Mountain Biking the White Mountains

So after last weekend I figured out a way to either get things done... or shirk off responsibilities so D and I could head back up to the White Mountains.
This time we were headed to get some mountain biking and a blues fest in!

So I've been wanting to try... or "subject" myself to a single speed bike for a while now. So many people seem to love it. Is it just because of the attention they get for being insane and riding with no gears and often no suspension? Or, is it just that fun?
I picked up this bike for next to nothing so I figured it was worth trying out the SS world along with the 29er world all in one!


We headed up to our new favorite campsite for the night.


These are the makings of a great meal!


Carne Asada!


Camping tacos are awesome!


Time for dessert.


Mmm good!


Great views out here. We saw some elk last weekend and Javelina this weekend. Here is a killer tree.


Anytime you can find a campsite on the other side of a water crossing it will cut down on the amount of people that will be around!


We got up early so we could head up to the Mogollon Rim and meet up with a group of folks who were doing a Mountain Bike Ride. Before we left D got some great shots of flowers near camp.






Checking out the new bike and making sure everything was tight. This would be the third ride on it. The first two had gone poorly. I then took the time to check every nut and bolt on the bike before this ride.


We were actually riding along part of the Arizona Trail.


A BIG thanks to Mick at Hike Bike and Run for setting these rides up. I know it's a lot of work to organize something like this.
http://www.hikebikeandrun.com/index.html




The riders from Saturday! I met so many cool people. Amazing how one good ride can make fast friends! We road something like 28 miles. They were pretty tough miles on a single speed. At least tough for a n00b in the SS world.



The Pinchot Cabin






While we road D took a nap and took some more amazing pics!





At the end of the ride I was beyond beat! I could barely pedal back to the car! We actually got hailed on just a bit as we were loading up the car. Brrr!!!

I checked my phone and heard that some friends were headed to the Blues Festival in Pine so we made our way over there. Good way to end a day for sure!




We headed back to the campsite for a few beers and some dinner!


For Sunday mornings ride we headed over to the other side of the Rim. Just before Heber we met up with everyone at forest road 300. I was pretty beat from the Saturday ride so we consulted maps and Mick's expertise to find a ride that would be fun, but somewhat easy.





Skilled experts?? Ha!


We did a loop around Woods Lake. On the backside of the lake is an observation point to keep an eye on the Bald Eagle nest!


You can see the baby birds hanging out in the nest!


The panorama feature kinda sorta works! Disappearing tire! haha!


After the loop around the lake we did a trail that takes you right off the edge of the rim. Really cool and almost untouched trail. No foot prints or tire tracks along it. It would have been more fun if I didn't get a flat about 200 yards into the trail. I tried to use my spare tube and it had a hole in it... I patched that and put it back in and then I heard a second hole that I likely put in it by using the tire irons... So I patched that one and re-installed the tube just using my hands... yep you guessed it. There was another friggen leak!!!
I gave up. I went ahead and walked/road on the rim down the rest of the trail. Oh well. Just gotta go tubeless on this cheap SS and never look back!!!!!

White Mountains Loop

For D's birthday we decided it was time for a solo trip. About 400 miles, over 300 on dirt and we were back home.
I can't describe how good getting away from it all, the further the better, is for the soul. The ability to consult the maps in the morning and find an area with little or no roads that you've never been before that you want to explore is so freeing. We tried a few new roads that neither us nor anyone else by the look of it had been on.
On Friday after work we headed toward Payson, AZ. there is an all dirt option if you have the time to get to Payson and another to get to Strawberry, but there was no time on this short trip.

We headed just west of Payson to camp. Because we chose a dirt track that required crossing the East Verde River (Only about 2 feet deep) we cut down the amount of traffic we'd see. Down to one other truck that cruised by late at night.
Made it to camp with light left and just enough time to use one of D's birthday presents. Her new chair... Okay so I got myself one too...


Time to start getting ready to cook brauts!

Not a bad camp site.


D is getting even more amazing at taking pics of flowers.




This area was so green still. The valley is nice and brown already.




The next morning we headed toward Strawberry. Some nice water crossings along the way. Very easy shallow ones.







Lots of little worms hanging on and eating bacteria out of the water.




We grabbed some greasy breakfast in Strawberry that was GOOD. Chorizo Burrito's are gooood.
We then hit pavement for a bit and headed out onto the Rim Road that runs along the Mogollon rim.














Cool WWII era logging truck. I'm sure there is a story to this truck.

Holy front diff!!


We then headed out onto the Black Canyon road and came upon some Native American Petroglyphs.






At another spot we hiked a bit to see a rock house and some more petroglyph's. It was about as green as is gets.












We found a little used road that we had to winch a couple logs out of the way to get down, but it yielded a great camp site.




We had... okay more brauts. What is one to do when shopping at Costco. Ya just gotta eat a lot... and a lot of the same thing. Damn it's a good thing to have too much of though.
The next morning we took a look at some maps and headed out on the road. Not before some flower picture taking.





And off we go!


We checked out some historic graves of some family's that settled this area.




Great headstone...


Wild wild horses!


These three graves are of the last three people to die from the Pleasent Valley War. A feud that resulted in many deaths between the Graham's and Tewksbury's. See this for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasant_Valley_War
These three people were killed because they were thought to be on one side of the fighting families when in reality they were from back east and had nothing to do with the feud.






D Power-walkin!


This area was ravaged by a huge forest fire many years ago. The trees have fallen and look like matchsticks laid out along the hillside.


Bit of dust.

New KM2's are holding up well.


There are always more roads that need exploring!


The OJ sticker is taking a beating.

Memories of a trip to Japan...


Rack wasn't loaded down too much, but my home built rear bumper is still holding up well after about a year of use.


We took about 160 miles of dirt down the mountain toward Phoenix. Much of the road was over grown and then occasionally we'd end up on a road to someones ranch so the quality would significantly improve for a while.



Well worth airing down to 20psi so I could maintain a comfy ride!


Coming up to another river crossing.

The Saguaro's were wearing their bonnets!


This crossing was about 60 miles from pavement. Talk about an amazing find. No trash and no other recent tire tracks. Perfect.







I could have spent all day here.


There were a few old abandoned ranch houses. A few looked as though they had been occasionally looked after.


Once down the mountain we took the Apache Trail from Lake Roosevelt to Tortilla Flats where we had some burgers. The Apache trail is a bit busy, but an amazing drive not far from Phoenix.
The road goes right next to Lake Apache and Canyon lake.


Can't wait to do it all again, and take some more side roads of course...