Goulds, JEM, & Hurricane Combo - mini TR (10/11/08)

[Kent K25]

After the disaster last week where I tried to hit up this trail system in all the rain and mud just to get a flat tire 8 miles in and find out my pump wasn't working up to specs, I decided to go at these trails again today. Parked at the trailhead just east of Hurricane and started on the Gould's Rim trail. It's definitely the way to start since it gets the 1.75 mile climb out of the way right at the beginning while you're still fresh.

That first 1.8 miles isn't a terrible climb, but it's pretty boring since it's on a dirt road, but eventually gets to the top and some nice singletrack. After a few miles of some nice winding and not very technical singletrack overlooking a big ravine and at times overlooking Hurricane, you eventually get to Highway 59 (where I exited the trails last time thanks to a front tire without enough air). Cross the highway and hop on the JEM trail and the fun really begins. The JEM has a bmx seciton that puts the Bearclaw poppy/GVL bmx section to shame in my opinion. You can pretty well bomb down the entire JEM section as none of it is very technical at all. Just a few small drop offs (beginner riders can go over these slowly without a problem).

Finish the JEM trail and you find out how strong your legs are and how your conditioning is since it's time for some more climbing and the most technical sections of the ride. The Hurricane Rim Trail has the best views of the three trails as well too. There are several lookout points and before you know it you pop over a hill and see your car waiting down below. Another mile and you're all done.

This is assuming you don't get a flat tire on mile 18 and find out your bike pump has been rendered TOTALLY useless. I ordered a CO2 pump last week and some cartridges. The cartridges came in and I'm still waiting for the pump head. So I patched my flat tube and 700 pumps of my crappy pump later I still had a flat tire, so I had a 2.5 mile hike out on the Hurricane Rim trail. As lame as that was it still couldn't overshadow how awesome this set of trails is. Well maintained and a ton of fun!

I rode it by myself so I didn't take any pictures, but here's the ride data from the Edge 705 as seen in SportTracks (great program).

All in all about 1000 feet of elevation gain for the whole ride.

[theking648]

i might try that in the spring as well as goose.

[mfshop]

Walking out the last 2.5 miles must have really sucked. Especially missing that last downhill part. Still, looks like you finished it in 2 hours. Pretty sweet, considering it takes me closer to 3 hrs. In fact, I think I'm gonna ride that today!

[Kent K25]

Don't give yourself too bad of a time. The GPS records total time and moving time. The 2 hours was the moving time. It didn't take into account any pauses or the time it took me to "fix" my flat tire. I'm sure I was closer to, or over 3 hours with all the time added up.