These reviews are provided by Chris Tippie (tippie@whitemtns.com) of Pinetop, Arizona, and do not neccessarily reflect the view of the management!
A favorite among the local after work crowd, Country Club is short but fun. The average rider can complete it within 45 minutes or less. If you are looking for a longer ride, I suggest incorporating the Springs trail for an additional five or six miles.
When ridden in a clockwise direction, you can eliminate most of the cliimbing (about 250 feet) within the first mile and a half. This allows for some fast single track later on. If you enjoy a quck thigh burner, take the Pat Mullen spur about 1.25 miles into the ride. This will take you up a half-mile of switch-backs to the top of the mountain giving you an additional 300 feet of climbing. The view at the top and the inevitable descent is worth the climb.
You will encounter three self closing gates along the way. They are in place for several different reasons so please be sure that they actually close when you are accross. The more we follow the Forest Service rules, the longer we can keep the trails open to bikes.
The last bit of this trial is by far the most scenic and fun. If you decide to take the Springs connector loop, be sure to come back for the rest of Country Club.
One final word on this trail. Since it is so close to the Pinetop Country Club, you may encounter horseback riders. PLEASE be courteous and give the right of way. I can guarantee that your bike is easier to control than a spooked horse.
One word describes this trial, technical. There are a few places where the average mountain biker can pick up some speed, but at least half of this one will test your balancing abilities. Don't get me wrong, the Springs trail can be very fun and it is in a beautiful location. However, it's also 3.8 miles of big rocks and stream crossings.
These are two conector loops along the way. One goes to the Blude Ridge trail and the other to the Country Club trial. If you can combine Country Club with this ride, it will give you a little more diversity and a chance to stretch out your legs with a little faster section of the trail.
Timber Mesa (# 636 on your scorecard) is one of the best trails I have ever ridden. For those of you who rode this trail several years ago and hated it, me included, it has been improved dramatically. Keep in mind that it is still in no way a beginner trail. There are several places that will send the wandering mind over the bars faster than you can say orthodontist, especially at night.
Timber Mesa is best ridden by starting at the single track portion instead of the forest road. This is located directly behind the trail sign in area. There is a short but rocky climb that will take you to the top of the mesa in nothing flat, depending on whether or not you stopped at the steak house on the way to the trail head (dirty carnivores). Anyway, the first half of the trail pretty much snakes along the edge of the mesa with some pretty cool views along the way.This is really not a big chain ring trail. It’s pretty technical, for the most part. You need to remember that at the bottom of every hill there will be a tight turn followed by another short climb, so be forewarned and gear down. Eventually you will come to a forest gate. This is where you need to make a decision. You can either continue on and take the boring forest road back to your little girlie cars, or if you’re really nice to me I will tell you how to take the newly "discovered" single track back to your manly vehicles.
TOP SECRET!!!!!!!!
NO EQUESTRIANS OR WEENIES!!!!!!
When you come to the forest gate, take a right onto the Panorama connector trail. It’s really just a forest road. There is a wooden sign and the road is marked with blue diamonds with green dots. The road will twist and turn for about two miles and it’s not really much to look at.There are a couple of places where other roads will link up with the "trail" but just keep following the diamonds. One of these places where the road has a T in it, there is a cattle tank ( really just a muddy hole ) on the left.When you see this you are getting close to the first turn off. About two hundred feet past the cattle tank there is a smaller forest road heading off to the right, take it.There is a short climb and you will see a pile of rocks on the right side of the road just before the top of the hill. This is the trail.You will know it by the very tight switchback followed by a small rock jump shortly after the rock pile.The only thing that you need to remember is that anytime you come to a road, just go directly across the street to pick up the trail again.This trail will end with a pretty steep drop off that puts you back onto the original Timber Mesa trail halfway up the first climb.
One last thing about this trail. A few people spent a couple of months building and linking existing game trails together to make this an all around better ride. Please respect it and feel free to do a little maintenance while you’re out there. As mountain bikers, most of us aren't too crazy about the idea of sharing the trail with equestrians. Please do! Make sure that you yield to them ALWAYS. We don’t need to start any trail wars and lose access because someone's little girl got thrown from her horse after it was spooked by a bike. This is redneck country folks, and there are many blind corners on this trail.
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Last revised on Saturday, October 30, 1999 by René Hokans
