Coconino loop (modified).....

[sbear55]

Four of us headed west from Wisconsin a week and half ago to give the Coconino bikepacking loop a try.  None of us had ever ridden in the terrain we were diving head first into. 

My crappy quick recollection below. 

Day1 - This was actually a pretty good ride.  Only five minutes from Devon's place we were on some urban singltrack and 10 minutes after that we turned south on the AZ Trail.  Within the first hour we had to hike a bike to the top of a couple of rocky climbs.  After the first hour we rolled onto a mesa and started some but fun but really really rough singltrack.  Lots of good contour climbing singletrack mid-day to gain some elevation.  Unfortunately late in the day we encountered some heinous boulder strewn forest roads......total fuck shows of a "road"........we saw lots more of them the next few days.  Camping above Sedona was awesome.  All day this day Greg was at the back of the pack and generally looked his age.....or worse.   He was not looking good at all.   57 miles.






 
Day 2 - The very first thing you do is bomb downhill all on singletrack to Sedona.  Fun, rocky, fast, somewhat technical.  Refuel in Sedona and get ready for a big day.  After the pit-stop we hit some classic sedona singletrack which was certainly more technical than we expected.....I have a huge bruise on my right thigh to prove it!  Minor mechanical as Todd's centerlock adapter came loose and we didn't have a cassette lock ring tool.  Made do with a multi-tool and two allen wrenches.  Very shortly after turning away from Sedona we hooked up with the lime kiln trail...which immediately went up an over a 500 foot ridge in super rocky nasty hike a bike.  I expected more of a "good" trail but it was generally a crap show until just outside of the campground where we stayed in Cottonwood.  The descent to Cottonwood was a fun ledgy end to the day.  Haack looked ok the first half of today but then he and Sean started lagging way behind Todd and I.  Afer being at the campground for 30 minutes or so Greg and Sean both puked their guts out into the bushes.....not a good sign.  Fun fact = Pizza Hut delivered to the campground!  A high school acquaintance met us at the campground and had procured a lockring tool for Todd.   39 miles.




 
Day 3 - In profile today looked like one huge monster climb followed by a long long descent to the other side of the valley.  In reality it rode like one huge ass climb followed by a shitload of shorter nasty climbs with the only real descent coming late in the day.  From the campground it was 3.5 gradual uphill miles to a gas station where we fueled up for the day.....enough food needed to be on board to cover two days of riding as there were no services between Cottonwood and Williams.  Greg was trying to eat breakfast but commented on how he just didn't feel like eating.  With two days food and 200 ounces of water each we rolled onward.  The grade immediately steepens and the pavement ends for the climb up Mingus Mountain.  I think the climb is about 12 miles and 4500 feet.  Early in the climb when Todd and I would stop I'd turn to see Greg and Sean walking there bikes.  After a stop or two like this I commented that at that pace we would never be able to make it to where we needed to be by dark.  I think the next time we stopped Sean caught up, laid his bike down, and said "I'm done".  Haack quickly joined him.  Todd and I pushed on with the rest of Mingus.  On the backside of Mingus was a pretty cool 1000 foot descent....Todd commented later that a crash there could have meant death....not sure it was that bad but you would have tumbled a long long ways.  After that descent the trail turned to more nasty rocky doubletrack....it was in this stretch that I did my superman impression over the bars and added a few bruises and made it painful to breath deep on the right side.....kind of scary as far in the middle of nowhere as we were.  Todd and I stopped to filter water.....cattle tank...stagnant...bird skull floating in it.....and then we moved on.  Nine miles from where we were going to camp we were high on a ridge and the road changed to a nicely graded well maintained gravel road.  Nine freaking miles of 20-25 mile an hour coasting to the Verde River Valley!  Camp....littered with goatheads....stans is awesome.   46 miles.




 
Day 4 - Filtered water at the Verde River and set off on todays leg to Williams.  Only 34 miles which was nice.  No singletrack....just a 25 mile continuous climb on sometimes shitty sometimes mediocre sandy and rocky deserted roads.  Beautiful desolate country.  We detoured around Bill Williams mountain which would have added 9 miles and 2000 feet of climbing and took a nice flat 3 mile road into Williams.  Grabbed a motel room, showers, and a nap.  Devon, Sean, and Greg stopped in on their way back from the grand canyon and grabbed supper with us.  My ability to pound all my sides, a full rack of pork ribs, Haack's fries, two beers, and a giant ice cream cone impressed all.   34 miles.


 
Day 5 - Cut 10 miles from the route by sticking to fireroads for the first part of the day...boring....but we made good time.  The trail pitched upward shortly after as we climbed to the wing mountain moto trails.  The moto trails were fun but not great.  Another long fireroad section took us to the last major climb of the ride.  A 1300 foot beast that took us to 9000 feet.  Talked to a ranger at the top of the climb and he mentioned seeing three riders earlier in the day that talked of meeting two friends.....yep he saw our crew.  So, sitting at 9000 feet and having fifteen miles to go what do you do?  Point the fucker downhill and enjoy a silly good section of well built AZ trail.  We descended about half-way or just less and at a road crossing found the guys waiting for us.  Devon set a pace the rest of the way to town that damn near killed me.  If ever flagstaff you need to ride that whole descent.....amazingly fun.  Rolled through town back to Devon's place and the loop was in the bag.  62 miles.




