Fantasy Island North

One riding area I'd heard and read about but hadn't tried is Fantasy Island North. Apparently named after Tucson's Fantasy Island (which I also have not ridden), it sounded like an interesting place. I have a thing about driving a bunch of miles to ride my bike, so I tend not to go not much further than the Phoenix Mtn Preserves. FINS, being 34 miles from my apartment, seemed like a lot of dino juice for another ride. The route passes through Goodyear, then into another of those weird housing developments on the outskirts of the metro area where nobody lives without 1 or 2 SUVs. Estrella Mountain Ranch. I was most impressed by the Yacht Club.

Who are they trying to kid? The "Yacht Club" sits on a man made lake that can't be much more than 10-15 acres. I wouldn't drag my 13 ft. sailboat to a lake like that. I can picture a table of old salts sitting aroud at the Estrella Ranch Yacht Club in their watch caps and peacoats, smoking their scrimshaw pipes and spinning yarns about the gale of '06, clawing off the lee shore of the pond, and fearing that the mighty swell would wash them ashore NNW of the 15th hole.

Sorry, but Yacht clubs in the desert are a bit incongruous.

Back to FINS. You park at the nearby grade school and ride about 1/2 mile to the start of the trails. And a great set of trails they are. The folks that built them put a lot of thought and hard work into them. Lots of narrow, winding singletrack with whoop-dee-doos, climbs and descents. This is a trail system that would interfere with my life if it was close to home. I'd be out there every day for hours while the mortgage didn't get paid and the family starved.

I rode for about 3 hours and only did a little bit of backtracking or repeats. I think I covered about 90% of the trail system and had a ball.

Riding an aluminum hardtail in Phoenix presents some challenges, and my old Klein hardtail is very rigid. It has an old Judy XC fork that I modified a bit because of my weight. The fork has no more than about 50 mm of travel. FINS was built for this bike. I'm certain the trail builders figured that sooner or later some geezer would show up on a bike like mine and the trail would need to have some flow. Thanks guys. The geezer showed up and loved it.

As Sean calls it, "Gratuitous bike porn shot."