Sunday, September 16, 2007

Prescott - Granite Basin


Headed north on I-17 out of Phoenix about 7:30 and got into Prescott around 9:20. After gassing up the truck and finding the Playa/Metate trailhead, I hit the trails at about 9:45. I picked up 351 and climbed SE to its intersection with 347. A little more climbing on 347, then, "Oh My Gawd." The trail turned in to a smooth, winding descent with lots of whoop-de-doos and a few drops. It was steep enough to keep the speed up, but not so steep that I would need to grind my brakes away. I followed 347 to the NE corner of the recreation area. The last mile or so was flat horse trail and not very interesting. At the Williamson Valley trailhead, I followed 308 west to 345 and began the long climb back up to my starting point. 345 has some sections where I chickened out and hiked. Still need some practice in the rough stuff. With sightseeing and panting stops, the loop took about 3 hours.



Yeah, I rode this little hill.


Only made it part way on this one.


Obligatory shot of the bike and scenery. Right after the shot, the wind blew the bike over into a prickly pear. I spent a few minutes pulling thorns out of Mr. Klein's left hand grip and apologizing for my carelessness.

From Prescott, I returned to Phoenix on hwy 89. Its a lot of miles of curvy road that passes through some spectacular scenery. It probably took an hour longer than going back out to I-17, but it seemed to be worth it.

Great thing about the ride in Prescott, besides some great trails, it was daylight and only 78 degrees. I could get used to that!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I only rode out there one time and it wasn't long before we left for Seattle. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

su.ling~ said...

Granite Basin is definitely fun. ALso try the Lynx Lake trails off Walker Rd...Tr 305 and then up Smith Ravine (T297). 297 is a grunt...3 mile uphill that will make you die but have so much fun doing it. It's an out and back but coming back is mostly downhill.

Old Fat and Slow said...

Su Ling, if I die on a 3 mile uphill grunt I might have some difficulty enjoying the downhill. That kind of ride will have to wait until about Spring when I'm less fat and less slow. Its getting better, but I've still got a lot of Kansas to get out of my system before my climbing ability is even mediocre.

su.ling~ said...

Get yourself a road bike for some cross-training and get your cardio up to speed. That'll make the mtn biking that much easier and put a serious dent in the blubber factor and will pump up the lung expansion as well. ;)

Old Fat and Slow said...

OK, I've got a road bike. Had it out on Saturday morning and got in about 20 miles. I've been riding road bikes since I was in high school, before that it was no-speed paperboy bikes. After 3 back surgeries, I'm only good on a road bike for about an hour before lumbar parts get pissy about it. Mtn bike rides before work with some climbing and improving speed on the flats will do the same thing, and the riding position allows me to ride 3-4 hours when I have that much time.

Anyway, whales have blubber. Guys like me, we're just chubby.

su.ling~ said...

For some reason the word blubber cracks me up...

A friend of mine had a mix up with a steep, muddy tree-root section up in whistler this summer and proceeded to show us his "bruised blubber"...and he's a rail, so no offense on the blubber comment vs. chubby. ;-)