New Antelope Peak Singletrack

Having finished the McDowell 60 on Saturday, I was hoping to do some bikepacking on Saturday night. That fell through because of some time constraints (and some rational thinking), but some recon for the AZ Trail Race and Antelope Peak Challenge was in order.

Scott and I met up and headed out to the Tiger Mine Road. If you have ever wanted to learn switchbacks, this section of the Arizona Trail is your training grounds.

At the beginning of the gasline, we veered off for some new AZ Trail. The beginning of the trail was similar to the first few miles after Tiger: awkward. We took a break as it started to climb up a ridge.





I joked about hoping to continue to climb to the next ridge...



and sure enough it kept climbing!


Beautifully built trail with superb views abound in all directions.





Does this ridge resemble any other AZT segment?













This is the last section of the trail before it bombs down to the wash.



At which point we had several options (Scott eloquently placed them on his site):

• Out and back on the singletrack – we would run out of daylight, and probably food. Not to mention energy. We had underestimated the new trail.
• Gasline/Bloodsucker return – we would run out of legs on all the massive climbs and sand churning
• Camp Grant Wash to Mammoth via the GET route – we would be eating at Chad’s favorite mexican restaurant in no time, pronto

I trust you would have made the same decision we did....Camp Grant Wash.

 Picture by Scott Morris

I was beat down and this was my recovery stop to help in the last 2k foot climb back to the car.

 Picture by Scott Morris

Oh La Casita, how you saved me...1 tostada and a mixed burrito. 7 hours later, at 6pm we got back to the car only to get sick the next day with a bit of a sinus infection and cough. Looks like a week off the bike is in order.