Mountain Biking in Flagstaff

Jeff

Up Elden Lookout Road to Sunset Trail and Schultz Creek trail is a popular and "standard" Flagstaff MTB ride. From my house it's 21.2 miles; from the parking lot at the fork of Elden Lookout Road and Schultz Pass Road, the total distance is about 13 miles.

After the ultra-soggy winter of 2005, lots of trees are down. At about 8200' on Elden Lookout Road, an enormous snag has toppled into a healthy tree, which in turn is noticeably bowed under the snag's weight. The whole thing looks like a recipe for disaster, but fortunately nothing gave way while I was pedaling by.

At the Elden/Schultz parking lot you're at 7,150 feet; at the saddle that connects Upper Oldham to Sunset, you've climbed to 8,750. I made it today in 53 minutes, which I was happy with (considering I stopped for a few minutes to gawk at the snag above). It's then a very short grunt up and left to 8,850 on Sunset, at which point the trail heads out on a narrow catwalk segment that has earned the nickname "Organ Donor."

Here are two views of Organ Donor. The trail itself presents few if any technical challenges; it's the psychological effect of the exposure that makes things a bit tricky. The dropoff on your right is quite steep; you really don't want to topple off. Stop if you want to enjoy the scenery -- which is worth enjoying, as you cruise through a ghostly forest of burned trees with endless views of the Painted Desert to the east.

After Organ Donor, you swoop through the woods a bit and then hit the Hobbit Forest, a sharp descent through a field of boulders and huge pines. The first half is a set of switchbacking descents around some boulders, which for your humble intermediate rider is just barely navigable. But then it gets really nasty, and it was easy for me to snap this picture because I was walking the bike anyway. This is one of the really tame parts, by the way. Will I ever be able to ride this? Who knows; I'm out here to enjoy myself, not kill myself.

Did I mention the winter has brought down a lot of trees? Below the second ridge on Sunset, on the long, final blast down to Schultz Tank, there must be at least five huge trees across the trail, and as many more that the FS has cleared.

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