I did this way back in 2010 in 2010. I have yet to do the real world test maybe this is the year. Sorry some of the links no longer exist. The Word doc might take a few seconds to appear.
Friday, April 17, 2026
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Usery Mountains Tonto
After Last week,
I started with "Lone Mountain Loop South" section. That way if it was a bust I would just go fight the congestion at Hawes. It was steep at first and had some techy spots through out. Enough to peak my interest. Then I took that to the "Lone Mountain to Bush" trail. Which was sandy and in and out of a wash. The wash must have moved because the trail diverged significantly from the Trailforks map. I found following motorcycle tracks was the best bet. It is mostly a slight downhill, so that helped overcome the sand a bit. A fat bike would have been more at home here, I did struggle at times on my 3.0s. Oddly enough a decent single track opened up for the last mile or so to Bush Highway. I went West a bit to see if a the trail I was trying to ride, came out near the GPS track, the answer was maybe. But I had to save that for another, day as I was a long way from done. Partly because I wanted to try the "Salty Basin Loop", you know its cause it's black diamond. Yea right! For a gravel bike maybe. Sure there were a few steep rocky climbs and descents, but for the most part it was jeep trail. The South end even was graded, poorly! Probably with a front-loader bucket blade. And actual grader would would have been too long to navigate all the hills and dales and just the general non-straightness of it all. I found FS 10 AZT/Bypass more technical and challenging than Salty Basin. If I do it again I will probably skip the "Salty Basin Loop" or find my way along the nearby ridges. I did little of that at the start of the trail.
I found the North/South part of "Deer Tanks Loop (South) fun and challenging in either direction. Its a bit techy between wash canyon and FS 10. I was getting pretty gassed and I new I what I was in for on the "Gold Link Trail" so I popped off the trail to navigate a maze of a neighborhood. And made my way to Usery park and filled my bottles at the horse trailer trailhead. I was happy to be on the flats of Blevins, Chain Fruit and Talon, but I knew Talon turned upwards and I was ever so glad to take Talon back to my trail head. Even the DH with flat turns was fun, Yes George, after 27 miles many of sand I was never happier to be going down Talon form Pass Mountain intersection.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)