Tucson's 50 Year Trail came highly recommended for both beautiful scenery and fun, challenging singletrack. A local offered to give us a tour on Monday morning, and being that its a 30min drive on the way out of town it was a perfect choice. The 50 Year Trail itself is around a 12mi ride with some fast smooth sections as well as some tougher, rocky climbs. But there also are a ton of offshoots and optional stuff on the upper 50 Year section that really make this place a gem.
We met up with our guide Duncan at 9am and set off toward the rock slabs you can see on the far hill.
We didn't actually start on 50 Year, I think this is the equestrian loop or some kind of connector
This is chutes, a side loop that has berms and of course chutes, that you can rocket through.
fast corner
It is a short climb back up to the top of chutes where we will continue on
The climbing gets steeper and more technical here. Its all rideable, even Robo could have climbed some of it (had he not pussied out on the trip
)
More types of cactus appear
Kreechan sets up to try a double step up feature
hard to get a pic of it, you had an 18" step up on a smooth, round rock, with a 45 degree turn required at the same time all while dodging rocks on either side of the trail.
Once up the first step you had 2 pedal strokes to set up for the next one.
The hardest part now past, we continue on up
We are now on 50 Year trail
Duncan points to where we will be going, straight up the rock slabs
It was steep, but had slickrock grip
Almost there, just one more steep grade to climb
Yes, it is as steep as it looks. And yes, they did ride up it...animals! (I opted to hike)
We get a fun descent down this rock slab
Very scenic
This place would be off the charts when it is green
Duncan checks out the line on the first big trail feature, a long off camber spine
He has obviously done this before
The runout is nasty...very off camber and shoots you right into the rocks
Kreechan tries
And tries, narrowly escaping death and/or cactus. I didn't bother, my fragile carbon fiber bike is not the one to try this stuff on
We continue on
This was a fun roller, tricky to get up on but very smooth
And led right in to this next one
Kreechan rolls the left side. Note the drop to the right of the bush, a small gap jump.
Duncan hits it cleanly
Did he make it? The deep sand at the bottom says no!
Unfortunately I forgot I was filming and hit the shutter button as if I was taking a picture. Kreechan wiped out in the sand and landed hard...
Interesting cactus
A fun roll to rock wall
Another steep rock face, this time with an abrupt transition at the bottom that requires careful speed control
I go
And Duncan again
View from below, its pretty long and really steep
Riding back. Kreechan finished the ride despite being bunged up. If only everyone were this tough, eh Rob? (I know karma is going to get me for that one...
)
Down a fun chute
Kreechan still going. Even with only one good hand he had little trouble keeping up
This was a perfect loop for the amount of time we had, trying to get out of town by 1pm SD time. After dropping Kreechan off I was unloading the truck back at my place by 8pm, which is pretty much a world record for road trips as far as I can recall.
Tucson is a great place to ride. Nothing is too far away from town, there is endless opportunity for flow and chunk, and the people are very friendly. Lots of good places to ride, too. I think there would be little problem finding a weeks worth of riding there. And it is only slightly further than driving to Phoenix! Big thanks to Duncan for the tour today and to everyone else who gave us tips and info. And thanks to Kreechan and Robo for coming out. OK, Robo only gets thanked for leaving his bike for me to ride and his Stone IPA which we drank! (and for taking all the jokes like a man...an old, crippled man, but a man
)
