In case anyone thought the 50 year trail was still too hard, there’s good news: it’s *still* being cleaned. The one spot that was hard on the trail (inside Catalina State Park) has been cleaned a bit and there is now a cheap-bypass trail that goes all the way around it. On the upper loop (where there are some nice challenges) the trend continues: I noted at least 3 new cheap-bypass trails–one was very long and obviously constructed. My guess is it is the horse riders that are constructing these bypass trails so their horses don’t scramble around on rocks and ledges. Us weak mountain bikers are quick to adopt them, though.
Dejay bailed on an Oracle Ridge #1 ride for the second time this week, so Al and I instead headed up Oracle to climb Sutherland (Cargodera canyon). It was a bit toasty with the wind at our backs, and I will once again assert that it is the rockiest road I have ever ridden. Progress is slow, but interest is high. Good stuff. Inevitably we both dabbed in places, perhaps due to nothing else than lack of focus of attention. I always think of Sutherland as C-Gap’s evil brother climb, but I forget how much more beautiful the area around Sutherland is–beauty and the beast I suppose. The back side of Pusch ridge, Cargodera, Baby Jesus ridge–all under a carpet of spring grass and wild flowers.
We turned left on Baby Jesus and readied ourselves for a challenging ride. Slow, pivoting turns and cacti dodging followed. Then it climbs sandy and rutted up and over Baby Jesus ridge. It was surprisingly not very overgrown. I found the “S.M.” slickrock detour, failed the first time, then cleaned it for Al’s camera.
One of the wash crossing was very impressive. A literal wall of mud had slid down the wash, leaving over 6 feet of mud, in a giant staircase. There was a trickle of water moving through it, still carving its route deeper and deeper in the sand. The sand was very unstable, but we trod lightly on it, leaving the strange sight for others to find it (it appeared we were the only ones to walk up the creek to check it out).
The downhill went well, though we chickened out of some of the difficult spots. There are opportunities a-plenty for pedal slams, chainring scrapes and general crashes. At the bottom the trail gets smooth and very nice, then we hopped over the new gate into Sutherland wash. Things had cooled down and we had plenty of water, so we turned right for an upper 50 year loop. Super climbing on this little loop, but one of the new bypasses really made me wonder what these people are doing out there. It’s probably being done by the same folks who are fighting the never ending battle with the ruts on the downhill, so I suppose it’s their prerogative to build bypasses. I nailed the climb out of middle gate on the second try, only to fail further up where it should be easy. That’s usually the way it goes.
The 50 year trail back (including all the new stuff we build last spring) was nice, but seemed very tame. We saw a few mountain bikers on it and a timid horse, who we gave a large berth, walking well off the trail. The new southern section of the 50 is still unused compared to the north stuff, and it was very beautiful lined by grass on both sides.
30 miles, 4500 feet of climbing, 5 hours
This weekend: Brush Corrals epic. Run for cover.
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