 
 
Random thoughts
-I wouldn't hurry out to ride this loop...just not enough fun singletrack compared to the amount of rocky doubletrack
-We all said a when we got home we'd ride a loop at Blue Mound just to experience smooth trail again
-Haack thinks I'm a doper......he just doesn't understand the power of Mike and Ikes
-Based on how they felt (and looked) Sean and Greg exercised great judgement in bailing when they did

[krefs]

Ha, Blue Mound for smooth trails? I suppose Coco is pretty dang rough in places, isn't it? Welcome to Arizona. You need to come to Prescott for the smooth trails ;-) I do miss riding at the Mound, though.

I'm glad you guys had a mostly enjoyable time out here. It isn't the most enjoyable loop in my mind, either, but it's about the best that could be done in that part of the state. At least the scenery is incredible, no?

[sbear55]

Krefs,

Don't get me wrong I had a great time!  One of the goals of the trip was to do a ride unlike anything we can do in Wisconsin.....mission accomplished!

Yeah, it was overall a rougher than my preconceived thoughts but a couple of us rocked it nonetheless 

Blue Mound is a 15 minute bike ride from my house so it's kind of stomping grounds.....when it isn't the trail doing the stomping!

Bear

[krefs]

Pretty much every trail in AZ is rough! Coco is more or less par for the course, and definitely a far cry from Midwestern trails.

I rode at Blue Mound a fair bit when I was living in Madison. Living so close to there puts you in some dang nice countryside. Enjoy it!

kurt

[kipyoung]

Thanks for the write up! I don't suppose you captured your track with GPS and would be willing to share the .GPX file would you?  A group of us are heading out on Oct. 12 for this ride and the 4-day stage race plan might be a bit much for some of us... Sounds like 5 days is more agreeable.

[sbear55]

Starting in Flagstaff

Day one - unchanged from stage race gpx

Day two - unchanged from stage race gpx but we stopped in Cottonwood and camped at Deadhorse

Day three - variation from stage race gpx in that on the climb up mingus we took the mingus bypass
                - camped, more or less, right were the stage race gpx crosses the Verde River

Day four - variation from stage race gpx in that we skipped Bill Williams Mountain....very simple straight detour into Williams

Day five - Completely made up the beginning until you hit the texaco that would normally be at mile 30.  For us we hit it at mile 20.  Just looked at the gps and took dirt roads that paralleled I-40.  Once we hit the texaco we followed the stage race gpx all the way back to Flagstaff!

All the variations are simple to follow.  Mingus bypass has it's own gpx!

[kipyoung]

Perfect! Thanks man!

[cheeseunit]

wow man,looks gorgeous.Thats a great write up too,thanks for sharing.

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Now I remember why all my bikes are >140mm full suspension... I live out west.
Enjoyed your Trip Report hope you guys had a good time could not quite tell.
There was smiling in the photos.

[sbear55]

Now I remember why all my bikes are >140mm full suspension... I live out west.
Enjoyed your Trip Report hope you guys had a good time could not quite tell.
There was smiling in the photos.

A good time for sure! It was hard which was expected.  I actually did the write up for some friends back home and decided "what the heck it's good enough to post"!  After going back and re-reading I see it may have projected a little more negativity than I intended.  I'm already eyeing up other western routes for the next big trip...probably two years off!

[AZTtripper]

Pretty much every trail in AZ is rough! Coco is more or less par for the course, and definitely a far cry from Midwestern trails.

I rode at Blue Mound a fair bit when I was living in Madison. Living so close to there puts you in some dang nice countryside. Enjoy it!

kurt

Yeah by AZT standards the Coco is pretty tame.

A couple of other modifications you could have made. Or for Kip Young. On Day one after Marshall Lake you could head out to Lake Mary road. This will get you out of Anderson Mesa, you will miss a fun dh just before the highway crossing. On day 2 just after Red Rock State Park turn left of the pavement to skip the rocky ridge hike a bike at the start of Lime Kiln. Rejoin where the trail crosses the pavement.

Two years out look for a new AZT Black Canyon trail combo Flagstaff to Tucson 550 course.

[kipyoung]

Sbear55, what motel did you stay in? Hot tub?

[sbear55]

We stayed at the first motel we came across.

AZ9 motor inn I believe.

No hot tub.

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[sbear55]

This:  http://topofusion.com/GPX/CLR/

That link has cue sheets, waypoints, and gpx file.

I purchased a Garmin Etrex20 this summer and worked great.

Even when I felt we made a wrong turn we only ever made it about 50 feet before I noticed my current track didn't match with the route on the screen.

[delete this account]

 

[unbe]

How do you not get lost? How do you know where to go? GPS? Compass? The adventure you had appears awesome, I think that I would enjoy something like this, I just don't understand the navigation aspect of it. Sorry, I gotta' learn. Did anyone fall on a cactus? (they looked 'close' in the pictures). Thank You for sharing the report!!

Actually Sean was talking to a Mountain Bike Patrol volunteer about a scrape on one part of his body and pulling cactus thorns out of his a$$ at the same time.

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