San Tan: Frigid Digits

I was on a bit of a mission for this ride. It was the last weekend day of 2019, I was easily within striking distance of logging my most riding miles in a year and I was also doing a local challenge of riding 200 Maricopa County Regional Park miles over a 100 day period. It's nice to have some goals.

I was up early for a local spin from home down to San Tan Regional Park. I was expecting it to be chilly, but 29º at the start?!? Yeah, it gets below freezing on occasion here in the desert southwest and today was one of those days. As this desert rat would have it, I couldn't find my full finger gloves!! I typically ride with half finger gloves and today would be no different, it'll warm up soon enough, right?

I wasn't expecting to see a flowing Queen Creek Wash.

I was riding along the Queen Creek multi-use path and my fingers began to freeze. It didn't get any better once I reached Hawes road for the trek south to the park. I had to alternate hands on the bars, tucking the other behind my back to warm up my digits. I finally began to regain feeling after an hour or so. I don't know how my friends in cold climates do this on a regular basis. I guess you get used to it and wear better gear!!

It was a couple of days post storm, so I knew the trails at San Tan would be riding great. I'd even get to ride the often avoided Malpais trail since over half of it is in a sandy wash. The only good time to ride it, if you don't own a fatbike, it right after a storm when things pack down.

Snow on the Pinal Mtns. to the east.

Malpais Cliffs.

Hang loose, brah.

At the saddle of Hedgehog trail.

Great views from this bench overlooking San Tan Valley.

A snow covered Four Peaks hiding in the background.

The singletrack at San Tan is fairly wide and fast.

One of my favorite spots at San Tan park. From this saddle, if you look north you can see downtown Phoenix and beyond to the Bradshaw Mtns.

Turn around and look south, Mt. Lemmon comes into view.

The Malpais trail starts out with some good singletrack.

Then morphs into a zigzagging wash trail along the park boundary.

Add in some more sweet singletrack before making the final turn towards the exit.

Most of the final stretch is in this wash.

 I think I was somewhere along the sand wash segment when I reached my yearly mileage goal. In spite of all the setbacks I had over the final six months of the year, I made it. I had to smile since I reached the goal on a crappy sand wash trail. Fitting.

Back on the fast interior park trails.

Exiting the park via Dynamite trail, arguably the best in the park.

Stunning white view across the horizon.

Spotted a good sized coyote along this fenceline cut.

This is about the extent of our fall color.

The wash was flowing deep!! It's a rare sight to see water in it.

That capped a fun ride from home. San Tan park isn't really a destination kind of place to ride, but it's close to home and fun. Some friends are a bit surprised when I tell them I only ride there a handful of times each year. There's just not a lot of miles there and I don't want to get bored with it. Plus, there are so many other great places to ride nearby it doesn't make sense to me to ride the same trails all the time.

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