Spring is officially doing its thing here in the Sonoran Desert, and this time of year is about as good as it gets for long adventure rides or even better, bikepacking. Due to a full time job, and quite a bit of time commitments for music related things, time is at a premium and that means quite a bit of indoor trainer rides and not getting outside as much as I would like. I don't mind it so much, and it does really let me appreciate being outside when it does happen.
I have gotten into a cadence over the last several years of doing at least two bikepacking events per year, one in the spring and the other in the back half of the year. After doing the QR in 2022, I skipped it last year as I had a date with the AZT - but I made it a priority to be at the event this year. It's not a guarantee to get in, as there is a rider number cap for the group ride. I think there were 26 out of 30 slots filled in the first five minutes or so, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. Before I get into it, I do want to say that if you are at all interested in doing this ride - I suggest doing the "group ride". Just do it. But if you have constraints that don't allow it, there is a "public" version of the route. You can check that out at Queen's Ransom on bikepacking.com
One more note: this is the first year of doing this as a five day event. The route is virtually identical to prior years, other than normal tweaks and refinements. This allowed for an overall more relaxed vibe, for most everyone. The main motivator for this was to allow the majority of riders to get to camp before dark. That mostly worked out - a testament to the route's difficulty. Trust me, don't sleep on this route, especially if you are new to Arizona riding. And bring a mountain bike (with at least a suspension fork) you crazy drop bar fanatics!
We snaked through some neighborhood roads and bikepaths to connect up to some canal path riding. It was fun watching kids at their school bus stops watching us not to mention the regular users of the paths. Some were "in the zone" and others seemed to get a kick out of us.
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| John had ridden ahead to get this perch on the bridge. Gotta go to his blog to see his version of the story though. |
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| Firmly on canal dirt for now. Weather was just perfect. Some riders behind me... |
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| And some in front. Mid-pack elite haha! |
Eventually, as we were about to get into the meat of the first day, we did a quick regroup at Desert Trails Park. This allowed for everyone to top off water, eat some food and use the facilities. John used it as a way to capture photos of each rider as well.
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| Yours truly. Photo by John Schilling. |
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| A brief little jaunt around Desert Park before just a bit more pavement. |
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| Mike W (right) and John S (left). Mike and I waited for John to join us on the pavement as he had dropped behind us. A nagging cough forced John to shortcut this day a bit, which was a bummer. He split off shortly after this and would meet us at camp later. |
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| Catching up to Gary. He's so strong. I don't even have to verify - I can almost guarantee he had the heaviest rig out of everyone. The fact he finished the route with this beast of a rig is a testament to his resilience. |
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| Fun riding around the Hawes trail system. |
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| Not the best viewpoint of Red Mountain, but I was having too much fun getting here to take any pictures. The downhill is a hoot! |
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| Many smiles are had at this spot. |
I ended up in no-man's land, or what felt like it anyway, for a bit where I was riding solo. I came around a turn and I noticed a rider bushwacking back to the trail I immediately knew what that meant, and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw Kristen waving her hands motioning for me to stop. I think I made her and others around me nervous when I got close to this beauty. Note: I didn't get any closer than 3-4 feet, which was plenty for my comfort. I really wanted to encourage this fella off the trail, but it just wasn't happening. I decided to walk around as well, and some riders stuck behind to warn the next trail users of this guy.
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| Doesn't want to yield the trail - sometimes they can be stubborn and feisty. |
Maybe a mile away, I was again warned by riders ahead of me of another cranky dude. I got closer and again I made those folks nervous as I swooped in to take a picture.
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| Strike a pose, there's nothing to it. |
A handful of riders all re-connected at the pay station. We all payed the iron ranger our 2 dollar entry fee and then took off on some trail that climbed up towards and then parallel to Pass Mountain.
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| Rich and Bret leading the way... |
We all had a fun blast down to the Blevins Trailhead where everyone relaxed for a bit and took advantage of the water and restrooms. The last fifteen miles or so had given everyone an indication of what was to come on the route from a climbing perspective, but it was soon going to up the ante a bit by adding in some ruggedness to the mix. But first...
