Last week I took the opportunity to explore two really cool roads, the Coronado Trail and the Salt River Canyon.
Coronado Trail
The Coronodo Trail (scenic highway 191) starts in Alpine at 8,000′ and heads south to Clifton at 3,500′ swooping through forests, amazing vistas and large trees that slowly turn to shrubs, then cactus.
I did this as an out an back, but you could do it as a one way from Clifton to Alpine, for a 90-mile 12,000′ climbing day (it’s been added to my list!). All in all it was an awesome ride. 4.5-hrs 8,000′ of climbing and I only saw 4 cars all day.
Salt River Canyon
On Sunday I capped off the week with a ride into the Salt River Canyon, a road that drops off the Mogollon (pronounced Mug-E-own) rim towards Phoenix. I got stated at sunrise and again there wasn’t much traffic. Rollers take you up and down from 6500′ down to 4,500′ and then the road drops you into the canyon bottom at 3,500′.
The climb out was pretty cool, steady climbing for about 1.5-hrs, then a few rollers, and the final climb back up to Show Low where I began. All in all another great ride capping off the 22-hr week on the bike with a total of 29,000′ of climbing!
24-Hrs Old Pueblo
The weekend prior Evie and I participated in the 24-hrs of Old Pueblo with some friends from Fountain Hills and McDowell Mountain Cycles. We did the 5 person coed and ended up 2nd on the weekend. All in all it was a good time, we got some miles in on our new race bikes and most importantly we stayed healthy. The real racing begins in 4 weeks with the Fontana ProXCT.
New Team for 2015
And finally, I’m proud to announce that I’ll be representing McDowell Mountain Cycles for 2015 with support from Scwhwalbe tires and Mike’s Mix Recovery drink. Looking forward to an awesome season!
