Flagstaff: Recovery Ride??

 The plan on Saturday had been to ride a scouting loop for the upcoming AZT800 following our Grand Canyon hike the day before. That loop had a fair amount of hike-a-bike early on and my walking legs were not exactly firing on all, or any, cylinders if I'm honest with myself. I mentioned my haggard state to Mike, but suggested I at least try to ride my bike up & down his street. Maybe a short recovery ride would do me some good.

I hopped on the bike and much to my surprise actually felt ok. Cool. Let's do this. I've been wanting to ride one of the newer AZT re-routes out on Walnut Canyon for a couple of years now, just haven't made it happen. Today would be the day!! Our plan would be to mostly ride the Flagstaff Loop trail east and bring the AZT back across Walnut Canyon. Seemed like a reasonable ride with a bunch of flowy XC style trails.

Mike's place is located close to the trails, but who's house in Flagstaff isn't?? We started out on some social trails that tied into the FUTS (Flagstaff Urban Trail System) on the Bow and Arrow segment.

Bow and Arrow. Double track that rides like singletrack.

We rode out beyond Rio de Flag, but were met with a newer looking fence. Apparently access is longer allowed east of Rio de Flag. We backtracked to the AZT, which meant a short steep pitch up into the forest. Cue the hike-a-bike. I guess my legs woke up enough and it wasn't too bad, perhaps we could have done the other ride. Dunno. 

The AZT brought us to the junction with the Flag Loop trail. 

Plenty of fast, fun miles ensued. Our goal was to link into Campbell Mesa, but we opted to check out some more social trails on the way. New stuff for both of us.

These don't look too bad. Fun stuff.

We passed by the old home remnants, sad to see more litter out there.

I was still feeling pretty good so we decided to skip the short connector to the AZT and instead linked to the AZT off the northeast side of Campbell Mesa and much to my surprise, Mike had never ridden this connector.

Fast trails at Campbell Mesa.

Short stint on Route 66 as we cross over the busy rail line.

Mike spotted this sign, made for a good detour. Get yer kicks!! PeakFinder app.

Interesting piece of equipment sitting roadside.

On the AZT riding southbound towards Walnut Canyon.

May need a pre-filter here...

Fun trail through here, some sneaky rocky sections kept you on your toes.

Sign say camping is permitted, but a newer USFS closure order prohibits camping around the Flagstaff area. See pic below.

Pink line is the approximate location of the AZT through the closure area. Here's a link to the official closure order.

Loving all the new rollover gates in the area, but where's the fence?? Still two more gates to replace nearby.

Sublime singletrack. See?? AZT is easy peasy.

Shred the gnar!! Photo by Mike.

Dropping into Walnut Canyon.

The ride was now growing quite long, much more than I think we both thought. Decision time: Cut the AZT to speed things up a bit? Done.

Classic shot from the bottom of Fisher Pt.

We still had about 6 miles to go and finished things up by taking Skunk Canyon to the Lake Mary segment of the Loop trail. In the end we racked up over 36 miles!! So much for a quick easy recovery spin. My good friend Ez once said: Recovery is for people with nothing better to do. I concur. For me, recovery begins on my Monday's back at work. For this weekend effort, it began on Sunday since I could barely walk!!

I did pay a price for those outings: incredibly sore quads and calves, aggravated some muscle or tendon on top of my left foot, right Patella was angry, left Adductor joined the protest and my left big toe was bruised and sore. Worth it? No question.

On to the next big dumb adventure...

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