Black Canyon Trail 10/14/07: Arizona

15 of us headed north of Phoenix off of I-17 to ride the Black Canyon Trail(N33º 59.076' W112º 10.063’). This is a new trail to me, and to many. We actually did some trail building the week before on a trail that is about a mile away from connecting to the loop we road yesterday.

We split from the parking lot (Table Mesa)at 8:00 am with temperatures at about 65 degrees. The pace wasn't necessarily blistering, but we moved surprisingly fast for a group this size. The nearly 3K of climbing we did, was spread out over 20 miles.

The climbs were gradual, and although the downhills weren't wicked fast they were a blast. The views of the cliffs above the river and surrounding mesa's are very dramatic. The special thing about this area is how green it is due to the river supplying the much sought after moisture.

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National Trail: South Mountain (Phoenix)

Here we go again on National Trail (South Mtountain Park - Phoenix). This is a pretty sneaky trail, as the technical obstacles come outta no where. This trail is pretty sanitized, but there aint no way you gonna tame the "Waterfall"

No real owies, and the carnage could've been much higher. Although the list of broken parts included a bent dérailleur and broken break lever.

Pretty fun trail!

Here's a vid (no this vid wasn't made in '05 like it says) and some pics!

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Mormon/National Trail on SoMo (Phoenix, AZ)

Two premier AZ trails in two days, WOOT! WOOT! This morning I rolled with some of the dudes with MTBR on National Trail on South Mountain. We rode up Javelina, continued on Mormon Loop, and took National up to pass before Buena Vista. Once again, the cloud cover to the east shaded us from burning spiky ball.

Here is a 2 minute vid of the ride:

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Here is a short clip of a Dust Storm (Haboob)rolling in:

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Dixie Mine up to Bell Pass (Fountain Hills, AZ)

My neighbor and I took this morning off, and we drove across Phoenix to Fountain Hills to ride up to Bell Pass (McDowell Mountains). It was about 6:15 am when we hit the trail, and it was very colorful morning to be on the trail. The light cloud cover that provide the spectacular sunrise, also aided in keeping us cool. The elevation of the parking lot was about 2,100 vf and Bell Pass tops out at around 3,200 vf.
We began the ride on the Dixie Mine trail, which is 2.5 mile stretch of slightly techy stuff. We took the intersecting jeep road up about 1/4 mile to the Prospector Trail, and from there we headed up to the pass. It was a pretty sustained but manageable climb. This pass always has a nice breeze honking through it to kewl you off. From the pass, you overlook into Scottsdale and the rest of the valley.

Time for the rewards of our climb, and it was soooooo worth it. This downhill section is a hoot. We bombed down the path to where it ties into the Windgate trail. We opted not to head up to Windgate Pass this time, so we continued down, down, down. The course of this trail flows so well and fast. We ended up tying back into the Dixie Mine trail, but before we made our exit, we took a quick peak into the mine shaft.

We definetly didn't set any land-speed records on this ride, as it took about 3 hours to complete the 11.5 mile loop.

Here are a couple of Vid's (using helmet-cam version 1.1 rearview)

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HeliPad - South Mountain (Phoenix)

I like to do this ride during the mid-week before work, because it has a fun downhill section and it only takes about an hour. I didn't snap any foto's but I did catch the tail end of the Lunar Eclipse this morning when I jumped on the trail at O-Dark-Thirty.
Here is a vid coming off the HeliPad; just outside of South Mountain Park. This trail is a short variation off of the Desert Classic trail. It wiggles its way down the the ridge back down to the floor of the park. I filmed this using with Helmet-Cam 1.0 (basically a $75 DV camcorder dropped into a plastic electrical outlet box zipped tied to my helmet) So buckle in and take your dramamine cuz this is a bumpy ride with no camera stabilization.

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This vid was filmed a couple of days ago just below the HeliPad, near the end of Desert Classic. That's why it looks just about the same as the the first clip of this post. It's short and it doesn't having a bunch of shaky camera work, but it does have a rattlesnake at the end. ooooh!

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Javelina Trail - South Mountain Park (Phoenix)

Getting some morning wheelies in before work on Javelina, the trail down the road from my house. Yep, the weather is still hot, but the desert is so kewl when the sun comes up. We didn't see any javelina today. Heck we didn't even see Wile E. Coyote today, but we did see Mr. and Mrs. Roadrunner at the end of the ride. Actually this was only the second time since I've been here that I've spotted a roadrunner.

Here's a vid of the ride:

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And this really isn't an adventure, but here is a short clip of the skies preparing to pound us, here in Phx.

Hawes out to the Pit, East Mesa

Hawes out to the Pit (Mesa, AZ)

Today hurt. This was billed as Sweatiest Ride Ever part II. Since I skipped 1.0 last year, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The humidity, due to monsoon season, that’s been hanging around the valley the past few weeks disappeared, and the big time hot temperatures returned. We all met up at Walgreen’s off of Power Rd, and split from the parking lot at 6:15. Our group totaled about 23 riders.

Near the beginning of the ride, we saw one angry rattlesnake coiled up and ready to strike. About half the group had dwindled down before we made it to the halfway point of the turnaround. This trail rocks, I like long climbs and long descents, well this trail wasn’t set up this way, but it did have some fun and fast downhill.

The four hour ride had mileage was around 22 miles.

Here a vid’s and pics: