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Whenever someone asks me what my favorite trail in Phoenix is, it doesn’t take too long before Pass Mountain falls from my lips. It’s always in the top three, once we come to terms on what the definition of “trail” actually is… Are you talking about my favorite climb? Favorite downhill, or cross-country trail? Singlespeed trail? Destination trail… I have a ton of favorite trails, one to suite every riding mood. But Pass Mountain, is near the top of every category. Why? Because it rocks. Figuratively and literally.

I think part of it has to do with the warning sign at the trail head. “Not recommended for bikes.” But I do understand why that sign is there. Pass Mountain has sadly claimed riders in the past and injures just about everyone who dares approach it. If you are a casual rider, Pass on Pass Mountain. If you are up for a hefty set of challenges, aerobic, tech, drops, all the while avoiding exposure… clip in and ride this 7 mile loop (but make sure you can clip out fast too).

So you can imagine my surprise when I looked back at my ride log and found that I had not yet ridden Pass Mountain this year. How do I go a full year without riding my favorite trail? Simple. I have no idea. Maybe I was to excited to explore new trails this year that I forgot about my favorites. So for lunch yesterday, I set out to rediscover an old friend.

I usually start at Crismon and McKellips to tack on a few warm up and warm down miles, but since lunch is only so long, I parked inside Usery and made the traditional clockwise loop from the Wind Cave trailhead. I’ve always wanted to ride up Wind Cave (a hike-only trail… I guess I should hike it first to see if it would even be worth the punishment.) They’ve made some waterbar improvements since last year. New logs and rock bars to wheelie over. The west side of the trail is so scenic I catch myself admiring all the Saguaros instead of focusing on the trail.

It’s a steady climb all the while dropping into washes and back out until you get to the north lookout. At this point you leave the sun behind rolling into the cool shade of the mountain. This section of trail twists and turns, as you climb east to the saddle. There is one spot here, wait, no, two spots. OK, three that I haven’t nailed yet. One of them I call big gnarly (only because there is a little gnarly in Flag already). It is a relentless and rocky climb that bucks me in the same spot every time. At least I have three reasons to return.

At the saddle I like to chill, refuel, and occasionally make some phone calls. I once had a business call that came up on a day I had a planned ride. Instead of cancel the ride, I was speedy and made it to the saddle by call in time. No one ever knew how “out of the office” I really was. After the break at the saddle, I psyche myself up for the sweet mind clearing descent ahead.

The sign of a great trails is one where I start talking to myself out loud while descending. It starts with just a few woooo whoooos and ends up being a full on conversation with the trail. This unavoidably happens on Milagrosa, parts of National, and on sweet sections of the Highline. I start talking to Pass Mountain about 100 feet over the saddle as soon as I start to pick my line on the slickrock that stripes the mountain.

Yesterday I got caught conversing with the trail by a couple of hikers. …Crazy mountain biker… is what they probably said to themselves.

When it’s all said and done, the XC climb back to the Blevins lot is where I like to kick it into speed demon. It’s a great workout finishing off the ride pedaling hard. The first few times I rode Pass Mountain (years ago) I was too worked to do anything but finish the ride. Since then I’ve spent the past few years building up an immunity to the mountain.

When it comes down to it, if Pass Mountain were the only trail left in the valley, I would still be a happy rider.

I finally made it back out to the west side of Phoenix to visit the in-laws. Got out to FINS to rediscover the beautiful singletrack etched into the Estrella hills. At the Westar school lot I met a local rider named Ben getting ready to head out as well. He said he wouldn’t mind me tagging along on his regular loop up Jim’s then down Grunt and back around Kylie’s Krossing. So off we went.

FINS started off with a shocker…riding under the power lines before the TH, my carbon fiber Hayes brake levers started to tingle. I felt a nice surge of energy snap through me lingering on my fingertips… it was a nice carb-free energy boost.

We hit the trail fast and headed for Grunt. I’d never run Grunt this direction so it was like riding a new trail. It was tough keeping up with him, he was putting the hurt on me on the climbs. It’s always fun to try to keep pace with someone ahead. After one lap I wanted to ride the connector to Jim’s Star Pass, so we rode it and ran Grunt again. Grunt reminds me of the XC trails at Bootleg. Shorter and not quite as much tech, but the same fun.

Towards the end of Grunt we shot down an unnamed trail that fizzled out in to a jeep road before hooking up with Randy’s Ridge. We circled clockwise to the Grunt Gap trail, I think. It was a short climb that put us right back on Grunt for more downhill. Then down Roman’s Rise, to Fantasy Flats (leads to a jeep road) and back to Spent Spade, then down Kim’s Klimb back to the start. There are so many trail names out there… Hey Harv, how do I get one named after me? I think I finally have the entire system GPSed. I was missing just a couple of short connectors from my last ride out there.

