[hogfly]

Hey all,

I had posted a while back when we were trip planning. We ended up deciding on Tucson. Staying at an AirBNB close to Fantasy Island (which will be awesome for quite a few in our party.. but for the rest of us... a few questions below).

A few questions:

1) I see rain in the forecast. I want to be respectful and just curious what protocol is around rain and hitting the trails. I would assume things dry pretty quickly.

2) Any inside beta on dirt jumps in the area? My son is pretty keen on that scene. He also loves to dig wherever we go and meet other riders, so if you know anyone.. shoot me a PM and we'll try to hook up. We are discrete if they're locals lines.

3) Same son is really into gnarly descents, freerides, waterfalls, etc.. We are looking at Bug (obviously) and Prison Camp. Possibly Half Lemon Drop. Anything else that's good for a shuttle and fits the bill? Also, any freeride zones?

4) Any indoor parks in the area with air bag, foam pit or resi for DJ/BMX?

5) If you made it this far... feel free to check out the boy's riding. He doesn't suck.

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[smmokan]

Hopefully you mean Bug Springs to Milagrosa.... the bottom half of that ride is legit!

 

[evdog]

The 50 Year system has some fun rollers and nice tech. Nate Hills had a vid there early 2021.

 

[habsfan]

+1 Bug To Milagrosa. Many of the Mt. Lemmon trails are legit gnar.

 

[LaneDetroitCity]

Bugs and prison is not a gnarly descent. Incinerator and green mtn are. Milagrosa is.

Don't waste your time driving to 50 year

There are dirt jumps along the loop in midtown tucson

The rain in the forecast has no bearing on the trails. Especially the ones you want to ride. Fantasy island does not handle the rain that good. At least the bunny area.

Starr pass on the south side has some tech and features combined. Not worth the drive probably.

There is a freeride trail off redington they call scorpion trail. I've seen DH bikes on it.

I live near the base of mt lemmon and will ride with you and your son. I have a van to shuttle also.

Make no mistake, these are not Bentonville flow trails.

 

[hogfly]

Bugs and prison is not a gnarly descent. Incinerator and green mtn are. Milagrosa is.

Don't waste your time driving to 50 year

There are dirt jumps along the loop in midtown tucson

The rain in the forecast has no bearing on the trails. Especially the ones you want to ride. Fantasy island does not handle the rain that good. At least the bunny area.

Starr pass on the south side has some tech and features combined. Not worth the drive probably.

There is a freeride trail off redington they call scorpion trail. I've seen DH bikes on it.

I live near the base of mt lemmon and will ride with you and your son. I have a van to shuttle also.

Make no mistake, these are not Bentonville flow trails.

Sweet! Just stopped in at Ben's Bikes looking for some new rubber for the kid's bike, and they also mentioned Scorpion Trail. Are the dirt jumps the Kory Laos jumps? We're going to get settled in today and tomorrow, then we'll probably be up for a ride. I'll shoot you a DM with contact info.

Thanks so much for the information!

 

[LaneDetroitCity]

Sweet! Just stopped in at Ben's Bikes looking for some new rubber for the kid's bike, and they also mentioned Scorpion Trail. Are the dirt jumps the Kory Laos jumps? We're going to get settled in today and tomorrow, then we'll probably be up for a ride. I'll shoot you a DM with contact info.

Thanks so much for the information!

Yes those are the jumps. I see them when I ride on the loop. They have always looked well maintained. And decent size for a public park. Way better than the homeless camp called 100 acre bike park.

 

[earthresin]

@hogfly ,

Just touching base for general curiosity on two things. How did the trip to Tucson go, and are you guys typically riding at Bentonville?

My family is from the Midwest and we now live in Tucson. My kids are much younger but it's always interesting to get perspective from others. We used to go to Bentonville but our kids were far too teeny. Looks like your kids rip!

 

[hogfly]

@hogfly ,

Just touching base for general curiosity on two things. How did the trip to Tucson go, and are you guys typically riding at Bentonville?

My family is from the Midwest and we now live in Tucson. My kids are much younger but it's always interesting to get perspective from others. We used to go to Bentonville but our kids were far too teeny. Looks like your kids rip!

So I'll just copy/paste my post from a different thread in this forum that more or less answers the question:

1) 50 year was a lot of fun with all the rock rolls.

2) We looked for "scorpion trail" forever and even talked to bike shops and other local riders. No one could detail where the trailhead is. That was a disappointment as we spent a half day driving up and down Redington Pass road getting out and scouting without any luck. Ended up just going up Lemmon and riding there, which was awesome. Next time I'd spend way more time on Lemmon as we really enjoyed the trails th ere.

3) WE road Tucson Mountain Park and that area was absolutely gorgeous. The signage there should serve as a model for all other areas. Really well marked, probably because it seemed to be in an affluent area.

4) My biggest perceived need would be a skills park with progressive features. We went to a lot of skateparks while we were there, but almost all of them didn't allow bikes (locals told us to hop the fences, so we did). Considering the amount of homeless at the park, it seems like bikes were probably the least of the worries. My son also spent a couple of days at Premises indoor because it was his best bet for actually riding some jumps. Newer riders want jumps and drops.

5) Only one small edit put together by my son so far which was at 50 year with obligatory trail gap and some slab rolls... oh and a Lion's Back Slab fail. You can view here if interested:

Finn Logan on Instagram: "Desert cruising into 2022!"

269 Likes, 31 Comments - Finn Logan (@floganmtb) on Instagram: "Desert cruising into 2022!"

www.instagram.com

And then also this post:
I wish I would have spent more time up high on Mt. Lemmon. We rode Prison Camp down, and I have no idea why we didn't go on up to Bug Springs that day, other than we hadn't really planned on Lemmon that day and when we got there we had no data and it was getting late in the day, and I was having a hard time figuring out where we wanted to start. I had Bug as a bigger ride in my head than it would have been. Then the weather got bad and conflicts happened with how we were going to spend our time for the remainder of the trip, and we never got back there. I'd want to hit Incinerator and all the gnarlier stuff up top. DH/chunky/tech/fast is the type of riding my son likes (as well as jumping). He wanted to put his enduro bike through its paces (which is why we went looking for Scorpion, because a bike shop guy told us some local enduro race kids trained there a lot).

I wish my son would have gone to Wild Wild West with me, as I think he would have liked that descent, but he was riding Premises that day. He's a really social rider, so that's another thing he likes about parks and session zones, is that you can chat with other folks, whereas I'm happy pedaling alone for 6 hours.

 

[NorCal_In_AZ]

That gap on 50 year (start of chutes) is no flipping joke! Its big and then the ride out is short. I remember being young and dumb and full of ___. Tell your boy nice job.

 

[hogfly]

That gap on 50 year (start of chutes) is no flipping joke! Its big and then the ride out is short. I remember being young and dumb and full of ___. Tell your boy nice job.

Yeah. It's way above my pay grade, but pretty routine for him... though hitting something blind without a local tow-in is always scary, regardless of how much bigger or smaller it is than other stuff he's hit before.

He harasses me a lot for riding so safely in my comfort zone... but someone has to go to work on Monday and pay the bills.

 

[834905]

Bummer that you missed out on Bugs. If it was late in the day you may have made the right choice though. Mileage wise Bugs doesn’t look bad, but the first mile or two are annoying HAB that takes some time.