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Hi Tony-
You have certainly picked the right place and the right time of year for some amazing mountain biking! I am probably a little biased, though. 😃
When you tire of the McDowell Mountains, there are some other popular trail areas that you might find enjoyable. To the southwest of where you’ll be camped is the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, which has a popular trail known as the #100.
To the south and a little bit east is the Usery Mountain Regional Park. Usery Pass/Pass Mountain is a popular loop that offers some stunning scenery (well, if you like cactus, that is) and some challenging sections. I believe there is a $6.00 entry fee to get into the park, but there is another entrance accessible on the south side of the park (202 East Mountain Freeway/McKellips Rd, go east on McKellips until road curves directly south; park on shoulder of road) for a $2.00 fee, payable on the honor system.
You may also enjoy an area on the far south side of Phoenix, known as South Mountain, which has a variety of trails in all different challenge levels. No entrance fees to access South Mountain.
Those are just three of the more ‘popular’ areas, and there are many, many others.
If you can pick up a copy of Cosmic Ray’s Fat Tire Tales & Trails book (circa early 2000’s, but still a very popular book for finding MTB trails in different parts of AZ) it may be of help to you in planning some rides. Many of the local bike shops would have this book.
Enjoy your time! Hope this helps you out a bit. Others may chime in with more detailed/better info… 😃
The Hawes Trail system, a couple miles north of East McDowell Rd/Power Rd intersection is another one worth riding.
Here are a couple photos of a local trail only a few minutes from the house- Casa Grande Mountain, in Casa Grande, AZ. Not really a ‘mountain’ by Colorado standards, etc…. 😆
Nice because it’s convenient/quick.
Guess I am kind of in the same boat as arvi. I have clipless pedals that are flat on one side, which I thought would be the best of both worlds.
Seems like in the rough stuff, I am always unclipping.
They certainly ‘feel’ more efficient through the pedal stroke. Until I fall down, which is often. 😆
That’s a good question. I recently sold my dirtbike and purchased a MTB as a less expensive form of trail riding. Generally speaking, what I have invested overall in the MTB vs motorized dirtbike is a mere fraction, yet gas prices for a ‘road trip’ are significant.
I may still try to do a trip to Moab (1300 mile round trip) this spring or fall, if gas prices don’t hit $5.00/ gallon. In the meantime, I’ll try to ride as much local stuff as possible here in AZ, until the temps start reaching self-clean oven digits.
Wow! New to the forum; didn’t even realize t-shirts were available!
My hat is off to the stamina and overall resilience of road bikers, but for me, mountain biking is where it’s at!
😆 You’re probably right, schwim!!!
Just want to keep riding and learning right now. Hope I can be of some help someday like so many others on this forum have already been.
Thanks guys- I really do like the bike.
Admittedly, after a 10-year hiatus from mountain bikes (prior bike was a hardtail Schwinn) this one feels mighty nice!
