RR: Fool's Loop Bikepack (AZ)

**schillingsworth** · 03-02-2021, 05:35 PM

I've been known to do some rather foolish things on my bike, but knowingly putting myself in a death mud situation isn't one of them. Rain, of all things prevented my three prior attempts at this route. We finally had a good weather window over the MLK holiday weekend so Mike and I went for it. Since we're local, we didn't do the downtown stick portion of the lollipop loop. Instead we staged from Mike's place a few miles south of the route in Scottsdale.

Our plan was to knock out at least 30 miles on our late start Thursday, ride two full days Friday & Saturday, leaving a short flat 35 mile cruise to the finish on Sunday.

We also wouldn't be sticking 100% to the route as there were a few sections we could avoid road and stay on trail.

The full report can be found here: The Fool's Loop

The teaser pics begin here:

Short detour to Westworld to marvel at this giant horse sculpture.

My ride: Binary Bicycles SSP seen at Cathedral Rock in Brown's Ranch.

Fast pavement miles lead to the Horseshoe Reservoir turnoff.

Late afternoon light begins to put on a show.

Mike rides along Horseshoe Dam, no overflow waterfall today.

Looks like a postcard.

Our second spotted crested Saguaro.

Probably doesn't bode well if wet.

Sheep's Bridge. A bucket list ride item for both of us. Such a cool area.

It's quite the structure. All in the name to save sheep from perishing in the Verde River.

We found the hot spring too, felt great on our legs.

Beginning the climb away from the Verde, Tangle Creek was an oasis and was flowing.

Climb, climb, climb. It was almost all rideable by us, but it was work.

Over the top, we exit the Tonto NF in exchange for the Agua Fria Nat'l Monument.

Making our was south on the BCT after sunset trying to escape the traffic hum from SR69.

To be continued...

**schillingsworth** · 03-02-2021, 05:36 PM

...Continuing

Dropping into the Antelope Creek section of BCT and competing with almost 600 100k ultra runners!!

Snack break and water refill at Bumble Bee Creek.

Another classic BCT image.

Cold temps, upper 50's, and February usually is a safe bet to not see a rattlesnake. Wrong!! This fella was so sluggish it could barely muster a rattle.

Post run recovery bags at Emery Henderson trailhead for the ultra runners. Still a lot of folks out on the trail.

Bikeglamping for night 3 at Kirsten's place in Anthem, where a hot outdoor shower, cold beers & hot tub were at our disposal.

A bit more singletrack on our last day.

Fast, flat dirt paths of Reach11.

I suppose you could splurge and get a room at the Scottsdale Fairmont??

The route we ended up doing from Strava.

After this ride, I was in contact with Bikepacking.com to address some access issues and tweak the route a bit. The updated route can be found here: Bikepacking.com's Fool's Loop Route.

**dan_pdx** · 03-02-2021, 06:21 PM

Nice writeup, thanks! Looks like a great route.

**climberevan** · 03-03-2021, 10:21 AM

Thanks for posting. I really need to get to AZ one of these drought years, but I always hold out hope that skiing will be glorious.

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