I had the opportunity to ride the trails in Arizona back in January when I was out that way for work. Riding the local trails is something I’ve been looking forward to doing since my first visit to Arizona early last year.

I didn’t know where to start; South Mountain, Papago, and so on. I ended up driving 45 minutes North of Phoenix to the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy in Scottsdale to ride the Brown’s Ranch trail. The weather was mild, though the sun was grueling by the end of the ride. The views were great, with large Saguaro’s dotting the landscape and the ability to see other mountain range’s off into the distant, albeit somewhat hazy which added to the depth effect.

I opted to ride from the Brown’s Ranch trailhead taking the bike bypass from the trailhead and looping around Brown’s Mountain. As I rounded the mountain I was able to make the parking lot and the end of the loop. I didn’t want the ride to end, so I decided to double back and enjoy the loop in reverse.

When I researched Brown’s Ranch trail, I was able to discover a 15 mile loop that covered a wide swath of trails. Unfortunately, the directions to execute such a ride were missing details and/or I missed signs that I was supposed to follow; which is entirely plausible as I was staring at the mountains as I rode past them. So instead I put in 8 miles and still enjoyed every minute of it. I debated going back out and doing another lap on the loop, however, light was quickly getting away from me and I wanted to try to hit other trails (which ended up being a big fail with my phone dying and not knowing the area).

My first ride at Brown’s Ranch on Strava (8.17 miles, 01:05:51) https://www.strava.com/activities/3006116435

My second ride at Brown’s Ranch on Strava (7.48 miles, 01:16:53) https://www.strava.com/activities/3026303519

The following weekend, I went to Sedona to ride Bell Rock. I was not ready for the elevation change, my lungs were on fire within 20 minutes of riding – by the end of the 2 hour ride, I was absolutely slaughtered. Luckily I had a great riding partner that knew the trail fairly well and led the ride, forcing me to push myself to keep up as much as possible; otherwise I would have just taking it a lot easier.

You can see Bell Rock on Strava (11.05 miles, 01:55:13) https://www.strava.com/activities/3023280073

This trip was my first ride on a full suspension bike, and won’t be my last. I ride a 2019 Trek Roscoe 8 hardtail, but the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR left such an impression that I plan on selling my 2019 Trek Roscoe 8 hardtail to make room for a full suspension.

The Katie Jackson park trail has several loops North/South Red and Blue. Additionally, you’ll find a wooden jump section, dirt jumps and a pump track if you head left at the trail head on the red loop and go behind the nearby apartments.

While I was riding, it looked like the wooden jumps were dissembled, and I saw no dirt jumps or the pump track. While not listed on the DORBA website, at one end of the North Red loop there’s the entrance to the Yellow trail. I’m not sure if this is for mountain bikes and so I stayed off it. Perhaps that’s where the pump track and additional jumps were. Next time, I’ll explore more.

What I was able to ride, was fun and made the ride a bit interesting. The trail includes various tree slaloms and a few flow sections where you can get some speed up. Right after you pass the first red/blue intersection on the blue loop, you’ll come across a wooden roller feature along the White Rock Creek. Next you’ll find a long wooden bridge, also on Blue right after the second red/blue intersection. When you ride the red loop, you’ll come across a long skinny wooden feature that progressively gets narrow as you ride along it, which then dumps you back out to blue right before the aforementioned wooden bridge.

Trailhead Location: Katie Jackson Park, 4900 Haverwood Lane, Dallas, Texas 75287
GPS Coordinates: 33.007534, -96.817351

Distance: 3.81 miles
Time: 29:28

You can see it on Strava https://www.strava.com/activities/3174569839

Link to the DORBA Katie JAckson trail: https://www.dorba.org/trail.php?t=33