Day 6 : Flagstaff - St George (Fort Valley & Monolith Garden MTB rides)

Day 6 was a long day I got two rides in one in Flagstaff and one in Kingman and also drove to St George the drive to Kingman from Flagstaff was 147 miles and then another 225 miles to St George , a Total of 372 miles.

In the morning I got up and finished off doing my Ghetto repair of my sidi shoe in Tomas's Man Cave. I wish I had such a great place to work on my bikes, instead of the cold damp outdoor garage that I have in England.

Flagstaff MTB Schultz creek trail ride picture

The Motor bike tyre was extremely tough - Tomas's power tools were just about able to cut through it. It would be good it Sidi used material like this for the tread instead of the swiss cheese they use at present.

After breakfast and taking Tippy for a walk we rode up to Schultz Creek. We got there via a mix or bike paths, road and some singletrack.

Schultz creek trail starts off on an old dirt road, which gradually gets narrower as you head up until your riding on singletrack. It was a sunny day but was quite cool. We didn't ride with the dog as there were squirrels with rabies running around on Mt Elden.

There was still water on the trail from the melting snow and my bike got muddy for a change, rather than dusty on this part of the trail

There was still snow in places as we rode up the creek to Schultz Tank at 8000'.

From schultz Tank we headed over to the Fort Valley trails.

Without Tippy in tow I fell behind Tomas as he shot off up and down the trails, the fort valley trails had a mix of singletrack that wiggled up and down through the trails, and long sections of singletrack which which went straight across openish meadows. In some places the trail went along old disused roads which were reverting back to being singletrack.

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The Fort Valley trails were dry and dusty , and the sections that went mainly downhill was a blast to ride. On the way back to Tomas's place someone shouted out of their Truck "Hey its Zinger-UK" - I never did find out who this random guy was....

Back at Tomas's place we washed the bikes and I packed up all my gear to head off to ride at a place Tomas had found on the Internet at Kingman.

Kingman mountain biking Monolith Garden mountain bike singletrack

The drive to Kingman was fairly quick and rather boring, I stopped at the Visitor Centre in Kingman and got a Trail map for the Cerbat Foothills recreation area. I managed to drive past the turning for the Monolith Garden trail head, but eventually worked out where it was and parked up. I didn't look like the trail head was used that much.

From the car park I went through a gate and rode up to the loop trails.

From the trail head I rode up and connected onto the Cook Canyon Loop Trails, I turned left and headed SE. It was nice and warm but not too hot. And there was no else around. The trails were old double track and nice singletrack. With great monolith rock formations.

The trail climbed up south by a deep canyon on a fairly wide track, at the top there was a bench were I had a snack.

As the trail leveled out it got nice and rocky and narrow, and continued into a valley with monolith rock formations on either side of the trail.

The trail was good and narrow and the different rock formations made for a interesting ride.

After pottling along the valley floor the trail then climbed quite steeply up to a high point from the valley floor.

After cresting the ridge the trail then headed down along the ridge line.

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The trail climbed back up again before it now headed back north, and downwards towards the other loop trails. The trail consistency changed here as the rock was volcanic in places.

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Whilst the loops trails here weren't particularly steep, they were fun to ride as they winded their way across the desert. I signed the log book near the highway, before heading away from the highway.

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I rode all the small loop trails down closer to the highway before I backtracked back around the big loop, which was just as much fun as riding it the other way round.

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Eventually I came back to where I had connected on to the loop trails at the start of the ride, and rode back down to the car. The descent was nice and fast.

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Kingman mountain biking Monolith Garden mountain bike map

The Monolith Garden trails had been great - Top marks to Tomas for suggesting that I rode here, I was surprised that I'd never heard the trails here mentioned on any web sites or mtb magazine, as the trails were top notch xc trails.

The drive from Kingman to St George was a long 225 mile drive, crossing the Hoover dam on the way, the traffic was quite slow through road works on the way to the dam.

On the way through Las Vegas my GPS decided to take me through some very dodgy parts of Las Vegas after directing me off the free way. I stopped and got gas at around 20:30 on Las Vegas Blvd (Hoping not to end up in an episode of CSI) before heading on St George.

I got to St George at about 22:30 (There's a 1 hour time difference in Utah compared to Nevada) , dropped off my gear at the La Quinta Inn I was staying at, and then went to the nearby Walmart and bought some water and a tub of Ben & Jerry's for my supper, before getting some sleep.

DAY 7