Rippin’ Ripsey

I was long overdue for a long ride.

As the weekend grew near I didn’t really have a plan. Many good options, but none that captured my imagination.

Late Friday I started ruminating on possible plans to meet Grand Enchantment Trail mastermind Brett Tucker. He’s currently on the trail and by my guesstimation should be traversing one of my favorite stretches of AZT.

Logistically it didn’t make much sense. I didn’t know of a good way to access or ride the trail. I sat down with TopoFusion and Google (search, not google earth!) and within an hour I had a plan.

It was an ambitious plan, and there was much doubt. Before sunset I headed out to ride a bit of the river path, then pedaled to Reid Park to support Paula on the last 3 miles of her workout. As I rode I turned it over in my mind, and there seemed to be dozens of reasons not to go.

But once home I thought about how many times I’ve talked about riding the Ripsey segment of the AZT. And it never happens. I mentioned to Lee about my idea to meet Brett on the AZT, and we both agreed it was a “pipe dream.”

I’m tired of all these good ideas going to waste, written off as pipe dreams.

Time to make it happen.

So I was fiddling with gear until midnight, cutting GPS tracks and trying to do more research. I get pretty amped up in preparation sometimes, but I forced myself to slow down. If my mind races I won’t be able to sleep for the first 2 hours anyway, so better to take it slow and actually fall asleep.

It worked. I awoke 10 minutes before my alarm. I watched the sun rise from the car, heavy guitars pounding my ear drums.

Uh oh. I can’t find the start. PZ Ranch road sounded right, but there was no sign-in register and only posted gates. I parked the car above the hill and started investigating by bike. (People seem to be more friendly to wayward cyclists than wayward motor vehicles). I went through one gate, saw a good quality singlespeed bike hanging on a garage, so I approached.

The owner informed me that there used to be a road across the river, but that it disappeared in the ’06 flood. I was welcome to hop over the fence and see if I could make my way across.

The San Pedro river’s riparian area is quite impressive. A world within a world. If it weren’t for the light colored soil, you’d think you were Oregon. And it goes on for some time. Great for enjoying the trees, but not so great a start to a long day in the saddle.

I fumbled over a few trees, failed riding some sand, then finally forded the river. The bad news was that I dunked both of my feet. The good was that Putnam wash was firm and quite rideable. This was one of my doubts about the route — for 7 miles the GET follows this wash, and given my experience with other area washes it seemed unlikely to be rideable uphill. I had computed 8 hours of moving time on the AZT portion. 3 hours walking in the sand + 8+ trail + time talking to Brett = not much time to navigate and explore unknown and likely gated dirt roads on the return trip. There’s a highway that would work, except that it’d be dark (no thanks).

Putnam was quite a nice cycle. Chunky rocks all around.

I always get a kick out of riding firm sand. Feels like cheating. I love the freedom of being able to choose any old line, too.

I found the source of the firmness — Putnam Spring, which happens to not be in Putnam Canyon. Once I passed Camp Grant wash things got more interesting. Where by interesting I mean shandy.

I walked a bit, but cow singletracks and alternate draws led to pretty firm surfaces. I picked my way through, exercising skills practiced on lower Suburban Assault 2 wash. Fun stuff, really. Long sleeve shirt required.

Soon I found myself at Beehive Well, an idyllic old ranch known well to APC riders. It was fun to “cut” into the middle of this remote stretch of Arizona Trail. I know this trail well, and I’m sure not getting tired of riding it.

Note the pocket of gold on the east side of Antelope Peak in the pic above.

Riding briefly on Freeman Road, I began to wonder if I’d totally missed Mr. GET. I had expected to see him by now, but really he could be anywhere.

I found him watering up, and we proceeded to chat the morning away. He and I share a common interest in exploration and routing. I’ve never met someone who seems to want to understand the world in the same way I do. His Grand Enchanment Trail is nothing short of a brilliant piece of work.

It goes without saying that I could have talked the afternoon away, but high noon approached, so we split company. Not before he told me that last night he found a calf kill complete with occasional breathing nearby. I could tell that experience tipped much further to the COOL side than to the crap-your-pants-scared side, for him.

He seems right at home in the desert. He’s hiking from Phoenix to Alma New Mexico — a “short” hike (his words) since it’s only 3.5 weeks long. !!!

How many 10+ mile sections of singletrack do you know where you can average more than 10 miles an hour?

