Mountain Biking in Flagstaff

Jeff, Steele, and Will

Finally a warm day -- here in the middle of May. Steele, Will, and I collected at Buffalo Park for a nice trek along the base of Mount Elden and the Dry Lake Hills. Upper Elden is still pretty soft, but so what? There's prime riding on the lower elevation trails in the area as well, and we were all having a good technical day, so it was a memorable and very satisfying ride.

Lower Oldham

We bumped down the hill out the back end of Buffalo Park and started up Lower Oldham. This is the one trail in the whole rabbit warren in the area that has any technical bits. Not brutal by any means, but not a beginner ride either. It starts with a great sustained grind around small rocks and trees. This then goes into a technical climb with quite a few rocky steps. We took our first photo op at the end of this section, at the first high point of the climb, where the trail takes a tight rising S turn up to the last obstacle. Here I am lining up on it...

...and here's Steele taking care of business.

After this comes a fun rock-filled downhill, a long smooth climb that turns into a bumpy technical climb, and then a fast swoop to the end of this fine trail at...

Rocky Ridge

The first part of Rocky Ridge is a curvy, jumpy downhill with enough kinks in the trail to keep your eyes sharp and brakes feathered. We really flew down it to the intersection with the little access spur from the Lookout Road (where the Arizona Trail now officially comes in from Easy Oldham). Amid a certain number of hoots, we decided the only thing to do was crank back up the Lookout road to the top of Rocky Ridge and ride that stretch again. I rode up ahead, where I got one of the better MTB shots I've managed to get so far. Will was really cruising here, and the timing was fortunately perfectamente!

We took our next photo op at one of the high points on Rocky Ridge, where the track cuts down across a modest rockpile. This isn't at all difficult, but it made for some nice pictures. Will cruised through it...

as did Steele...

and then Steele got some shots of me on approach...

and on short finals.

Schultz Creek to Dead Elk

We rode up Schultz Creek trail to the access spur going up across Schultz Pass Road. Just this much entailed five or six water crossings, though Schultz Creek is gradually dwindling. We then finished up with the beautiful singletrack I've taken to calling Dead Elk (I heard it called this once, and have not heard another consistent name for it yet, though I am very happy to be corrected on the matter). Here's Will rolling along on the easy cruise.

This was a fantastic ride! These three trails taken together give you about 10 miles of great riding. For a spectacular epic, you can then head up 164B and FR 9002 to Fort Valley Trail, head over to the Snowbowl road, up to Friedlein Prairie, and then back in and down on the social trails west of Schultz Pass, or Schultz Creek Trail itself (when it's finally dry).

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