Post-Thanksgiving at McDowell Mountains Regional Park

It's one of those gorgeous days in Arizona--80's during the day (really, a little too hot for November), and completely blue.  McDowell Mountains Regional Park used to be the back of beyond for me.  Now, it's about half an hour from my front door (though, to be honest, it always has been).  The park has it all:  I've now ridden there several times over the last five years, most recently with two friends from ASU, who introduced me to an approximately 14-mile loop that gets to the borders of the park.

My loop today totaled about 9 miles (9.14 to be exact--darn GPS technology!):  out the Pemberton Trail from the staging area, essentially west on the Tonto Tank Trail, back to the Pemberton for about a mile, and back to the east and the staging area on the Bluff and Granite trails (via a bit of the Pemberton again).  In general, this is wide-open very wide single track.  There's only one gnarly section, on the west side part of the Pemberton.  I walked it the last time I got to it, then walked it again today.  Next time, I try riding it.  Out on the Tonto Tanks, the upward slope is about 2% on average, enough to keep the heart rate up.  It's 600 feet of elevation gain over the course.  Once on the Bluff and Granite trails, it's downhill all the way back to the staging area.  Again, it's all smooth and clear, but there are plenty of sharp turns and cholla cactus close to the trail.  The rider also wants to get used to hopping wooden water bars, though these seem to have been removed from the Tonto Tank Trail.

But the key element for me is solitude; I met only three people out there today, six, if you count the horseback riders I followed for a couple of hundred yards at the end of the trip.  But to stop the bike for a second, in the middle of this desert valley, ringed by mountains, to smell the sage and other herbal desert odors, is to be clean in the desert.  All is bright and silent, but for the wind.