Today was too nice of a day to spend sitting in my office… It’s probably the last temperate day for an afternoon ride till October, so I burned out early to hit up Lost Goldmine. I’ve wanted to get there the past few weeks and look for those famed new trails I’ve heard so much about on the Arizona MTBR forum.
At the trailhead on Cloudview a thunderhead hit and the rain came down just as I was gearing up. It was short lived but made for a great start to the ride. It was a chilly 70 degrees.
I planned to ride in to the first jeep road crossing then head south to where I saw a few glimpses of possible trail heading west in Virtual Earth (Google Earth does not have the resolution for the area but Virtual Earth is giving me trouble importing my gpx, hence the GE photo) .
The first couple of miles of Lost Goldmine are as beautiful as ever. The spring flowers are all gone, but the singletrack is pristine. It’s so amazing to ride right next to the Superstition mountains. Once at the planned junction the adventure began…about a mile down the fast doubletrack I noticed a small cairn and a faint path on the ease side of the road. Sweet! I’d found the trail. I recognized it instantly as one of the “converted” horse trails (A couple of fresh tire tracks helped too). It wasn’t the trail network I’d Virtual Earthed, but it was the actual trail I was hoping to find.
I rode the new trail all the way up to the junction with Lost Goldmine (there’s a giant cairn marking the trail) then right back down to my starting point on the doubletrack. The new trail rocks. It’s rough, tough and littered with photo opp rock gardens, jumps and ledges. You totally can see the MTB work that the locals have done. There are cairns and white painted arrows marking the way.
There’s a section that is just like a roller coaster. It drops into a wash then does a 180 right back into the wash…repeats a couple more times. Down, up, turn, down, up, turn… that section should be named Gold Rush. These new trails are one more reason to Ride Lost Goldmine. I’m sure there is even more trail to ride out there. I hear you can ride to the old movie studio grounds. I didn’t make it that far, I lost the trail a quarter mile west of the doubletrack. Maybe it’s a work in progress??
Thank you, thank you, thank you, to the local riders who have crafted this new trail. Now let’s get out and break it in some more. It was so fun finding this trail and exploring it I’d hate to rob you of the adventure of finding it yourself!
Ride it clockwise off the LG trail. The trailhead is about 2.8 miles in and marked with a big cairn. You can’t miss it. If you still want the gps tracks, just email me.
