Biking Arizona's Buena Vista Trail

Arizona's Buena Vista Trail is maintained by the Pinetop-Lakeside Tracks Organization and is a 10 mile loop with seven challenging uphills. The trail follows sections of old logging roads through lovely pine, oak, and manzanita forest. The trail is marked with white diamonds.

Since it is hilly, you get occasional panoramic views of the mountains.

Below are two examples of the terrain. Being from Chicago, this was new to me and I carried my bike. To demonstrate perspective, I took this photo with my bike laying on the rocks.

These type of hills I could handle, both up and down! Just before I finished the loop, I was hit by a sudden but brief rain storm, a real deluge, and got soaked. No problem, I thought, it was a warm day and I was only a couple miles from my van.  But I had a surprise -- the red soil had turned to a sticky red mud that I had to pedal though, and worse of all, it stuck to the bike and the tires and the gears and the brakes. When I got to my vehicle, I put the bike in, trying to keep the vehicle clean, and drove to town, found a do-it-yourself car wash place, put the bike over the drain in one of the wash bays, and hosed it down real good to get the red gunk off. Mission accomplished!

Below is the map of the trail (click to enlarge.)