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| Some really smooth and fairly fast trails through Usery. The cholla forest here is really great, and there are multiple cool views along the way. |
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| Pointing the way to Phoenix - but not heading that direction for the next few days. |
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| We will be riding the foothills of that distant mountain tomorrow morning. |
The trail definitely starts to sink its teeth in after this buttery smooth section. A brief and mild pavement climb leads us to the Goldlink trail. This would be tough to ride with fresh legs on an unloaded bike. That means that there was a good amount of pushing for most of us. I did pass a few riders in here - my HAB skills coming in handy. I almost caught Kristiina too, but I have a feeling that she is competitive and didn't want me to catch her. She beat me to the top of the climb, and was getting a first hand taste of chunky and sketchy AZ trails. It's a pretty steep learning curve, but she was doing great.
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| Topping out on the last major effort of the day earns you this view. |
It's a bit of a technical decent which leads to some repeated up and down horse trails. A bit of a frustrating section, but with camp spot number one coming up, you just gotta get through it. After that, the trail opens up a bit before tuning off onto some singletrack. I was kinda zoned out when I saw John standing randomly near the trail. He said something like "welcome to camp one!". It was a mile or so earlier than I was expecting, but as he had shortcut his ride today, he found a better campsite than what was originally planned. Looked plenty good to me!
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| John captures me rolling into camp. |
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| Golden light hitting the Supes |
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| Camp getting well established - we hung out and cheered on riders as they arrived. Photo by John. |
What a great day. It is sneaky difficult though - the first 25 miles or so are basically flat and then the last 30 hit you with the typical central Arizona punch. The bulk of the nearly 4000 feet of climbing comes in those last 30 miles, and that is a stout ratio no matter how you slice it. Day 2
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| Early morning views of my setup. I wasn't going to bring my tent, but decided due to the shorter riding days and longer time at camp I might as well. |
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| Some folks up and about - most waiting for the sun to light up our area. It was chilly and a fair amount of dew settled on us overnight so sun was needed to warm up and dry out a bit. |
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| Our main obstacle this morning is a trail along the flanks of the superstitions. It's called Jacob's Crosscut, though it did pick up a new nickname during this year's version of the ride. I'll clue you in on that gem in a little bit... |
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| Rolling out with John - he stops to put some air in his front tire here. |
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| John takes a sip of water while I enjoy the morning views. |
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| Me riding into the morning - four peaks there far in the distance. Photo by John. |
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| Some nice rolling singletrack to connect the jeep roads. |
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| Nothing is ever flat for too long out here. Short HABs are common |
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| This sign caught my eye. |
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| The first bit of Jacob's Crosscut slowly draws you in with very open and easy riding. |
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| I thought Jacob's Crosscut was tough?!?! |
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| Shortly after this, it starts to get tougher. |
If you haven't ridden this section before, it's probably going to frustrate you. It is tight and technical with some tricky challenge moves thrown in on switchbacks. It is simultaneously difficult and fun in my opinion. I think I enjoy it more each time I ride it, especially in this direction. Just don't expect to make quick progress. You do get some good views of flat iron and some enormous saguaros too. Look around every once in a while and take it in!
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| A rare smooth section. Photo by John |
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| More easy stuff, but prime photo location. Photo by John. |
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| Brandon rolls through. |
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| John here. |
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| Ian here. |
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| Benjamin |
There is one final obstacle to escape the trail. A downhill babyhead littered jarring decent that goes for way longer than you would think before mercifully getting to a bit of pavement. This part I do not like haha. I don't know if anybody does. I think this might be what prompted one anonymous rider to give Jacob's Crosscut the new name of "Jacob's Asshole". Haha. Juvenile and funny. Right up my alley. #approved
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| Anyway, after a short and slightly downhill bit of pavement, five or six of us regrouped and we got on some nice little bit of singletrack as we headed toward Silly Mountain |
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| I don't see anything particularly silly here. |
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| Scratch that, now it's silly. Legendary Mike W rolling through with perfect timing here. |
Just a touch more dirt road/power line corridor riding as we headed toward our resupply. I still had enough ride food mostly, but De La Cruz is on route... Guess it's time for a sit down lunch and a beer.
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| Yeah, this is rad. |
After getting our fill of that feast, we all split up to handle whatever resupply needs we had. As I mentioned, I had plenty of ride food still packed, but I did stop at the Subway next door to buy 4 of the chocolate chip cookies and a bag of chips. I also filled up my water in there as well. Everybody just kinda left as they were ready, and I rode the pavement solo over to the Gold Canyon trails.
I still got what I needed, and there were some cold beers still available, and CAKE, so it was all good. Vibe was killer.
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| Hard not to be grateful for this. #bikeglamping? |
Riders continued to roll in until well after dark. Again, another sneaky tough day. Plenty of slow going trail so the stats of the day don't really tell the whole story. With two resupply points to navigate, it is easy to burn a bunch of daylight so if you are on the slower side, you might want to keep it moving to get in before dark.
Day 3
Another great night of sleep was had and I was really looking forward to the riding today. Camp was buzzing early on - something about some hot breakfast foods (unexpected) has a way of motivating people including myself.
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| My little slice of the desert |
It seems like everyone had gotten into their own rhythms for the morning. The slower folks were starting to leave earlier in the morning to give themselves more time while the faster folks would leave a bit later usually. I was right in the middle of that which seems to line up with my own abilities.
Today's ride agenda is a beast of a ride, as it includes a climb up from Picketpost trailhead before making a traverse through Martinez Canyon culminating in a partial decent towards the Gila River where camp three awaited us. All on the rugged AZT.
Before the main course starts though, we have a nice warmup on some jeep roads to get into Superior, AZ for a resupply at the always interesting Circle K.
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| We have seen glimpses of this prior to today, but now Picketpost Mountain comes into focus. We will be riding its flanks and heading deep into the terrain to the right of it. Looks intimidating. And it is. I always get a little nervous when I see it. |
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| The route tricks you as you ride directly toward the mountain for a bit, before cutting left and temporarily riding away from it in order to hit resupply in Superior. |
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| I caught up and passed some of the earlier starters as the early downhill trend started to tick back in the uphill direction. |
The route eventually joins Hwy 60 for a moment and I was mentally putting my shopping list together when suddenly a little dog came tearing out at me from a nearby house. I had seen and heard it barking, but apparently there was a hole in the fence. I simultaneously laughed and stomped on the pedals to avoid any consequence. The dog turned back relatively quickly and I was suddenly at the bikepackers paradise of the Circle K. It was a full on takeover.
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| Here's a throwback for ya. |
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| Shopping and packing stuff away and in general being a distraction for the locals. |
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| Nice tables to hang out at. |
I bought what I needed including a nice 24oz tallboy to enjoy at camp. It's heavy, but oh so worth it. I highly recommend it.
Mike W. was having an issue with his pedal and had done some stuff to hopefully remedy it. I ended up waiting for John and Mike - finally we were ready and Maciej joined us as well. I think we were the last folks to leave of the group that had assembled here. We would be tackling Arnett Canyon which is a very fun and scenic section of trail. But first, some quick miles through the LOST section.
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| Waiting for John who was coordinating his pickup at Picketpost - he still wasn't feeling well enough to tackle the AZT section of the ride. Smart move - the area back there isn't one to take lightly and there are no bailouts once committed. |
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| There he is! |
The part leading up to the jeep road that grants access to Arnett is always weird. Somehow we got off track and just made a beeline up via some burnt in single track that Mike W had found.
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| Yes, it was a HAB |
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| Steep, but a direct approach. Photo by Mike W. |
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| John reaches the road. Just a bit of climbing to go from here to the top. |
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| Maciej had similar issues and ended up on the road albeit further down than us. |
We arrived at the top of the jeep road and that's when the fun really started. I ended up sticking pretty close to Mike W as we rode to the intersection of the AZT. I figured John would be lagging off the back, and with the horse traffic we were running into, it seemed best to try to travel in small packs rather than individuals as a courtesy to the equestrians, so after we passed a couple riders, that was the approach we stuck to.
