RR: Trail 307 Prescott, AZ

[CalEpic]

Apologies in advance for the lack of pictures but I really enjoyed myself on this ride. The weather was perfect, great group of riders, lots of equestrians on the trail but it was a nice, pleasant example of multi-use coexistence.

Trail 307 is on Spruce Mountain in the pines. All singletrack and at ~6500' elevation, my lungs let me know pretty quickly that they needed longer to recover than at sea level. I started out in the middle ring climbing over waterbars, rocks and roots but quickly realized that wouln't work for long and I became intimately reacquainted with my granny gear.

The climb is pretty tough. It is relentlessy steep with non-stop technical moves all the way to the top. I'm guessing about 5-6 miles to the lookout. We hung around at the top with a bunch of very friendly equestrians, hiked up to the lookout, said hello to the Ranger on duty in the fire lookout tower then proceeded to the descent. It started with a roller coaster of singletrack, bashing our way over several fallen trees and rocks. Then the pay-off for the climb began in earnest. What a blast! Screaming fast descents with plenty of rocks and drops. Add a little trailside exposure to keep you on your toes and before long we were back at the trucks where there were some coldies waiting.

I think Dean was keeping this trail for his private stash - Sorry for telling the world about it.

There was also an endurance race going on there this weekend so lots of mtbrs in the bars and restaurants in town.

#1 remains of an old mining shack
#2 View from the lookout
#3 There's a ranger waving at you in there.
C

[dstepper]

Craig thanks for pumping up Prescott, maybe someone will buy one of my houses out there.

Not a serect stash just alot of work. It has been maybe three years since I did that climb and I have yet to want to go do it again...a tuff loose skree climb. I normally climb the fireroad up to the lookout and taken 307 back down to Groom Creek.

It is strange that you see no Spruce trees until you get to very top of the mountain then thier they are...very different color that the rest of the Arizon pines.

I wonder if my pic is of the same cabin when it was still standing.

Was this the Whiskey 500 weekend?

Dean