| Name: | Usery Mountains loops | 
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| Description: | Second full day of riding in Phoenix. The plan was to combine two riding areas - User Mountain regional park and Hawes riding area. They are both located in the Usery Mountains just south of Salt River and east of Mesa. It would be only about 4 mile distance from Fountain Hills, but, the Salt River and the reservations are in between so it's about 25 mile loop drive to get here. All on rural highways so the speed is fairly high, it took me about 1/2 hour to get to Usery Pass where I started. First I rode the Pass Mountain trail, around the mountain. It starts smooth on a decomposed granite but gets rocky on the east side. The rocks are round and sticky and the trail twists a lot so it was tough to ride through. The worst point came as the trail descended south from a pass. I walked most of the way. The trail stayed rocky all the way around the southeast and south side but most of it was rideable. It was a relief to pass through a gate into the Usery Mtn. regional park, where the trails were much smoother. I rode back and forth around on ca. 1/2 of the trails, most of them were either smooth or with small rocks, going up and down small washes, in between of cacti and bushes. Then I got on the access road to the park, took that to the Usery Pass highway and soon turned off onto Microwave road, which goes northwest to towers on Usery Mtns. There were two gates and all sorts of warnings but noone came to get me. At the top I ate lunch and then hiked down a steep trail towards the Hawes trail. Once the trail got more level, it was mostly rideable with occasional rocky spots. The Hawes area is developed for mountain biking and the trails show it. Most of them are smooth but there are some climbs and some technical sections, all rideable. I did walk a few spots though since I was getting tired. I did sort of two loops through the area and covered probably 3/4 of the trails. Then I headed east on Twisted Sister trail, which lived to its name, and then on two other trails across the plain north of the mountains back to Usery Pass Rd. The trails were fairly smooth, except for horse hoof craters. The Usery Pass Rd. gets a lot of horse use. I was getting quite tired but still the trail was quite enjoyable. I finished the ride with 1.5 mile or so climb back to Usery Pass and to the car. Overall a good ride, next time I'd eliminate the loop over Pass Mtn, too much bone shaking and walking, and instead try the western part of the Pass trail and spend more time on either of the two parks trails. | |
| URL: | TopoFusion Home Page | |
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| Total Distance: | 34.02 miles (54.76 km) |
| Total Trip Time: | 6:04:20 (5:23:36 moving time) |
| Total Climbing: | 4930 feet (1503 m) |
| Total Descending: | 4824 feet (1470 m) |
| Average Speed: | 6.31 mph (10.15 kph) |
