Spruce Mountain loop trail & Lynx Lake trail 305 out & back mountain bike singletrack ride (Prescot, Arizona)

It was about 75f but there was a cool breeze blowing so it did not feel too hot. I started the ride up the hill, which had some pretty steep, rocky, loggey, rooty sections to negotiate and I had to dab 6 times on the way up. The worst thing about riding up was there were large logs being used as waterbars which were pretty hard to get over while riding up a steep slope. Also there were a couple of trees down across the trail.

Eventually I got to the watchtower, but did not bother going up it assuming I would get to see some good views later. Which I did not, so if you ride this trail make sure you go up the watch tower otherwise the only thing you will see on this trail is trees. The trail climbed again for a while, and I saw a large turkey , but he wouldn't hang around while i tried to get a picture of him, the trail then started to head down hill.

When i got back to the SUV I checked out the MTB guide books I had and decided to go and ride the Lynx lake trail 305.

I parked at the Petsmart car park as suggested by the guide book. I also did this as it was quite late and I did not want to have the suv locked in the trailhead carpark at dusk. The trail started off well, nice singletrack weaving in and out of scrub and trees.

Trail 305 climbed gradually up through the trees, in some places too many trees had been cut down , so it felt too open, even though the trail was quite narrow. But as the trail climbed higher the trees came back in closer the trail, and it was more fun. The trail did not just go up, there were many up and down sections.

I reached the top of trail 305, but as it was late I decided not to follow the directions from the guide book which suggested going down another set of unmarked trails.

I discovered that trail 305 is much better ridden down than up, it was very fast and great fun, with none of the ups on the way down requiring much effort to get up. I stopped at Lynx lake on the way down to have a look, but it was not particularly scenic.

I got back to the SUV at about 7.50pm just as the sun was starting to set. The Trail was 16.5 miles long riding it both ways.

I was very hungry and saw up on a hill above Petsmart a place called the China Garden, so I went there and found that it was an all you can eat Chinese buffet place (no msg). I paid $8.95 and managed to eat my way through 3 heaped plates of Chinese food and 1 plate of dessert items. Great value for money and very tasty good quality food.

I then drove back to Flagstaff

While the trails themselves had been quite good fun to ride, they were not very scenic. The only thing to see as you rode was trees, and even more trees, with no good views at all. Another trail I had ridden before at the Granite Basin in Prescot was much better because you got interesting views of the mountain as you rode around it.

DAY 13