Summer Trails in AZ

[JohnDoe]

Hello all,

Some friends and I are looking for a nice long weekend (3 days) of singletrack biking this summer.  None of us are looking for lots of climbing or technical sections and I doubt we can make more than 30 miles/day.  On the bright side we will have a water purifier.  A couple of options I'm considering are a modified Coconino 250 route or taking the AZT either North or South out of Flag.  For reference I attached the modified Coco route.  With all this being said what are the best options for us now that temps are over 100 in the valley?


Much Thanks

[AZTtripper]

The Flag2Wims looks pretty good staying mostly up high is a good plan but last I heard Williams mountain was closed. That should change once there's been some rain.

The AZT SE of Flag gets a little bit boney along Anderson Mesa but the rest is good all the way to the Mogollon Rim. On the downside if it does rain there is some sticky mud out that way.

Another great area for AZ summer riding http://www.bikepacking.net/routes/kaibab-monstercross/ you could easily shorten this by driving farther south and shortening the road section. The Rainbow Rim area is pretty dry but the AZT section has a couple of water sources.

[DesertDog]

You're going to be doing a good bit of fire roads wherever you go.  And there are a lot of FRs, even pavement,  on the FlagZWlms course.  I came up with that route as a quick response to a question by another Vegas rider.  We planned on riding a loop over Memorial Day, but the weather wasn't too great around Flag that weekend, so, we ended up going to St George and did a 2 day BP trip, that became this St George 100 mile route.  https://sites.google.com/site/dirtypursuits/stgdc

But, back to Coconino County.

For the distances you want, you may want to do the Flag70Loop (in blue) over 2 days, then either ride the Elden Mt trails or do the AZTNLoop, 40 miles, (in red) as day ride. 

The routes for these and many others can be found in the following files. 

Coconino Northern Routes:
https://sites.google.com/site/dirtypursuits/files/CoCoNorthLoops.gpx?attredirects=0&d=1

All Coconino Routes:
https://sites.google.com/site/dirtypursuits/files/CoconinoLoops-All.gpx?attredirects=0&d=1

[cheeseunit]

thanks so much for posting this! I think This will work for my first trip.

[cheeseunit]

Definately building up to be ready for this october trip.This weekend got 2 full days of riding up north in.

[Chad B]

I think I will be doing some thing on the Mogollon next weekend, similar to/if not the same as AZ Tripper.