Frid(e)ay in Pine Day

I don't quite have full Fridays off from work this time of year, but knowing I only have to be there four hours or less is almost as good. That still allows me enough time to head up north for some cooler riding weather. This week's destination: Pine.

I heard there's been some trail work done on the Pine Canyon trail, #26. I also wanted to check out the short loops that can be done from the Pine trailhead. If time allowed, I wanted to crest the rim via the Pine Canyon switchbacks as I've yet to ride that portion of the trail.

I grabbed some lunch in Payson and was getting set to hit the trail around noon when I had my first snafu of the day. I snapped my 3D printed custom Garmin-GoPro hybrid mount while adjusting it! Drat. At least I wasn't trying to follow a route on the GPS, but I do tend to glance at it often. It was now tucked firmly into my feedbag.

Gah!! The good news, I already have a newer, stronger version.

I started out of the new Highline reroute over to the Pineview trail. This was a really fun trail that rode fast. Barely 3 miles total I was back at the Pine trailhead ready for more.

Not all of the Highline trail is brutal.

Here's my turn, time for new dirt.

Amazingly, you can see Pine from the Pineview trail.

I made the most of my day, both today and back in April.

As I passed back through the trailhead I took the old Highline alignment up to the Pineview trail. This section still rides good as well. I made quick work of Pineview the second time through and began climbing the Pine Canyon trail.

A few years ago, Chad and I rode this trail or I should say HAB'd it. It was steep fall-line stuff with a ton of deadfall. I quickly discovered the first reroute. The fall-line routing of the old alignment was now replaced with a bunch of well designed switchbacks. The trail climbed at a sustainable riding grade all the way up. I love climbs like that, they make you feel like you could climb all day long.

Great tread through the pines.

When complete there will be a series of 4-5 trails that will loop around Pine.

Fresh, benchcut trail.

I found the end of the work zone.

I had to backtrack a bit from my deadend to the old alignment of Pine Canyon. This was the trail I remembered riding with Chad!! Plenty of short bits of HAB & downed trees to maneuver around. Overall there wasn't much change in elevation through here, just a series of short steep ups & downs. Still plenty of work to be done. Those two miles or so took a while, so I opted to skip my rim quest.

More fresh trail on the descent into the canyon.

Boy Scout camp near the mouth of the canyon, my exit to town.

Hadn't seen one of these before. These trees help determine property corners.

At the end of the descent.

This old sign may need its mileage updated with all the new rerouting in the area.

I had a little bit of time to spare, so I took the short detour up Pine Canyon to the junction with the Bearfoot trail. Bearfoot is a well laid out trail and I was bummed I didn't have time to ride it. I did want to see the new bridge spanning the creek.

Soothing sounds of Pine Creek.

Nice addition, no more fumbling across the creek.

The locals put their stamp on the project.

The enticing singletrack of Bearfoot trail.

Back across the bridge for a fast runout into town.

I wrapped up the ride around 3:30p and was back home in the desert a couple of hours later. I'll be keeping Pine in my summer ride rotation for sure, it keeps getting better each time I ride there.