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| The trail crosses Arnett creek several times and is often under mature tree cover. |
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| The canyon walls here are just a warm up for what is to come later today. |
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| Mike W leading the charge |
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| Final ascent out from Arnett before a descent back down to join the AZT. |
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| Beginning the climb away from the Picketpost trailhead. Weaver's needle in the distance dead center. |
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| Beautiful ribbon of singletrack |
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| Spot the rider |
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| Mike W and Ian were in front of me - I did my best to keep up with them to the rain collector. Mostly successful. |
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| Progress being made - putting Picketpost in the rear view. |
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| Mike and Ian breaking away. At this point it was head down and grind to the water collector. |
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| Yes! Goal achieved. |
We all took a nice break here. Eating some snacks and filtering water from the rain collector in prep for camp tonight and the ride tomorrow. The upcoming section is arguably one of the most scenic on the AZT, and we were all stoked to get onto it and also get to camp. Only one way to get there...
We did run into Bev at the gate below the collector. She was going to camp out there and then head back to picketpost the next day. She was kinda down on herself, but I think we all encouraged her and told her how rad she was for getting to this spot. Not easy - and then take into account the heavier bikes and miles put in before even starting this climb and it puts her in rare air. Well done, Bev!
Julian attains the saddle before we all took off.
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Julian snaps a pic of me on one of the small climbing sections on the way down.
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| Big views to the south begged me to stop the decent and take it in. |
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| Camp is gonna be behind this shaded hill - still a ways to go. |
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Camp 3 attained. Dale's butte is the rock spire in the background. The saddle we gathered at was up on the section to the right of that in the background. It was fun watching lights of riders coming down as night fell.
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| This was the main gathering point, but campers were spread out quite a bit at this camp. |
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| I think I am getting used to this. |
Day 4
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| Right after going through the AZT gate, this marker indicates the lowest elevation point of the entire AZT. |
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| Through this little rock outcropping you can catch your first glimpse of the Gila from the trail. Flowing well as usual. |
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| Easy-ish trail now. It gets tougher as Kelvin gets closer. |
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| #heartemoji |
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| Aaron catches me - fast rider and he was on a mission to finish the route today. |
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| He gone. |
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The train trestle comes into view - that can only mean one thing. Dale's demoralizer is on deck.
Cue the HAB |
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| It's not that bad actually, and the scenery is rad. |
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| One last peak at the trestle. Till next time... |
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| Just about to begin the descent to Kelvin - here's a view of the massive Asarco Ray Mine. |
Ian had caught and passed me and I tried to stick with him on the descent but he was gone. There were also hikers heading up towards us so wanted to keep my speed in check. It wouldn't have mattered Ian was flying.
I headed over to the ADOT yard to fill up on some water and wash my face at the spigot and it's a full on party and Kristen said "pizza is one the way". Haha - minutes later six or so pies get delivered and we were all basically forced to take some. OK if I have to!
Suddenly, the sun disappeared behind some sporadic clouds for a bit and it got pretty chilly. That would have been nice during the hour long road climb but whatever.
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| A series of clouds dropped the temps dramatically but also made for cool scenery. Beginning the fairly quick ten-ish? miles to camp. |
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| No longer on the AZT, so the gates return to sucky regular gates. John uses brute force to close this one. |
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| Last night's camp is up in those distant mountains. |
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| John drops in |
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| Camp is there near those mountains. Photo by John. |
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| Starting to regroup as we get closer. |
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| Made it to camp. |
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| Another classic evening. Photo by John. |
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| The end of the night and ride is near. |
We were all wondering if the mad cow from a couple years ago was going to make a return. I did hear one in the middle of the night that sounded similar, but it was fairly far away. I did wake up to the smell of a skunk - that gave me pause, but I knew my food was pretty secure so wasn't too concerned for myself.
