Ride Report: The Queen's Ransom (Sort of)
John Rinker
In mid-February my friend and I put our skis away for a couple of weeks and headed to the Sonoran desert for a roll through that beautiful landscape. Weeks of rain preceding our trip left a carpet of green through which ribbons of desert singletrack twisted, climbed, and dipped beneath red stone mountains and narrow canyons.
The cacti were fat and happy while they waited for days long and warm enough to bring on a spectacular bloom this Spring. Cold, starry nights made for perfect camping, and riding beneath a toasty sun thawed the morning chill.
We planned to ride a mash-up of The Queen's Ransom and The Gila River Ramble hoping to forgo the trek to Florence and the Southeastern suburbs of the Phoenix metroplex. Instead, we would meander the looping trails and canyons between the Superstition Mountains and the Gila River.
TQR Creator John Schilling suggests between four and six days to ride the route, so we figured eight days would give us plenty of time to roll casually through the Sonoran and take in the incredible beauty of this place. What we didn't take into account was that the price of admission to this breathtaking landscape was steep- literally and figuratively. It was only half way through the first day when I began to realize that Schilling's estimate surely applied to riders 20 years younger on bikes 20 pounds lighter and, perhaps, a 100% more eager to let ‘er rip.
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Instead, as is always the case when my buddy and I team up, we rode, pushed, suffered, and savored at a ‘my contact lens is around here somewhere’ pace. Though we certainly enjoy speedy descents on single track or fire roads, the Sonoran is a biome bursting with life and invites a more intentional approach.
Our eight days cruising on bikes included plenty of time out of the saddle to kick stones and poke around in the plants that were, in fact, so eager to poke us. Our days alternated between riding sweet single track or pleasant gravel roads and pushing bikes up narrow, rocky outcroppings. It was a challenging ride that left us ready to roll out our sleeping bags each evening.
About an hour or so before sunset we’d begin to scope out a place to camp- a patch of grass among the saguaros or a grassy slope beneath the soaring walls of a canyon. Each evening we made sure there was plenty of time to enjoy the sublime Arizona sunsets with a mug of tea in hand.
Highlights of this ride include twice riding through Arnette Canyon where the flowing Arnette creek provided opportunities to cool off in fresh, clear water. Adjacent to this was Telegraph Canyon where we spent most of a day hiking along the Telegraph Creek spotting golden eagles. Riding the Arizona trail south from Picketpost Mountain was fast and fun, and our final day of riding brought us back to the Usury mountain trails in Mesa where we looped round and round on hardback sand dodging saguaros and chollos until sunset.
Schilling's 'Queen's Ransom' has pieced together a marvelous, challenging ride through gorgeous country. We never did make it to the Gila river, but compared to what we did ride and see this hardly matters. There’s plenty of beautiful touring to be done out in the Sonoran, so if we have to go back next winter to see the Gila, then so be it.
Here’s a link to 6 days of the ride on GaiaGPS with some photos.
Diana H
John Rinker
