Saturday Ride, 7:00 a.m., Blue Ridge Trailhead #2
Country Club/Blue Ridge/Springs: Hey there everyone! This week's ride is going to take us on the road again, this time to do ride the new Blue Ridge Short Loop, a portion of the Springs Trail, a portion of the Iron Horse Connector, and a portion of the Country Club trail.
So, this ride is designed to hit the very best parts of all four trails while avoiding most the the gnar that is out there. The ride will start with us riding the new Blue Ridge short loop. There will be two miles of climbing to get us started with some of that climbing being kinda technical (but doable) in nature. That will be followed by a three-mile downhill from the top of Blue Ridge on new trail that was built by Big Loop Trails this spring, and then cleaned up and made to look pretty by TRACKS. If you have not seen the new trail, you will love it!
The Hole-In-The-Rock trail. From inside the hole. Not an angle we usually get to see!
We had five "initiations" from our group of twelve on Fourth of July Weekend!
After we do the short loop, we'll zoom down a really fun part of Blue Ridge to the Springs trail. We'll do the best part of Springs. There are a couple of rock gardens about 50 yards long each that most riders will probably want to walk.. Otherwise, the trail is a lot of fun. Once we are done with Springs, we will shoot across Sky-High Retreat Road, pick up the Iron Horse Connector, and then ride County Club to finish up our adventure.
Meet at 7:00 a.m. at the Blue Ridge Trailhead #2. The ride will run about 2.5 hours and we'll finish about 9:30. All told, this ride covers about 14 1/2 miles. Unless you are a bit of a masochist or just don't have a choice, bring a full-suspension if you have it. The ride demands solid intermediate MTB skills to really enjoy it. However, this will be a friendly paced "no-drop" ride! To get to Trailhead #2, here are the directions from the TRACKS website:
Trailhead #2: From the Lakeside Ranger Station, travel southeast on AZ 260 for
5.2 miles. Turn left on Bucksprings Road for .6 miles and another left on Sky Hi Road
(FR 182) for about 2 miles. Turn left on FR 187 and trailhead #2 is on the right.
Most people are more familiar with the County Club trailhead just down the road 1/10 of a mile and on the opposite side of the street.
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