Sedona: Double H

All the years I've been riding Sedona, I have yet to check off the Hangover trail. It's one of Sedona's gnarliest trails with steep rock faces, exposure and tricky route finding. I thought I'd finally hit it up as part of the famed Triple H route. This route takes you on the Hogs trails, Hiline & Hangover. It's a true test of bike handling skills & nerves.

I had crashed out at Ray's the night before after the ATOM Loop in Flagstaff. I was ready to hit Sedona early while temps were still cool.

I started from the Broken Arrow trailhead and made my way through the Hogs trails first.

H #1, High on the Hog.

Tough to snap bad pics here. Point. Shoot.

Met a couple of guys from Denver along the way.

One of the guys commented on my Pedal of Littleton socks, asking what my affiliation was. I told him I grew up with the owner back in PA. He then showed me his Pedal of Littleton logo'd shorts!! He said he was good friends with one of the employees there. Small world.

Leaving the Hogs area on a few new-to-me trails.

Turned out to be a viable scouting ride for the AES route.

H #2: Hiline.

Random speedy rider on Hiline.

Love this section of the trail, just pay attention!!

Where's Waldo?

Old Man Mingus lingering on the horizon.

Aka Oni approved.

Almost took a dip in the creek thanks to the slippery rocks!!

It was starting to warm up as I climbed a jeep road to Ridge trail. Sketch trail took a bit longer than normal as I could tell I was slowing down. By the time I reached the trailhead off Old Post I was contemplating a road ride back to the car!! It was toasty. I was on a section of the route that was all new to me,but I didn't want to skip it since I had to go that direction anyway. I had heard some horror stories about the Airport Mesa loop and I was about to go on a portion of it.

Thunder Mtn. as seen from Airport Mesa.

I thought the climb up Bandit trail was tougher than Airport Mesa, as it appeared some recent trailwork had been completed on the mesa. Perhaps other sections of the trail are brutal, this wasn't one of them. It was a mostly fun slightly downhill trail leading to the Brewer trail.

Brewer is rated double black on Trailforks, so I figured I'd be walking down a bunch of it. I couldn't have been more wrong. Brewer was an absolute blast riding down. The views didn't suck either.

This view from Brewer stopped me in my tracks. Dang.

Looking south towards Bell Rock & Hiline trail from earlier.

I was feeling kinda toasted and the afternoon was dragging on. As much as I wanted to finally check out Hangover trail, I thought it would be best to not attempt it in the heat and feeling tired. I opted to skip that loop and finish the ride over on the lower Hogs trails.

Touristy shopping anyone?

A short climb up Mystic trail brought me to Pigtail, an actual flow trail with jumps.

Hogwash puts the exclamation point on the ride.

While I didn't get to Hangover, this Double H route was a blast. I'll be back for sure once the temps finally cool off for longer rides. The Triple H is coming...

Flyover

Route: