Grandpa Does the Arizona Trail: Passage 35

Cedar Ranch Trailhead Marker

On September 20, Chris and I left our Grand Canyon National Park campsite, travelling to Flagstaff. On the way back, we scouted the south end of Passage 35 (going north), and glanced at the north end of Passage 34. After the hiking trip of yesterday at the south end of Passage 36, I decided to duct tape the shoes one more time for a little bit of riding on Babbitt Ranch, which was reputed to be some of the easiest riding on the AZT. And it was, at least the 4-mile section that we rode out and back from the Cedar Ranch Trailhead.

The adventure started early: the Cedar Ranch Road is unmarked at the entrance, which also proclaims it a "commercial road with no through access, not for passenger car traffic." (So, probably it does have through access to the 89, and it's well-graded, so passenger cars can easily navigate it.) We stopped for a while to get our bearings. Thanks to the poor road grader who waited for a while for us to go, then started out, back down the road. The Cedar Ranch trailhead is about 7 miles in on this road, past a turnoff to Cedar Ranch itself, and through a cattle gate. Turns out that along the road is all open cattle range.

The south end of Passage
35, from the trailhead.

The north end of Passage
34, from the trailhead,

Unfortunately, I used the "Delete Drive Out" feature in Route Scout on a part of the trail that I mountain biked, the south end of Passage 35. It deleted every element of the trail that was over 5 mph. So I have recreated our mountain bike route of September 20 from the Cedar Ranch trailhead below.

We did about 4 miles out; the marked route shows that the first about three miles were on Cedar Ranch Road, until the turnoff near Babbitt Lake, after which we went about one more mile (until we came to a more rocky downslope). Cedar Ranch Road was well graded, and past the turnoff a little less so, but ultimately very bikeable for beginners. We had relatively little time, some battered gear, and the Arizona Trail mountain biking guide that listed the Russell Tank section (about 10 miles north) as "intermediate." So we turned back at mile 4, making an 8-mile trip. The first of the pleasant surprises happened on our trip out on Cedar Ranch Road--a cattle roundup was going on. We'd seen cattle beyond (north of) the gate that we used to enter Passage 35, and we'd had a couple of anxious moments passing groups of open-range cattle. We'd also seen a parked horse trailer (empty) near the turnoff to Cedar Ranch Road. Now we saw a family group of cattle hands (some just children) slowly driving a herd along the road. From a safe vantage point off the road opposite the cattle drive, we waited for them to pass. On the way back, we saw them as they completed the drive.

The second pleasant surprise happened when we were loading the bikes at the trailhead after the ride: a through-hiker came along behind us and got some water from a cache near the trailhead. Apparently Trail Angels stash water along this part of the route because of the lack of water sources. I didn't get his picture or name, but he was hiking fast, and was ready to climb again into Flagstaff. He had apparently taken about two days to hike south from the Grand Canyon (about 40 miles), and he planned to resupply fully in Flagstaff. (This story has a sequel.)

Once more at the trailhead . . .