Mingus Mtn: East Loop

 One of my Strava buddies recommended a route to me after seeing my BCT Mistake Tank ride. It looked quite promising and a bunch of stuff I hadn't ridden before. I opted to make a couple of edits to it, adding the BCT singletrack instead of a forest road and a short spin on a couple of trails in Camp Verde, which would be new-to-me.

I made my way north, back to the small parking area off Old Cherry Rd, south of SR169. I'd be riding this loop in a CCW direction.

Getting started on the 1+ mile of General Crook trail.

On the BCT, but...

I was barely 1 1/4 miles into the day when I heard the dreaded hiss and sealant began spewing airborne. Ugh, front tire was snakebit in the middle of the tread. I stopped, rotated the wheel so the sealant could do its thing. It slowed, but was still hissing a bit. I rolled on in hopes it would quickly settle in and it did. Didn't even need to air up the tire.

Currently, the one tricky bit of navigation on the BCT. Cross under SR169, then after going through this gate, go immediately to the right, across the sandy wash. You can see the trail going up the far side. Other riders made the mistake of staying straight here, which seems more like the obvious way to go. It's odd because there is a sign post here, but no markers for northbound travelers.

Seven miles in, I reached Mistake Tank, then exited the BCT back to SR169. Took the pavement over I-17.

Now on new-to-me terrain, I didn't recognize anything on this sign.

This first of a couple chunky climbs.

This marks the beginning of the long descent down Copper Canyon. This dirt road parallels the I-17 climb in/out of the Verde Valley.

The upper portion was rugged, reminded me of Oriflamme Canyon on the Stagecoach 400 route.

It may look like a dam, but it's a retaining structure for I-17.

The lower part of the descent mellowed out and was serene.

Copper Canyon Spring was flowing. I'd end up crossing its flow about a half dozen times.

The only other trail users I encountered.

Met up with some trails near Camp Verde. The first one was a skinny 2-track, ATV type trail.

Huge views into the Verde Valley on this generally downhill, fun trail.

It began to feel more like singletrack as it made its way to the valley floor.

The next trail, Copper Falls, was a true mountain biking trail.

This trail was well routed and fun to ride.

Nice climbing grade and of course fantastic views all around.

Starting down the final bit.

Still high above the trailhead.

What happened next can only be described as a trail sniper. Not even a minute after taking the last photo, I was cruising along and must have hit a good sized rock with my front tire. The wheel sharply turned left and I almost lost my grip, but my body weight had lurched forward. Not a good combo. I was clearly headed off the trail on the downslope...I'm going down. I went airborne and had a split second to realized the impact was going to hurt. My landing area was nothing but large boulders and as expected I caught one in my midsection. Knocked the wind out of me. Then the bike landed on top of me. Oof.

I managed to take a deep breath. Shock, disbelief and checking to see if all systems were still a go set in. First, let me get this bike off of me. I could tell I took a shot to my left, upper ribcage as it was a bit difficult to get situated upright. They were definitely bruised, but my breathing wasn't labored. I thought for a moment about turning around, but I was almost to the halfway point of the ride, 19 miles in with 23 or so to go. I also knew the terrain I just came down: rugged AF. That would be a ton of hike-a-bike going back. I knew the climb up the mountain that lie ahead through Cherry would be all rideable on well maintained dirt roads. I'd keep going.

That's how far off the trail I flew and I moved the bike up the hill a bit to get it off me.

Other than my ribs, this was all that happened, a turned GPS. Mount was fine.

Back on the bike, I finished out the Copper Falls trail. It was a ton of fun and I'd recommend riding it in this direction. Make it a CW Loop from the trailhead.

The next section of the route was the biggest unknown to me. There's a green 'trail' on Trailforks, but you never really know what those are until you get out there yourself. It was a connector between the small Camp Verde trail system over to Cherry Rd. On the trailhead map it was listed as a motorized trail, which can really be hit or miss. I started out on the wide ATV trail, a short hike-a-bike greeted me and at the top decided it was a good place for a snack break and to see how I was feeling.

Thankfully, I had some ibuprofen on me and after a short break, I was good to go.

The route generally looked like this. A few short steep ups & downs were also thrown in, but overall not too much hiking. Probably would have been less had I been able to give more effort, but I was trying my best to take an easy approach, extra caution on any rocky descents.

There were extra wide OHV rollover gates too.

Crossing under I-17.

One of a handful of rugged descents.

A good portion of this section rode relatively fast, which was nice.

There were a few of these sections too, but they were all very short.

Now following a utility corridor all the way to Cherry Rd.

The closer I got to the end of this section, the more barren the landscape.

I reached Cherry Rd. around 2:30p and wasn't quite remembering how many miles the climb was, but knew I had a little over 2,000' to gain.

I passed by the Grief Hill trailhead, looked to be newer.

Saw this rollover to nowhere at the north end of the parking lot. I believe this is where the connector trail from the Black Canyon Trail is going to tie in. Looks to be about 2-3 years until it's all completed from what I've heard.

After a couple miles of mostly straight riding, the mountains take over.

It's such a nice climb, good grade, smooth riding surface, a gravel bikers dream. The views aren't half bad either.

Up, up, up it goes, winding around the hills.

Humphrey's Peak by Flagstaff is way out there. PeakFinder app.

Mid section was a tad uncomfortable, but my legs were feeling good.

Vegetation thickening as I near 5,000'.

Entering the community of Cherry.

It's a small hamlet tucked in the hills here, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

It's such a small community, no census information is available.

They do have a nice firetruck!!

Deer roaming in someone's front yard.

Leaving town, the road switches to pavement. Hard to believe this area is only 5 miles from my car, sitting at 5,200.

Cresting the Cherry Rd. climb at last, near 5,430'. It was now 5p.

The final 4 miles were screaming fast downhill on pavement.

Golden hour setting in as I near the end.

Strava link.

This was a really good route, definitely NOT gravel bike friendly. Don't do it, you'll hate yourself and probably me, but you've been warned. With that said, Cherry Rd. would make a great out-n-back for a gravel bike. I was also really glad I added the singletrack sections in spite of my crash!! This entire route had a backcountry feel to it, I didn't see many people or vehicles all day. 

My interactions on the route were: a few cars on the short section of SR169 by I-17, the older couple I saw near the bottom of the main descent, a few hikers on the Camp Verde trails, two motos on the connector trail, then a total of 6 cars of Cherry Rd. and 5 of those were in the final 5 miles. That was it.

I would also highly recommend doing this route in the direction I went, CCW. If you're coming from the north to ride this, you could stage your ride at the Grief Hill TH and begin with the Cherry Rd. climb. It seemed the Copper Canyon Spring was a reliable water source, if needed. No other water / food was available on route.

The weather was also surprisingly good for Dec. 31, sunny and mid-upper 50's most of the day. Perfect. If you're looking for something different to ride, this one may fit the bill. Check it out.

Route: