nice trailhead parking area on the left. Do not go down the road behind the big AZT sign (which might seem logical). Exit the parking area, and go left until you reach a big gate with a huge Arizona trail sign in the middle of it.

I found the biking for the first 2 miles challenging. Heading west it was simply steep and unrelenting, then it gets pretty technical when it drops again to the river. The next two miles were actually pleasant and interesting and something a rider like me (someone now starting to feel confident on "intermediate" trails) can ride and enjoy. After 4 miles total, I turned around and returned (I started at noon and the days are short). On the way back, the technical part needed to be walked entirely, but the unrelenting steep part was simply a fun downhill ride. I want to go back, bikepack, ride to Cochran and camp, and ride back out the next day. Looking at the route on Google Earth, it looks like the rest (the next 12 miles) might all be quite reasonable.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's mountain bike pages / tom@mmto.org