Unfortunately, I'm not evdog and don't stop to take many photos plus this site always says my photos are too large and I'm not smart enough to alter them. Sooooo, this report won't be too exciting
Anyway, we started out last Thursday morning at 5 am from Oceanside and drove straight through to the West side of the Phoenix metro area. It took us just under (6) hours with no traffic anywhere. We decided to ride at FINS (also known as Fantasy Island) in Goodyear based on a shop recommendation. The signage indicates the FINS is mostly on private property and the owner is gracious enough to allow the trail building. I thought this area was a combo of Calavera (with the up & down) and the rocky trails of Elfin Forest (except more techy for sure as the trails were basically singletrack). There were also loops that circled out into the valley/desert so you could get 20-30 miles in out here if you wanted. Something else that was really cool is they has a couple lengthy wooden berm ramps that were a blast. We looped those a couple times.
Day 2 was spent at South Mountain which is the crown jewel of Phoenix riding. I had read on MTBR that the place gets jammed with hikers weekends so we purposely went here on Friday morning. Since the expected high was 91, we wanted to get there and be riding by 8 am. Due to horrendous Phoenix traffic, we didn't drive until 8:30. There were already 100-150 cars there (98% of which belonged to hikers). "The" trail here is called National and it's like Nascar (from La Costa) on steroids...4 miles plus of it and much more fun due to the flow in my opinion. There were definitely alot of hikers but they were all nice and everyone of them gave us plenty of room.
Day 3 in the morning was spent at the Hawes loop area. It started out feeling like Hodges with wide trails and just some minor up and downs but as you got away from the trailhead, it turned into some super fun, twisty, windy, up and down 100% singlterack. There was definitely some climbing out there but it was the kind where you just sit back and grind, no grunting or getting out of the sale required. Very green and scenic. There are easily enough trails to put in 30 miles but once you leave the 'main" area and started heading for the open desert, it gets rocky and more of a workout for sure. In the afternoon, we went over to the McDowell Competitive Loops. There are (3) main loops out there that are basically 3, 3 & 7 miles long and are actually SIGNED as high speed loops for RACING so don't get butt hurt if you get your doors blown off by Mr Spandex out there. I though the 3 miles loops were pretty basic with easy rollers and berms where I would take a beginner to have some high speed fun as they trails are very smooth, especially for PHX standards. The 7 miler was super fun with some tech, some super chunk, some minor drops as well as plenty of areas to open up the after burners.
Our last day we rode the Cave Creek Cactus Cup race loop that starts right in town. You climb up 4 miles on singletrack next to the road that is actually a nice warm-up and very well designed. You then head into the Spur Creek Rec area ($3 per rider) and it start climbing (easy stuff IMO) before getting into some high speed rocky rollers thru the most beautiful desert I've ever been in, so green and lush, tons of saguaros. A a whole, the ride is up and down, fast, flowy, mostly high speed and probably my favorite ride (as a whole day) we did the entire weekend. The town of Cave Creek alone is worth the trip. Rustic, no strip malls and NOT too trendy, Probably what Julian was in the 60's?