"cabarne4" (cabarne4)
07/13/2014 at 21:34 • Filed to: None
6
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"cabarne4" (cabarne4)
07/13/2014 at 21:34 • Filed to: None | 6
| 21 |
So last weekend I moved to Flagstaff, AZ to finally finish up school. I also feel like getting back into great shape. Part of that means finding any excuse to go mountain biking. So today, I had nothing better to do, so I hit the trails.
Completely ignoring the signs, I proceeded to the trailhead. Honestly, the road is pretty uneventful and doesn't even start gravel until after the parking lot, but I liked the sign.
There's about another mile or so of the hard stuff after the parking lot, slowly climbing uphill. After that it's 4 miles of uphill dirt / gravel to the peak. I made it about 3/4ths of the way up until I pulled off the road and onto a trail.
On my map, the trail looked like it followed a contour line fairly directly, suggesting mild elevation difference. If I had bothered to look at the junction elevations (which my map annotates), I would have noticed the road climbed from 7,670 feet above sea level to 8,260 feet in the next mile. That's nearly a 600 foot climb. Unfortunately my map doesn't tell me about the surface, either. Loose rocks the size of tennis balls and sand.
It just kept climbing...
And climbing...
And climbing. The trunk bag didn't help either, but I was glad I had extra water / food by the end.
Eventually the trail leveled out, and I found myself in the dry lake hills meadow. Cue "My Tears are Becoming a Sea" by M83.
No shit, my iPod started playing this song on shuffle at the end of the climb. Right at around 1:10 I dropped into the meadow, into one of the most spectacular views you can imagine. It was beyond spectacular.
iPotato panoramas just don't do it justice. The peaks off right tower over you, and the clouds were teasing me with the occasional lightening and a few drops of rain.
Humphrey's Peak in the distance.
View across the meadow
Dropping out of the meadow puts you onto "Little Gnarly Trail". It's wide, smooth, and entirely downhill — meaning a high speed run down towards Shultz Tank. Bikers have carved a path that meanders across the trail, hugging shoulders through the slight bends and constantly rising and falling. Totally worth the mile long hike-a-bike.
Didn't get a shot going down (I was having too much fun), but here's where it spits you out. From here, you're at a cross-roads. Left takes you down an easy, 0.3 mile ride to the Schultz Creek Trail (which puts you back to the parking lot after a few miles. A right leads to a side trail that's mostly flat and connects you to the Sunset Trail up by Schultz Tank.
I went right.
The ride to, and around, Schultz Tank isn't very spectacular. Sandy, rocky, and not very fun to ride uphill. I forgot to take pictures, but I had to hike a couple small sections. Schultz Tank itself has some great trials around it. Being late summer, the water was way low. The lake is fed by snow melt, and trickles down Schultz Creek Canyon the rest of the year.
Spring time, that whole field is a large pond.
The ride from Schultz Tank back to the parking lot is spectacular. It's about 3.5 miles of mostly packed single track, with a few rock gardens and loose dirt thrown in just for the hell of it. There's a couple jumps along the way, the biggest about 2.5 feet, but they can be bypassed (pro-tip: Don't. They're fun). Once again, I was having too much fun to take pictures. But for a good amount of the trail, you're running right along the edge of a fairly steep drop into the creek bed, with Schultz Creek Pass (the road) running along the other bank.
After an awesome descent, I made it back to my car and packed my things. Sitting at the edge of the road, I looked left — which leads me right back to the main highway, and into town in about 5 minutes — then turned right. The road is paved for about another half mile, before becoming a gravel forest service road. Then it's about a 4 mile drive to Schultz Tank (again). The FS roads are fairly well maintained (even though signs suggest they aren't). About a lane and a half wide, but they get washed out occasionally. Luckily I had no problems.
Not far after Schultz Tank, you reach a sign warning of rock slides, fallen trees, and generally bad roads ahead caused by fire damage. Any Arizona Jalops might remember !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Over 15,000 acres burned due to an abandoned camp fire, and this road runs right through the middle of it.
Signs warned that the road is "Not Maintained for Passenger Cars". I figured I had a fair amount of ground clearance (compared to a Miata, at least), AWD, and a turbo charger, so I should be fine! (pro-tip: It really wasn't bad at all. The signs are just there due to liability).
The whole road really wasn't any different than the road coming up. Because of the potential of oncoming traffic, I kept hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, so I didn't take any other pictures.
After a couple miles, FS 556 runs into US-89, one of the main roads into Flagstaff. Turning onto US-89, I couldn't believe what I was behind!
Contain your excitement you guys. I couldn't imagine it either. A CLEAN example of a Mercedes 300D in brown!
(Pretty sure that was the new Corvette behind it. Kind of cool I guess).
Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 21:44 |
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dont you love it when your ipod decides to play a song on shuffle that fits the moment perfectly, I went on a 20 mile road ride a while a go and when I was half a mile from home it started playing we are the champions. it was awesome
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cabarne4
> Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
07/13/2014 at 21:45 |
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It's literally a daily occurrence for me. I swear my life is an action movie sometimes.
EDIT: sometimes the weather even cooperates fully. I've had rain immediately stop, and clouds break down the middle right at the intro to a song, and had bright blue skies by the time the chorus hit. Seemed to happen a lot with "Pocket Full of Sunshine". That song is no longer on my iPod, because I'm legitimately afraid of what would happen if it played at night.
