There's been a recent flurry of trail construction in the NW part of the Valley, sounds like a good excuse to make the hour drive. I had been up there back in October to ride the trails at Deem Hills and the southern portion of the Sonoran Mtn. Preserve (SMP). This time we'd be checking out the northern, newly minted, trails of SMP. I took ZERO pics of the trails while on our ride, so I'll have to poach some of Seron's, plus he has all those cool effects about mastered now anyway.
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| New pedestrian/bicycle bridge over I-17 at sunrise. Photo by Seron. |
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| Gill and I cruising the smooth trails, count the tire tracks!! Photo by Seron. |
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| Love the miniature effect, makes you look how it feels out there. Photo by Seron. |
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| Fast flowy fun. Photo by Seron. |
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| This is a really great shot! Thanks Seron. Chuck, Gill, me and Dave flying downhill. |
The trails at both north & south SMP are super fast non-techy rollers with a few lung busting climbs thrown in to keep things honest. It's a nice contrast to the pounding one takes at South Mountain on a regular basis. I know my bike was thankful! We we led on a nice tour of the trails by Chuck & Gill, 17 miles of loops later and we were done, but it's only 8am and we drove a looong way to get here. Seron and I wanted more and Gill offered to give us a tour of the trails over at Thunderbird Park. He said he hadn't been there in a while and heard there was some trail maintenance done. Sounds like a good enough reason to check out some more new-to-us trails.
T-Bird was more reminiscent of the chunkier frontside South Mountain trails, lots of hike-a-bike, HAB. We were convinced this was Gill's payback to us for dragging him through the White Horse Hills last summer. We managed a couple of loops and a few good climbs for our effort. This had us all thinking the same thing, how can we tie all these places together for a sweet 60 miler?? Welcome new pedestrian/bicycle bridge over I-17!!
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| A short flat section leads to the uphill grunt. |
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| Old Glory marks the top. |
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| Rocky, but fun trails with great views. |
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| Deem Hills across the way. |
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| Gill smiling a little extra after the HAB effort he put us through, but we don't mind. |
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| Loose steep descent, surfing the upper half. |
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| This mountain is growing a nice set of incisors. |
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| The north part of the valley really showcases the mountainous transition of our state. |
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| Nice techy descent to the car. Photo by Seron. |
As soon as the temps begin to drop this fall a NW epic will be had. It will link T-Bird Park, Deem Hills, SMP north & south for a great day in the saddle.
The first two tracks are from the days ride, the following two are of Deem Hills & SMP south, linking all four together will prove to be a fantastic day in the saddle!!
Sonoran Mountain Preserve North
Thunderbird Park
Deem Hills
Sonoran Mountain Preserve South
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