Apache Pass

Lee and I have been thinking about a return to Apache Pass all winter. But it wasn’t happening.

Then I got a .GPX file in my Inbox. A line overlaid on a map. Nothing more. As soon as I saw Lee had added something new to the route, I was in.

Chimney Canyon. The unknown. What is it about the call of the unknown? I would ask myself that throughout the ride.

We started on familiar ground. Ruby road parallels the AZ/MX border, and it’s a quiet place. Last time we were here we bumped into several groups of exhausted people, looking for work and a better life. No one today, though.

Lee on Ruby Road

At the ghost town of Ruby, we turned north, up a wash, to join Chimney Canyon. Walking shoes were on standby. Aerials indicated the 4×4 road was often in the wash. Actually, aerials barely indicated there was a road at all.

Chimney Canyon

A few technical spots popped up, but generally it was just a pleasant ride. No walking. I was struck by how efficient a mountain bike is for travel, not to mention how fun it is. Easy to say when the road is firm and the wind is at your back.We found a few singletrack sections next to the road, snaking through the oaks. Before we knew it, the most “unknown” part of the ride was over. It was almost too easy. But we knew we still had quite the ride in front of us.

The next section looked straightforward on the maps. Definite roads to follow. What we didn’t count on was a little pockets of wildlife refuge (no entry, no exceptions), followed by more houses than we had anticipated. We got turned back several times, at one point backtracking to Ruby Road. The GPS basemap indicated a road that would take us back where we wanted to be, but there was no sign of it — just a cow singletrack a little further down the road.

From the look of it, I figured there was a 10% chance it was going to pan out. But we coasted down it anyway. The irresistible call of the unknown. Soon it was obvious we were on the old roadbed, which had turned to singletrack long ago. It was a great little trail, descending to a bosque and a graded dirt road.

We got turned around a few more times, squeezed through few fences, but eventually ended up on a quality dirt road, turning east towards Bear Grass tank. We now had a GPS line from the last time we did this loop. But we’ve been there before! Where’s the fun in that?

I noticed that over the next 10 miles or so, we continually made decisions so as not to end up back on our old route. Even though we were definitely not saving time, and riding on roads that showed up on no maps. Partially we were interested in finding an “easier” way to approach Apache Pass, but really we just wanted to explore.

After a few false leads, we ended up descending into Apache Canyon. I had drawn a possible line that crossed it and headed east. But the flow of the road itself instead turned my tires south. I quickly realized this was going exactly where we wanted to go — following the drainage to within striking distance of the pass.

If, and it was a big “if”, it followed the drainage and was not a dead end, we were looking good. It was a great, super easy ride. We came upon a giant tree, where I suggested we take a break. I think it just about knocked Lee’s socks off when I suggested a little nap. “Scott, are you mellowing out in your old age?!”

It was a great little spot, and the temperature in the shade was just perfect for a nap. My feet needed a break, because we were about to begin some serious hike-a-bike.

There is a trail, of sorts, that connects the dead ends of two 4×4 roads, and goes right through Apache Pass. But that trail is quite overgrown with your typical desert nasties, and only rideable if you lack common sense.

First we had a half mile or so of fall-line 4×4 road to traverse. At the top of one hill we heard the cries of a mountain lion. “Uh oh, we pissed the big kitties off!”, says Lee.

Lee loves hike-a-bike

In typical form, the 4×4 road was rideable downhill, but pretty much a hike on the up. Fortunately our shortcut on Apache Canyon had cut off several hiking hills. We were soon at the end of the road, looking for some sign of the trail. It had been over three years since we did this ride (entry here).It took some wandering, but we eventually found our path and got to walking. I was quickly reminded why my feet got so hammered out in the Santa Ritas — walking off trail and sliding on rocks is pretty brutal. Once on the “trail”, it wasn’t bad at all. There’s just enough tread to walk on, with the usual fighting your bike through the side brush. It was hot, now that our low speed had robbed us of cooling wind, and it was quite a bit of work to push the bike up some of the hills. Not most people’s idea of a good time. But I caught myself thinking several times, “why haven’t I been doing more of this?”

Lee eyes the next piece of the Apache Pass “trail”

My legs got fairly torn up (Lee wisely brought pants), especially when I went to ride portions of the trail. This worked well on the descents, saving me some time on the feet. But climbing attempts were ill-advised, at best. With the amount of brush on the sides of the trail, it was almost asking for trouble.Trouble came, but not where I expected. Lee reached the top of a hill and stopped for a photo. It was flat and fairly clear of veggies, so I hopped on and rode around him. Just as I rode around my pedals stopped turning. It looked like the chain was caught between the cassette and spokes. No problem, I hadn’t pedaled hard.

Well, the chain actually fell apart — at the sachs power link. Never had that happen before. It is a relatively new chain, so there was some chance it wasn’t on all the way, but I had already ridden it ~100 miles. In any case, if we had been on a road, or even an actual trail, it would have been no problem to find the two halves of the power link. The grass made it impossible, in this case.

I did find one half, but the other was gone. Neither Lee nor I had our spare power links with us (!?!). Pretty sad. So I had to put it back together the old fashioned way, which of course led to a sticky link. I didn’t want to spend the time to loosen it up, since we were relatively close to finishing the loop, and I anticipated minimal pedaling.

Unfortunately I found a section of the “trail” to pedal up, and things went south there. It was probably the sticky link, but the chain went off the cassette and a spoke found its way into the derailleur pulley.

We straightened the hanger and the mangled pulley as best we could. It was still so out of line that I was just going to be happy to coast and walk up and remaining hills. It was getting late, and our water supply was not infinite, so we finally just said “good enough” and got back to walking.

We connected to the other dead end 4×4 road, descending to Nuevo Corrals. Then the climbing started. Our memories both seemed to indicate it would be mostly downhill to the car, but we were wrong. I practiced some ‘feather touch’ climbing as my chain popped around. It was actually kind of fun.

When my nose started bleeding, that upped the challenge level another notch. Smooth pedaling, with platform pedals, one hand pinching my nose, over technical trail. Good times.

One of the last hills on the road to Nuevo Corrals

We reached the car and were soon filling our stomachs at Lee’s favorite mexican spot in Nogales. It was a great ride, and I felt lucky to have a friend willing to attempt a ride like that.