So freeskier46, mentioned that he was gonna head on over and ride K Trail in Apache Junction, so I decided to tag along. A few utter riders, RNC, Eda, Dave and Matt also showed up for a little tour of the trails.
During my 50 minute drive from Ahwatukee over to A.J. I heard the radio dood say that it was 39 degrees out. Luckily, it didn’t seem that cold, cuz I just had a long sleeve shirt and shorts on. I think by the time I got there at 8:30 it seemed have warmed up a bit. The clouds looked pretty cool, and I’m kicking myself for not getting a time lapse camera set up. Drat!
The plan was head out of the north end of the parking lot onto Lost Goldmine Trail, climb the little hill, then do a short descent and then at the left hand hair pin turn where the trail heads due north, we hoped over a few boarder rocks then jumped on a flat but worn trail that headed due south (no, I’m not gonna shorten this terrible run-on sentence). About 5 minutes of this trail, we tied into the jeep road that headed basically due east. From here, we pedaled for about 20 minutes as the jeep road head east, but also a little bit north towards the Superstoopid Mountains. And from here, we jumped back onto K-Trail, which some schweet-schweet single track. It basically takes you throw a bunch of twisty turns and washes. It generally heads south for a while and then curves to the west. It made so many twists and turns that I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going to end up, until we got there. The trail also crossed over the road several times, it is a tough to figure, but once we got done with ¾’s of the loop it started to make sense. Its not like I really don’t get lost or anything, cuz the natural landmarks are pretty easy to keep track of.
It had rained the day before our ride, and in the dirt spots, it was a tad bit mucky. It was kinda weird seeing dirt and mud in the desert. Despite the momentum killing mud, the trail was pretty easy to ride. I think our 10 mile loop only had about 1,000 feet of climbing, and easy climbing it was. We only climbed two or three small hills. We didn’t include Quartz Ridge, but there is actually a hill to climb there, I guess.
Despite the hammerfest XC feel of this trail, there are a few really, really choice gnar moments on it. Nice bolder rolls and big 5 foot drop (which opted for the non drop b-line on). I’d say this trail wasn’t made for big bikes, but fun could still be had there, but if you are a single speeder, you’d pretty much dig this trail.
The views really amazing. It is tough to beat having the majestic cliffs of the Superstoopid Mountains in the background. I don’t think I’ve ridden in a place with a higher concentration of saguaro cactus.
I think the six of us were out for about 4 hours, and who spend that much time riding a measly 10 miles??? Well, when you are having as much fun as we were session on stuff, the you’d understand.
My only problem was that I messed up my Jump Stop chainguide when I bobbled on some techiness, and I wasn’t able to get it set properly. So for half the ride my chain would fall off. Drat!
Here is a MTBR link for further discussion about this trail.
Here is a vid of the day:
And here is an interactive Google Earth map of the area:
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