I woke up in the morning and asked around and I wasn't the only one who smelled it so I wasn't dreaming.
Day 5
This is a pretty easy day - just gotta spin out some flat miles mainly and the motivation to get going pretty early in order to get to McDonald's before breakfast ends provides almost everyone with motivation to get going. I got all packed and headed out with John. Was hoping we would be able to stick together most of the day as the day can get kinda boring if you are doing it solo. I wasn't sure how John was feeling, but turns out it seemed like he was feeling pretty good. Sweet! Let's go!
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| Final camp spot. |
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| Beautiful morning on tap. John begins the climb up and out of the wash. We ended up having a couple "climbing challenges" on a couple of the hills heading out. We cleared one in particular in which John had a sweet save. Don't know how he did it but we both made it up to the top without dabbing and with heart rates very elevated. Stoke was high. We lubed our chains right after and began some fast descents through some sandy areas with some sweet banked berms. Pretty surprising how fast that section is. |
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| Right after my chain lube job, I decided to take the left side of this puddle and slipped into the mud bog and promptly got stopped dead in my tracks. To my surprise, the mud cleared easily and I was back to riding with nary any drivetrain noise. If only all mud was like that. |
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| A brief stop and I took this randomly. John's eyes didn't look this puffy, just bad timing. Love the smile though. |
John and I chatted about all kinds of BS to pass the time. It was nice and allowed us to not daydream too much about getting "McFat" but before we knew it we were there. Bikepacker's paradise.
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| Most of the riders stopped here, while those with more refined palettes made other choices. |
I did take the opportunity to clean and relube my chain before we left. Any noise was gonna get annoying and fast.
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| Benjamin rode out with us and we stuck together for a good while. |
Eventually Ian passed us and I let Benjamin ride ahead. His pace was a bit more than I wanted to do so I waited for Schilling to catch up and we spent the rest of the ride together.
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| Let's begin the alphabet studies portion of the route. F for Florence. |
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| (A bit tough to see) but C for Coolidge |
We finally started to break back into civilization and another small trail system. The fee was 2 dollars and a sandy wash that last time I had to hike but with wider (2.6) tires, was able to ride the whole thing.
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| John leads the way. |
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| The "shaka cactus" is a cool sight indeed. |
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| Beautiful day for a ride. Slight breeze most of the day but never a headwind. Usually a crosswind. I'll take it. |
I pushed hard up a climb and subsequent descent then waited for John to catch back up. Here he comes...
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| John broke away when I got distracted answering some questions from a group of hikers. I almost caught up to him on the final climb. |
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| Begin the fun descent out of the park. What a treat. |
There was a bit more pavement riding to negotiate and just like that we are at Old Ellsworth Brewing Co. - beer me.
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| We took over the patio and I must say the service was excellent. We had a dedicated server and she was rad and on top of everything. |
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| What a great time - but all good things must come to an end. We left as a group to head back to John's. |
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| The classic chainring tattoo is appropriate to put a finishing stamp on this ride report. |
Wrap-up
What an amazing five days spent with a really great group of people. Thanks to John Schilling for the behind the scenes work over many years to deliver a top-tier experience. It's events and gatherings like these that give me a desperately needed reminder that people are amazing and when we come together with a common interest all the division and BS of the world falls away. Despite our differences, I believe that at the core we have way more in common than we are being lead to believe. Clearly the solution to the world's problems can be solved by more people bikepacking together.
This event offers a variety of things and it really depends on what you want to get out of it:
Want solitude? It's available, even in the group event context
Want a touring pace party? Yeah, that's cool.
Want to sharpen your skills for bigger events? I can't think of a better event. You never really know who might show up to this thing, but I can promise you are going to find some people to learn from, no matter your level of experience.
All of that said, this route will put the hurt on you if you don't have a pretty good level of fitness. It certainly can look/feel like a party, but you gotta earn that vibe by working hard and being prepared mentally and physically.
Till the next one!
P.S. I think I got everyone's name right but if anyone notices any inaccuracies, please accept my apologies and let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!