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Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 21:46 |
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On my way to the bus the other day My iphone started playing walk this way by aerosmith it was incredible. You havent lived until youve walked half a mile while listening to walk this way
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cabarne4
> Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
07/13/2014 at 21:47 |
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I've had too many moments to recall many specific ones haha
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Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 21:48 |
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Life is funny
jkm7680
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 21:50 |
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Looks like fun! Nice car spotting also.
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cabarne4
> jkm7680
07/13/2014 at 21:53 |
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Thanks! There was some $kay-bait the other day, on a quick morning road-biking before class, but I couldn't get my iPotato out quick enough to snap a photo. And when I was driving down to Phoenix a few weeks ago, a Lambo was going the other way just as I was leaving town. There's actually some half decent cars around here, I guess they all just get garaged in the winter time.
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jkm7680
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 21:58 |
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Nice, How's the weather out there?
I've always been meaning to get back into mountain biking, Like I've got the right kind of bike and all, but I'm in Northern Virginia so it takes around an hour just to get to some good spots.
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cabarne4
> jkm7680
07/13/2014 at 22:04 |
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Today had a high of around 86 degrees with low humidity. Now it's cooled off to 74 (humidity is a bit higher because of the late afternoon rainstorm that happens every day). Supposed to reach 54 tonight.
So in other words, feels just about perfect.
And, I'm from central Kentucky originally. I'm sure NoVA has some good spots nearby (unless you're literally in the DC suburbs, then ... yeah. About an hour when traffic is LIGHT just to escape).
BJohnson11
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 22:06 |
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Nice! I was into mountain biking a lot in my youth and will hopefully get back into it after the summer. Problem is, most of the stuff I did in Santa Barbara was pretty hardcore downhill mountain biking that unfortunately, the mountains of SLO can't compete with. That, and I'd have to try to ride my heavy ass dual suspension bike uphill.
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cabarne4
> BJohnson11
07/13/2014 at 22:10 |
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I've got a heavy ass old Trek, and I had a fully loaded trunk bag this time! Granted it's a hard tail, so I didn't have the added weight of rear suspension.
Being in Cali, I'm sure there's some fun trails to ride. Not all of it competitive-grade downhill, but uphills can be fun as well! I'd love to go riding out that way sometime.
I actually was really big into it when I was younger, too. Biked everywhere in High School and even did a few stretches of the Appalachian Trail. Moved out West and the bike spent most of it's time in storage the past 3 years. Finally have the free time to hit trails again, though.
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BJohnson11
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 22:13 |
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Nice! Yea my bike is a 2006 Kona Stinky. Great bike, and I actually had to use it as a commuter to school for a bit last year when the free POS bike I found in my garage when I moved into my house crapped out. I'll have to try out these uphills though and see if they truly are "fun".
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jkm7680
> cabarne4
07/13/2014 at 22:14 |
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Wow, that weather sounds nice!
I'm in Prince William so I'm fairly far out but I've got to go further in for the commute. It's more burb-y than I expected, There is only one "Mountain bike" trail that I've heard of in my area. It's under some power lines, and the only scenery is apartment buildings and housing developments. Maryland, probably being my best bet.
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cabarne4
> jkm7680
07/13/2014 at 22:19 |
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Yeah, I'd say your best bet is closer to I-81... which is about an hour away. Haha
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cabarne4
> BJohnson11
07/13/2014 at 22:20 |
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Nice!
Don't get me wrong, they can't beat a long downhill stretch. But there's a sense of accomplishment that comes with topping a long uphill, and it's nice when the view gets better and better the higher you go.
D
> cabarne4
07/14/2014 at 02:51 |
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Hella envious, that's what those pictures are making me. Man I really gotta spice up my daily grind and incorporate some cycling into my schedule—I love it, I don't know why I don't do more of it. If suppose it would help if I had a bike I genuinely liked. Though I should be selling a couple of mine soon and I'm making a lot of money from my job... I should get my act together.
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cabarne4
> D
07/14/2014 at 09:26 |
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How far do you live from work and everything else you've got to do on a daily basis?
So my "trick" to force myself to bike more: instead of buying a parking pass for the lot right next to my apartment, I bought a parking pass for the parking garage on the other side of the university. That means my car is about a mile away, and there's two very steep hills between here and there. It's actually quicker to ride my bike to Walmart than it is to go all the way to my car, drive there, drive back, and ride back (less tiring, too). So now I'm forced to ride my bike or walk more for shorter errands.
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D
> cabarne4
07/14/2014 at 13:20 |
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It's gotta be about 13 miles. But I'm a delivery driver, so, y'know... kind of have to drive to work.
I realized a while ago that I love recreational cycling and hate cyclo-commuting.
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cabarne4
> D
07/14/2014 at 13:47 |
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No work-use vehicle? I used to deliver car parts for O'Reilly's. I'd bike 7 miles to work, drive the truck all day, then bike 7 miles home.
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D
> cabarne4
07/14/2014 at 21:22 |
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No, they're becoming rarer and rarer at pizza places
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cabarne4
> D
07/15/2014 at 02:30 |
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Well at least your car smells delicious.