TR - biking the Sky Islands in AZ

[Dromond]

Thanks for the brain dump.

[evdog]

Anytime!

[evdog]

After Tucson and the Chiricahuas I headed a couple hours north to Mt Graham to check another ride off my bucket list. I stopped in at Safford for some food and then headed up the mountain.

With a couple hours left before sunset I planned to check out one of the loop trails up top and find a spot to camp. But when I got up there temps were already in the low 40s with a chilly wind. Even getting out to take a couple pics chilled me thoroughly and killed any desire to ride.


Views up there were great though




And the sunset was excellent. I retreated down the mountain to a spot I had found that would be sheltered and much warmer.




In the morning I was in no hurry to get back up top to ride knowing it would take a while to warm up. Headed up mid morning on the moto.

The plan was to ride the Smores shuttle route which climbs up to Heliograph peak at 10,00ft and descends from there. I had a 2-mile, 1,000ft climb to start with




Soon got into a burn area which offered some bigger views. The tower off on the distant ridgeline is the Mt Graham International observatory




Fire lookout on top of Heliograph. It is still in use, with staff staying in the cabin below when the lookout is active.




Dropping in to Heliograph trail, it gets chunky almost right away and stays chunky




Awesome views looking towards Safford




Got the gopro back up and running so here is some footage of Heliograph Trail




Arcadia trail traverses along the NE flank of Heliograph peak. It was still rocky but not as relentless as Heliograph trail




After traversing for a ways the rest of the trail descends on a long series of switchbacks, some long, some short.




The Gopro usually bricks on me after a while but it worked great this day. Arcadia footage




Dropping into and climbing out of the creek bed was about the only spot I walked.




Ran into a group of hikers just above Lower Arcadia campground who were just finishing up their hike. They had gone all the way to Heliograph peak where I started.

My day was far from over. Up next was a two mile pavement climb to connect to Ladybug Trail


Turkey Flat Trail was the connector from the road to Ladybug. The sort of trail you dont given second thought to when looking at the map. I was expecting it to descend, instead I got to climb another 300ft.




Once on Ladybug I found that trail was not going to be an easy cruise either. Lots of tight switchbacks. And then more switchbacks...




Spotted a few bunches of cacti like this




The tech sections were fun and I was doing well on them, but it would help to know the lines. Left side of the rock now looks smoother than what I ran into on the right side.




Some more switchbacks remained but Ladybug seemed to open up a bit more the rest of the way




Despite longer days I was chasing daylight to finish Ladybug. Completing the Smores route would require another 2 mile pavement climb and then a few more miles of trail. I was camped right there and opted to finish the ride in the morning rather than do it in the dark.


The pavement climb wasnt bad (minimal traffic on the road) and soon I was back on the trail. The route picks up a section of Round the Mountain trail that is passable for bikes.

Looking up that is Heliograph Peak with all the towers on it.




The trail starts off with a surprisingly burly 300ft hike a bike




Once at the first high point the trail turns downhill and gets nice




Some footage of RTM and the final trail, Noon Creek




I rode Noon Creek all the way out to the picnic area, but rather than do another half mile on pavement to get back to camp I pushed back up the trail and took a short connector trail to camp. It was short and sweet. I mean, steep.




I was considering checking out some other trails that drop off Mt Graham to the south - Grant Goudy Ridge, Grant Creek, or Shake Trail. Each listed some maintenance being done within the last 2-4 years. Which hopefully means they would at least be in good enough shape to follow them.

While I was looking at options a ranger pulled in. He said the first two trails were not in good shape right now (they are in the Frye fire burn zone) while Shake trail is in decent shape for bikes. He asked about deadfall on Smores route and I pointed him to 3 trees down on Arcadia. He was going to hike in later and cut out those trees. He said he is the lone rec fficer in this forest district. I thanked him for his work!

Opted not to shuttle Shake Tr as it would involved 4 hours driving to set up and retrieve the shuttle. Headed north and got lunch instead....

[evdog]

The last stop on the trip was Pinal Mtn near Globe, AZ.

I rode there about 12 years ago on a similar road trip to knock off bucket list rides. Two fires hit the mountain since, the Pinal Fire in 2017 and the much larger Telegraph fire in 2021. Tonto Gravity Riders have been hard at work the last few years getting these trails open again.

I got there too late in the day to do a lap. With a pipedream of getting three laps in the next day, I dropped the moto at the lower trailhead and headed up the mountain to camp. That meant I just had to roll out of the tent in the morning and ride.


A short roll down Ferndell Trail got me to the top of Six Shooter trail.




Six shooter is crazy flowy especially up top




My plan though was to peel off onto Telephone trail and do a full run on that trail first. Telephone is the easiest trail on the mountain. When I was here years ago we climbed it, rather than pedal 15 miles of forest roads.




Its a really fun trail with a good mix of fast buff sections, some steeps, and more technical riding lower down.




Cool cacti




Ran into a local hotshot crew hiking up the trail in full gear for PT




The steeps, was just on the edge of being able to control the bike down this.




Gopro was again cooperating so I got some footage




Fun ride!

[evdog]

I thought I was making pretty good time.

But of course self shuttling requires two round trips per lap, and on Pinal Mtn that is an hour up and an hour down for vehicles. I had done part of one lap night before by leaving the moto at the bottom. But getting back up for lap 2 would involve the full three-hour marathon of riding moto back up top, loading moto on truck, driving back down, and then riding or driving back up.

It was after lunch by the time I got all that done.


Shuttlemobile




The locals were checking it out.




Cool terrain seen from the ride back up




It became clear I wasn't going to have time for a third lap. I still wanted to ride both Icehouse and Six Shooter though, so I decided to both of them in one lap by climbing back up Upper Telephone from the end of Icehouse to get to Six Shooter.




Icehouse was new-to-me and pretty fun




Sounds like the pipe aka "black ice" has mostly been removed from the trail since I was there. It generally followed and crisscrossed the trail numerous times, usually at the worst possible spot.




Footage from Icehouse




Back on Telephone. Lots of photo opportunities on the climb back up. Much of Upper Telephone is rideable, even for me. With some breaks of course


Nice manzanita tunnel






And just enough rock to make it interesting




Telephone, Icehouse and Six shooter all burned, but not severely for the most part so there is still plenty of tree canopy left.




Almost back to the top. The trail flattens out the last 3/4 mile to the top




Six shooter has a mile of traversing with a few small climbs between the intersection of Telephone and the start of the descent




But once it's on, it's on




Really fun riding. Not super technical though it has its moments.




Footage...




Killer sunset after retrieving the shuttle.






My math on not having time for lap 3 was correct. Would have gotten back to the top about 90 min after dark. Not that I don't like night riding, but I was also planning to drive home tonight. As it was, I got home around 3am.

So I still haven't gotten to ride Kellner Canyon. It was the lowest priority to ride since it reportedly suffered greater fire damage than the other trails. Next time!

I was stoked on the Six Shooter lap especially. Really fun ride! Huge thanks to Tonto Gravity Riders for putting in all the effort to get these trails open and running great again!