Pine: Town Loop

The town of Pine has quickly become a small town ride destination in the shadow of the Mogollon Rim northwest of Payson. The annual Fire on the Rim race pumps all kinds of funds back into the local trail system and it shows.

I was currently on a two week 40 hour work furlough, so I had some midweek ride time available. The day before I hit up Six Shooter Canyon over in Globe for the first time and now I wanted to do the full Pine town loop. Jenn C. was also free from work and was down for a ride up north.

What is this? The ATA mobile out doing the good work along the AZT portion of the Highline trail.

Our route was simple enough, a clockwise loop around town mostly on singletrack. The southwest portion of the route isn't quite ready for biking, I've done it...once. I'm good until the reroutes are complete. In the meantime, we'd ride out of the Pine trailhead along AZ87 into town, then up Hardscrabble Rd. to the Pine-Strawberry trail.

Start of the singletrack. I've only ridden this trail once, the opposite direction during the Fire on the Rim race. Trail work had been done here since then.

Jenn digging into the rocks.

The trail goes in & out of the forest, this may be an old burn scar slowly recovering.

The trail generally gains elevation.

Jenn enjoying a rare downhill burst through a 180º banked turn!!

I was waiting for an action shot of Jenn climbing up this grade, but she stopped to adjust her dropper lever after a small tumble.

Nice place for a quick snack break...

Speaking of breaks...rut-roh. What the... Apparently, she over tightened the dropper lever on her carbon bars by mistake. Too much powah!! This makes Jenn sad.

We weren't too far from the end of the Pine-Strawberry trail and she insisted I roll on. Her bike was at least rideable on pavement and Pine is a cool town to relax in for a while. So, I continued over to the Bearfoot trail and promised to keep a steady pace going.

The Bearfoot trail is an interesting mix. It starts off nice, then the rocks come into play. The next mile or so I kinda wish I had full suspension!!

After a chunky downhill, the trees emerge and things smooth out again.

Some Sedona-esque teasers thrown in.

Followed by more rocky goodness.

There are a couple of leg/lung burners too, it's not all downhill fun.

I paused at the top of a short climb to let a small group of hikers go by. One of the guys looks at me and asks if I'm 'Schilling', yes sir. He said he has been following my rides on one of the Facebook groups and recognized my bike and wanted to thank me for the reports. You're welcome!! Now, back to picture taking...and riding.

It's spots like this that make the Bearfoot trail special.

One more bit of climbing before the really fun stuff down to Pine Creek.

Right about the time you are asking if the climbing is going to end, it opens up.

A wooded rip under a green canopy.

Pine Creek bridge.

Yep, Pine Creek was flowing nicely.

Lots going on here. I thought it would be a good idea to cut the route a bit short so Jenn wasn't waiting too long. I had done it in the past & I thought it was a legal way to go....

Apparently not. Perhaps too much traffic through the camp prompted the close.

It was very clear they did not want you here. My only real option was to finish the route as it was now the closest way back to the Pine trailhead.

I'll give them credit, lots & lots of info on those signs.

I'm guessing these signs were a camp project since all of these photos were within a half mile of one another. Clean, crisp woodwork too.

I knew I had to climb, but forgot how rocky some sections were. It was slow going for a while on the Pine Canyon trail.

The mid-section smoothed out, then one final rocky set of switchbacks had me walking for a bit. Legs were getting cooked.

The payoff?? Nice overlook of town and knowing it's a long downhill finish.

Next time, I'll have to check out the newer Upper Pineview trail. (Not signed)

Moar flowy goodness back to the trailhead.

I spotted Jenn reading a book in a ramada as I wrapped things up.

It ended up taking way longer than I had hoped, but Jenn was a good sport about it and now she gets new bike parts!! I guess we'll have to come back so she can get the full tour. It's a great route, but you're gonna work for it. You may want to bring a water filter for Pine Creek if it happens to be warm.

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