Mountain Biking The Arizona Trail

I recently returned from a 900 mile 25 day mountain bike ride of the Arizona Trail from Mexico to Utah. The ride was a great experience and I plan to embark on further mountain bike adventures. Thanks to Scott my good friend for all the great rides we have undertaken in the past year and for the route finding work he did. Thanks to my wife Joan who supported my home while I was away.

There are different ways to accomplish riding from Mexico to Utah on the AZ trail. It is possible to take roads which parallel the actual singletrack route or you can ride some of the singletrack and some of the roads or you can try to follow the singletrack only. In some places the trail is not yet built and in some places the trail enters wilderness where bicycles are prohibited. Scott and I chose the ride the trail as close to the singletrack trail as possible without entering the wilderness areas.

The result of this decision caused us to search for our own route around the Superstition Wilderness which turned out to be difficult but very interesting. We came on an old line shack which is still in good condition and is probably used occassionally.

The other big obstacle which cause us a lot of conversation was the Grand Canyon. The official route of the Arizona Trail goes right through on Bright Angel to Phantom ranch and out on the North Kaibab trail. In the end we backpacked our bikes through the canyon. Now that it is done it is hard to imagine we would have done it any other way but before we accomplished the task we had doubt about whether we could even do it.

We did do it though and I know Arizona and it's back trails in a way which few have been privileged to see.



Here is the" to do "ride list

Cochetope Hills, Colorado
Columbine ride
Mesa Tres Rios, Sonora, Mexico
Pinochet highway, Argentina
Nogales hills Nogales, AZ
Highline Colorado trail
Camp Hale, Co
Mosquito Pass , Leadville to Alma