Mt. Lemmon: Butterfly - Crystal Springs Loop

 There's been some recent chatter about possibly adding the Butterfly / Crystal Springs trails to the AZTR route. A bunch of trail work has been done through the corridor and I always like to put tires on anything I may add to the route. Igor was camping up on Mt. Lemmon this weekend and he knew the area well. We hatched a plan to ride the short side of Butterfly to Crystal Springs, then up the Control Rd. If we had time and felt good, we could also add on the Aspen Draw Loop.

About 8 years ago, Team Loco, rode Crystal Springs and the long side of Butterfly, and oh my, that was a slog to say the least. I had hopes that this ride would be much better.

I had to work a couple hours on Friday morning, then make the drive south. Tucson is horrible to drive across, nothing but surface streets and traffic lights, so it's slow going. I grabbed a breakfast burrito at Le Buzz for ride calories and made my way up the mountain to find Igor relaxed in his hammock at the Gordon Hirabayashi Campground.

We drove both vehicles up to the Bigelow trailhead, in case we opted to shuttle Aspen Draw. I've ridden the first part of this ride many times: General Hitchcock Hwy to the dirt road leading to Secret trail, then onto 1918.

Igor heading up the mile of pavement. His favorite kind of riding...not!!

That's more like it!! Dropping into Secret.

1918 is a bit more mellow, but a few tricky spots are in there.

The ATA is on top of things, fresh detour signs for the Marshall Gulch construction project.

Our adventure for the day begins here.

Igor taking off on a very buffed out Butterfly trail.

Well, this looks promising.

Then it was a series of janky rock moves. Probably could've ridden some, but just wasn't feeling it.

It was nice in between though, killer views as well.

More jank. Enough to make it a bit annoying for me. It was hard to get into a rhythm on the upper section of trail.

The bottom half of Butterfly rode pretty well. You could tell recent work was done on a series of switchbacks as you approached Crystal Springs trail.

Crystal Springs junction...all the way back down under 7000'.

This was more like what I remembered. Not heavily traveled, but fairly rideable.

Some cool routing with sprawling views.

Can you spot Igor??

Ahh, there's the Crystal Springs I remember. Oof.

Still going up, but at least a rideable grade.

Ferns taking over.

We reached the low point along the trail around 6600'. That's almost a 2000' descent from the top of Mt. Bigelow, where the AZTR route would be coming from.

Closing in on our lunch break spot.

Igor already relaxing in the shade.

Some flowing water too, enough to filter, if needed.

Old burn scar and the trail in the upper right. Our view for lunch.

Where's Waldo Part II?? He's in there.

The final stretch is really nice.

Crystal Springs done. Peace out...and up.

Overall, the trail wasn't too bad. A fair amount of walking for me on the singlespeed though. Enough steep pitches to make it work. Felt like it was constantly going up or down with a net loss in elevation by the time you reached the Control Rd. at 6800'.

Now for a three+ mile grind up the Control Rd.

It was tough going for me. Igor offered his geared bike and we made the swap for a bit. Thanks, dude!! On the way up, I decided I wouldn't ride the route to Mt. Bigelow, I was about done and it was already taking way longer than I thought it would. Shocker!! Igor settled into his faster pace and we'd meet back at the car.

I had to make a stop by the Oracle Ridge trailhead near the top.

Looking north towards Oracle and beyond. Always a spectacular place to soak it all in.

The Control Rd. climb ended up being around a 1200' gain over 3 1/4 miles.

Top of Lemmon and the ski resort. I doubt it opened at all this year.

I opted to take an alternate route through Summerhaven via Loma Linda Extension Rd.

It provided some cool views of town.

Actually felt like a mountain town through here.

Getting some elevation acclimation in.

Igor finishing his route, barely 5 minutes after I arrived.

I needed to get going, but I offered to drive Igor to the top for an Aspen Draw lap, he didn't hesitate at the offer. We staged his vehicle in town and drove to the top expecting wind. There was none!! It was noticeably cooler, maybe 60º, downright chilly!!

PeakFinder app.

PeakFinder app.

Fire lookout tower.

This was a fun, challenging, scenic backcountry ride. Great for a day ride. It's nice to see work getting done on trails like this, yet they still retain their character. With that said, I have no intention of adding this route to the current AZTR route up Mt. Lemmon. There's no point to it. It needlessly would add 7 miles, descend back down to 6600' elevation then climb back almost 2000' feet of gain for what? It's not taking pavement off the route. The Lemmon Pusch is hard enough and the route via Sunset trail makes sense to beeline riders to Summerhaven, which would remain directly on route.

It may be more of an incentive to southbound riders since they can add in the Aspen Draw loop, re-supply, then start this loop in the opposite direction we rode.

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