South Mountain: 'Round the Mountain

 I've done a lot of rides & routes at South Mountain over the years, but one popular route has evaded me. The classic Around the Mountain route. I guess I never really had much desire to do it as the north side of the route had a bunch of pavement and canal riding. I wasn't going to South Mountain to ride that kind of terrain, I wanted rocks/chunk/gnar!!

In recent years the park has built more singletrack on that side of the mountain, notably the northwest quadrant. My friend, Kara, reached out to see if I was interested in joining her and Karen on a loop. Sure, it was due time.

We met at Karen's house on the south side of the mountain and quickly joined the trail on the Bronco Flat section of Desert Classic. It had been a few years since I last rode the far west end of Desert Classic. We made good time getting through the trailhead, dodging hikers, as we made our way to the less crowded trails on the west end.

Kara drops into the final descent along Desert Classic.

Over on the west end trails, we can see our target, high up on the Gila Saddle.

The daunting Pyramid trail lurks over Kara's left shoulder.

The Gila trail was a stout climb, but the ladies are still smiling.

Here we go, long, sustained, rocky downhill. Yeehaw!!

We found ourselves on the recently re-routed Gila & National trails. Nice work to get the trail out of a crappy wash and added a couple of nice switchbacks on National.

The cavalry stampedes the hillside above the Maricopa trail. At least that's what it looked like.

Karen topping out on an early Ma Ha Tuak climb.

Kara joins the fun high above the urban speedway.

We had to keep moving as the cavalry wasn't too far behind.

South Mountain is such a gem. It's surrounded by 6+ million people and sometimes you see it: the freeway, skyscrapers of downtown and general urban sprawl, yet othertimes while on these trails you feel as though you're on a desert island hundreds of miles from anywhere. It's quite remarkable. This small, but vast network of trails in the largest city park in the good 'ol USA.

Fun trail here as downtown comes into view.

Hard to believe this mountain turns green in March.

Reminder of the urban playground you're enjoying.

Little pink houses for you and me...some hike-a-bike as well.

Kara in full HAB mode. Steep grades on this section.

And just like that, we've wrapped around the pink cube and gained a bunch of elevation.

The final miles of singletrack would come quick as we reached the 19th Ave. trailhead.

There was one more grunt climb, happy to say my legs/lungs held on for a clean ride. We popped out on the paved access road as we made our way out of the park.

Near the entrance station.

We were getting a bit pressed for time, so we opted to stay on the roads around the far east end of the mountain. A route purist would definitely be back on trails here. Next time. Karen had to leave us near 35th Ave. due to leg cramps, but in return, had taco bowls and cold Cokes waiting for us when we finished. Thanks!!

This route ended up being more fun that I thought it would be. I'll definitely be back for more and there's always options to add more trail.

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