We finished up with light to spare…and since I was on the west side I wanted to ride the Junior Loop at the Estrella track. It’s only a mile and a half but I had never ridden it. With daylight fading we zipped through the the Junior Loop. I have to say it was great a great little loop, and polished off some sweet west side riding. Thanks to Ben for snapping the shot above and for giving me a great workout on FINS.

Still ahead of me this winter is Goat Camp. Another must ride I just haven’t ridden yet…

Sixty minutes driving for 21 minutes of Hawes at sunset. Totally worth it.

This is awesome footage shot with the VholdR helmet cam. While this isn’t my buddy or me in the vid, we did ride this trail. I’m not ashamed to say I did walk a few spots, but I rode plenty of them too.

I love September. The temps actually start dropping in the evenings making for very nice late-morning rides. And that means that 5AM ride times are long gone… enter lunch rides and after work rides all winter long…

This morning I hit up Wild Horse, it’s been nearly a year since I spun through Wild Horse territory. This time I rode the trail on the singlespeed. It was my tenth singlespeed ride since I converted. I definitely see a singlespeed 29er in my future.

I rode Hawes this week for my early morning ride. I set out on a loop I’ve never ridden before…I thought I’d ridden Hawes every which way but loose, but come to find out, there’s more to Hawes than meets the eye… There’s a section of singletrack east of Hawes proper that cuts south and traverses along the east mountains. It’s cut pretty high on the mountain and is loaded with steep pitches and switchbacks.

They call it Upper Hawes. I found it while searching Motion Based and came across whitefish’s tracks from 2006.

Upper Hawes has been around for more than 3 years now. There was an MTBR thread about the new trail back then…What I’m asking myself is where have I been the past three years?

I started at Walgreens (which I’ve never done before either) and rode the cool trail that runs parallel Power just to the East (I’m sure it has a name, I just don’t know it). It makes for a nice warm up and even has one short steep climb to spice it up. I opted for a climb fest and rode the Ridge trail to Granite, up the Mine Trail to Saddleback to Hawes. East up Hawes is a nice climb in itself, then tack on this “new” upper section and you’ve got a workout, Total of 4000 feet of climbing.

Next time I’ll ride it CCW from the new TH or loop into it from the Diamond Point access. This addition to the system is a gem. There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but now there are 101 ways to ride Hawes.

Last week I was in Scottsdale for a business lunch, and suggested to my colleague that we do a little riding first. He was all for it even though he hadn’t ridden in years. Watch out golf, mountain biking is the new business sport. (On the mountain you can really see what your business partners are made of.)

We made one single lap around the Ringtail Loop in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Clockwise from the 124th Street lot, beginning on the Lost Dog trail and finishing via the Anasazi Spur. At 3.4 miles, Ringtail is the perfect lunch ride.

I was on the singlespeed again, only my second official ride. I’m finding myself looking for more and more reasons to ride singlespeed over geared… the best option is to bring along a friend who needs a bike. They ride in the plushness of the Fuel EX9, I ride the serenity of singlespeed.

Ringtail is a great loop for singlespeed. There are no huge climbs to stall on, but enough climbing for a good workout. It’s even intermediately technical. Rocky in spots and some sweet switchbacks to turn. The technical spots are all on the west segment, from the Lost Dog turnoff to the junction with Sunrise. (Ahhh Sunrise. I could see your infamous switchback high up the mountain…onespeed and I will be back for you…) The east portion of Ringtail is not technical at all. It flows down past the small 128th Street lot, then gradually climbs back.

We had a great time. My business colleague rocked the trail and we both had a great time. Over lunch at George & Sons (just down the street from the 124th St. TH) we talked business and bikes. Good times.

There is nothing urban about the legend of Milagrosa. Eighteen MTBR riders met in Tucson last Thursday to experience the miraculous Milagrosa trail in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Bug Springs and Prison Camp were perfect appetizers for the main course, Milagrosa.

In all my years living in Phoenix, I’ve never taken the bike further south than Casa Grande. I’ve been living so close to a mountain biking mecca and never really knew it. Sure I’d heard of great riding in Tucson, but hearing and riding is like the difference between seeing and tasting.

I no longer need to drive to Moab to get an epic singletrack fix. Milagrosa is the trail of many colors. The initial climb, the switchbacks, the drops, the chutes, the waterfall, rock gardens a plenty… It’s rough, it’s smooth, it’s fast, it’s slow, it’s all my favorite trails combined into one, and it just keeps going down, down, down.

Between the three trails, I tasted sections of the Ridge Trail 157 in the Wasatch, Porcupine Rim, and Boy Scout in Bootleg Canyon. My take on Milagrosa: the best of every trail I’ve ever ridden are only the previews for Milagrosa. I agree with Chad, this has got to be the best shuttle run in all of Arizona.

I’ll be back. A couple of sections will haunt me ’till I clean them. Tacking on the Green Mountain portion sounds even better. A little more climbing, a lot more descending. Milagrosa, a living legend.