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 Post subject: TR - Pleasantville AZ
PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:05 am 
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Location: Ocean Beach
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Bike(s): Revel Rail, Spur, Carver Ti,
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Refrigerraider and I headed over to Phoenix last weekend to check out the Arizona Endurance series Pleasantville race, a Schillingsworth creation. The route does a 60 mile loop around Lake Pleasant using the Maricopa Trail, Black Canyon Trail, Lake Pleasant trails and some dirt road to close the loop.

Some singletrack appeared on the maps around Lake Pleasant a few years ago and I'd always wanted to check it out as it connects to other trails like Black Canyon Trail and the Maricopa trail around Phoenix. The BCT and Maricopa trail in this area aren't destination worthy, but Pleasantville ties it all together nicely into a day ride.

We drove up Friday morning and did another ride nearby, then found a campsite on State trust land near the start location.



We got to the host's house a bit late and missed most of Schillingsworth's welcome/race speech. But it doesn't matter, once everyone takes off we wouldn't see many people the rest of the day anyways. We did get to breathe in dust from about 20 riders for a few miles though.

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We followed Maricopa trail west for a few miles crossing under I-17 and then turning left, where it merges with the south end of Black Canyon Trail for a couple miles

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Riding was very flat, good for warming up the legs. It was chilly out at first.

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Heading west we get into more interesting terrain as we get closer to Lake Pleasant

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This tunnel under the trees was a nice change from open desert

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Trails in Lake Pleasant regional park were pretty flowy and nice, and had a lot more elevation change than what we'd ridden so far

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Finally getting a good view of the lake, or what is left of it

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Heading away again

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Not paying attention to the gps track we rode down to the end of this section, then the trail stopped. Hmm. Maybe this was the part of the speech we missed. Turns out the bridge here is out and we'd have to bushwack and hike a bike around. It wasn't bad except for all the pokey plants.

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Passing the north end of the lake we got onto a series of jeep roads. I spotted this forlorn looking burro off by himself in a wash. Didn't see it right away but the rest of his pack is hanging out on the right.

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North side of Lake Pleasant. Russ was hoping the road would come close to the water so he could filter. We hadn't needed any at the last trailhead but we still had a lot of miles to go and this could be our last chance.

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Nice tunnel through the trees

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We stopped for lunch somewhere around here. My knee was starting to hurt as was my drivetrain after riding through miles of silty roads and washes.

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More wild burros. I don't think I'd seen any before today, and sure made up for it. This was probably the 6th or 7th herd (pack?) of them today.

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I was starting to push up some of the steep climbs like this to rest my knee.

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Cool drop in to more flat wash riding. I think this was the Agua Fria River, though we never did see any water.

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Rest stop in the shade. Notice the bridge in the background on the left. No need for it right now, but there must be water flow in winter/spring.

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Finally back onto BCT!

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Such nice flowing singletrack, a welcome change from all the fire road

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South of the Emery Henderson trailhead we got onto some new-to-me BCT which is generally considered sub-par. Flat, singletrack alternating with fire road, and not very well signed. We missed a few turns and were both out of water. Which made it ironic we found water flowing under I-17 which had not been there earlier in the day. No stopping now though, only a few miles to go to the end.

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We got to the end a couple mins after 5 and just caught Schillingsworth as he was about to drive away. Got the DFL as usual. I was hoping to finish by 4pm but finishing with daylight was some consolation. We showed 61mi and +/-4,650 ft on the day. Not a lot of climbing for that distance. And while it seems easy the amount of sitting and pedaling made it a lot harder on my knee. I think it would have been a lot easier on the knee with a few big climbs and descents thrown in. I'm glad I did this ride but not sure I'll do the event again. So much other good riding to be had nearby and the sections of Maricopa and BCT the route uses aren't as good as other trail in the area. It was cool checking out this area though. About 50 of the 60 miles was new dirt.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:08 am 
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Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:39 pm
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Bike(s): Revel Rail, Spur, Carver Ti,
Favorite Trails: Hmm........
Some pics from the other days rides...

Friday we rode the Dog Bone trails across from Buckeye Rec Area on Hwy 85. We got there with a couple hours of daylight left and set out to ride the outermost loop of the trail network.


There's really no trailhead, the road here is access to an active gravel pit so we just pulled off the side and started pedaling. The first trail up was Magic Mile, a mile of fast buff slightly rolling singletrack through the desert

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We turned right at every intersection to make a CCW loop and soon got into some more interesting terrain

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We'd done most of a loop around the system and Russ had commented how most of the trails were all the same. Fast and fun, but pretty much all the same. We found something different at the north end, this nice rock outcrop.

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I hiked well up the hill, unfortunately a longer roller didn't go, so we played around on the bottom for a few mins.

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Getting back to the end of the loop with daylight left we hit up an interior loop which turned out to be the best trails so far, putting a smile on Russ's face

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A bit more raw makes for a bit more fun

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Sun was setting as we pedaled back to the car. Perfect

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Great warmup for the Pleasantville Ride. And great spot to break up the drive heading to Sedona/Flag etc. Always nice to have options.

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17mi, +/- 930ft


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:10 am 
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Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:39 pm
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Location: Ocean Beach
Given: 2423 thanks
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Bike(s): Revel Rail, Spur, Carver Ti,
Favorite Trails: Hmm........
Sunday

We were going to head back to Buckeye and camp at the rec area there after Pleasantville. It has been overrun with #vanlifers the last few times I've camped there but is very convenient. This time I noticed a sign near the entrance saying "special permit required for camping" but didn't think much of it until we drove through and didn't see a single van, RV or any vehicle, anywhere. Hmmm. Pull up County website and it says no camping as of Jan 2018. Guess the sheriff must be patrolling and running people out of there trying to camp, so we found another legal spot nearby. Bummer, that was a great place to camp on the way in to Phoenix from SD.

For Sunday had another nearby ride in mind, Skyline Regional Park. It's just north of where Hwy 85 tees into I-10.


We went with the same plan again. Start at the south end and do a CCW loop around the outside of the system. There looked to be a lot more elevation here but with our big ride done we could ride as much or as little as we felt like doing.

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We got into some steep climbing on Quartz Mine, the first trail which wrapped around a mountain and then climbed over a ridge.

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This dropped us onto the north side and we headed east over to the furthest area from where we parked. The trail soon became real, narrow singletrack rather than the wide bench cut we'd been on at first. We weren't in the Regional Park anymore. It got technical and fun, too.

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We followed Dead Head loop up and around to High Line, and some others back down. Very nice riding. CCW seemed to be the correct way to ride it too.

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Cool view down the valley

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Lots of short fun descents and punchy challenging climbs

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We were both ready to head back to the car so we opted for the shortest new route rather than ride the same Quartz Mine back. So we climbed and pushed back up to the high ridge line and looked at our options. One option looked to have no climbing but also appeared to drop into a wash. The other option, Skyline, had some steep climbing but would stay up high and looked to have some great views. Done.

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It had some steep climbs for sure but they were worth it with views in all directions.

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I love trails like this that follow along the top of ridgelines. Great ending to the trip!

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The true singletracks on the east side we rode are the Lost Creek Trails, and are on land owned by a developer. According to a local we met they were built with permission, which is pretty cool. Not sure if they are in danger of being built over but the upper trails that were the most fun should be safe. Skyline park itself was ok, but lots of hikers and the trails are typical county park machine built construction. 14mi, +/- 2,560ft.

A stop in Gila Bend at Sophia's for Mexican was next, then we were on the road home.


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