It was hard not to be excited, waking up in the middle of Area 52. I was anxious for the sun to come up, so I could take in ‘the place’ again, and also so we could ride once more.
Then I remembered that a broken frame meant plans had changed. It didn’t make sense to proceed with the route, given how abusive certain sections are. For all we knew the frame may fail even with “smooth” riding, so we turned tail and headed towards the car, rather than away from it.
But first we had to make our way through the lower slopes of Area 52. Chad had to baby it and walk in places, I still had free reign to sample a few more rockalicious lines, camping gear and all.
Soon enough we were on smoother surfaces, once again marveling at the in-your-face life of the desert, and the fantastic views. After we had rolled fifteen or so miles it seemed like Chad’s frame was going to hold up to moderate mountain biking, so we jumped at the opportunity to explore something new.
No need to check the GPS, just roll on. I let Chad do his thing, following as powerlines led to washes, to 2 tracks to surprisingly sweet cow singletrack, then finally to bushwhacking through flowers! It was too fun!
I almost didn’t believe my brain when Chad turned a lever and water came gushing out, starting to fill a small tank. Score!
We popped out on Florence Kelvin Road just above the ranch, and since Chad’s frame was still in one piece, we hopped across the river and sought Arizona Trail.
The AZT runs along the north bank of the Gila River, through some very remote and rarely seen country. Lee and I started our trip last weekend with this section, and it was new to Chad, so we did an out and back on it.
Well worth riding, both on the ‘out’,
and the ‘back.’
Best flowers I have seen yet this spring!
Full of other desert life, too. From tiny fleeting greenery to ancient giants.
Close to the same shot as TopoFusion’s 2009 splash screen:
(Lighting was better for that one, though.)
It was almost, but not quite, hot out there, at all of 1700 feet. We were both feeling it a bit, and thinking towards the ice cream cone that Chad owed me for the previous day’s Ripsey switchback contest.
A line of solid green! What a spring.
Curiously, the trail seemed easier and more fun when we turned around. It wasn’t the wind, maybe just the flow of the trail, or the call of La Casita. I ordered an even better combo plate this time around and topped it off with the swirl cone, putting the capstone on another memorable Gila River Ramble. We didn’t complete the loop as planned, but considering the broken frame, we were able to salvage a heck of a second day. We still ended up with about 12 hours moving time and over 10,000′ of climbing.
So, yeah, good weekend.
The following day Chad and I moved all of his parts onto my old Blue Leviathan. The blue lev thought it had been retired to ‘road bike only’ duty, but she goes bikepacking again (see: Chad’s excellent adventure).
Nice recreation of the splash screen!