I can’t think of many.

The name “Boulders segment” is quite a misnomer. It’s one of the smoothest, and was recently voted “best place to have a bike on the entire AZT.”

Recent trailwork by Anna Pfender was evident, and it just keeps getting better every time I go back. Something about gliding and grinning around gentle corners never gets old.

Next it was on to brand new singletrack to me. When Lee and I rode through in ’05 we had to connect on roads, but there was now trail!! I ought to be pistol whipped for allowing this piece of trail to go unridden for so long.

It didn’t disappoint, though I did get lost a few times. More gliding turns at high speed, then a technical descent down a delightful canyon where I spooked a Coatimundi out of the bushes. Some interesting trail construction in places, including one truly unrideable deep rock wash crossing. It’ll keep the moto’s out.

I stood on the powerline and stared at what was ahead. “The Big Hill” the hikers call it. Well benched, many switchbacks, but a hefty and extremely exposed climb. At 80+ degrees and mid afternoon sun it wasn’t a decision I made lightly. There was a bailout to my right. But I won myself over with “how many times are you going to be here, able to ride this section?”

And so it goes in the mind of fools…

This fool struck gold. Plenty of it.

My hopes for flowers weren’t high viewing Ripsey Hill from afar, but I was pretty much blown away when I got there.

There are 4 switchbacks “visible” in the above pic. Pretty darn rideable, as long as you can keep from exploding. I had to stop and take pictures (there was really no choice) which served to prevent meltdown. It was plenty warm, but a drink from my bottle confirmed that it wasn’t hot out — the water was palatable.

Once on top of the Big Hill it’s three miles of glorious ridgetop cruising, often with no tread, just cairns. Comparing my GPS track to when I rode it with Lee in ’05, I made the exact same wrong turns. Fun stuff with a great “free ride” feel, and stupid big views of the Ray Mine, the Gila, White Canyon, Winkleman, the Catalina’s, etc…

I almost felt bad trampling so many flowers under tire. There are some great switchback platforms (as above) on this trail. Though many require hoppin’ and I wasn’t in the hoppin’ mood (my ribs don’t appreciate it much). It’s a shame so few people have enjoyed this trail. I expected more overgrowth, especially considering how it was in ’05, but flowers were the biggest “overgrowth” and somehow they weren’t annoying me.

After so much singletrack it was actually a relief to rocket onto 2 track and fly down to the Gila River. It helped that I was sitting good time-wise, with just enough daylight to do some exploring on the way back.

After some 100% traffic free dirt road, I rolled 4 miles of downhill highway 177 into Kearny. (I almost missed my big ring)

It was carny time in Kearny.

After grabbing a cold drink at the store I inquired as to the existence of a bridge over the Gila River. My goal was to ride the Camino Rio which would take me some 25 miles back to Putnam Wash. But the ~500 CFS Gila River was a bit of a barrier. The first local had never heard of the Camino Rio and knew nothing of the other side of the river. How long have you lived here?! Then some hunters told me I’d be fine to squeeze across the bridge with a bike, and that the Camino should be open (just unlocked gates).

Turns out they were right. A number of gates, a few vague signs, but mostly smooth sailing. I saw about four vehicles, and maybe three adolescents on ATVs. Overall a very pleasant cycle. A few hills (one in unrideable sand!), but with a gentle tailwind I was floating at 12-14 mph, which makes for some very fast miles.

Occasionally I get a disturbing twinge of a thought. I start thinking that racing the Divide might be a good idea. I feel like putting my head down and just pedaling. Just pedaling.

With a tailwind and riding a chemical imbalanced euphoria from miles of flower studded singletrack, it’s easy to see why I started thinking that way. I’m kinda partial to feeling good/strong as the 10th hour of a ride rolls by, too.

Luckily I found some washboard and pieces of shandiness, and I was quickly reminded why the Divide is such a poor idea. For me.

And sure enough, I was ready to be done as I neared the end. It’s funny, but the heat started taking it’s toll only after the sun went down and things cooled off. I didn’t feel like eating anything and my head was hot. So it goes on the first big heat ride of the year.

The flooded road across the San Pedro was more obvious from the other side, and after a refreshing dunk in the river I was soon back at the car. 10 minutes later I was sucking a divine vanilla shake from Mammoth’s 77 drive-in.

72.5 miles, 9000′ climbing. This would make a great sequel to the Antelope Peak Challenge.