Advanced 2 Nighter – Black Canyon Trail with Campfire Cycling in Arizona

***If you would like to join this ride but it is cost or transportation is prohibitive or you cannot afford all the gear, please reach out to the folks at Campfire Cycling and let them know.

Are You Ready for the Adventure?

*Some details are tentative*

The folks at Campfire Cycling are really excited for a new route and to get the “Spring” bikepacking season rolling. The group will be heading up toward Phoenix to ride Devin Balet’s Black Canyon Trail. It’s 76 miles and 4,858′ feet of climbing (and descending) into pure joy. This will hopefully be one of our mellower advanced trips (lord knows I need it at this point). This is a one-way trip with some shuttling so even though the group will be doing shorter days on either end, there will be some travel time.

The plan is to work out some neat carpooling to minimize impact as well as make shuttling a little easier. The group will meet at the bottom of the trailhead. On the first day, the route will add a little upper lollipop and descend into the trail and camp a little before Bumblebee Ranch. On the 2nd day, the group will stop for some resupply, Ice Cream, root beer floats, pie, and some dreaming in the grass in Rock Springs. Then will camp near the Agua Fria River. On the last day, the group will cruise on out and finish the trip like champs. The maps will be slowly updated with camping spots and maybe some add-on miles and will be done before the ride.

Here’s what you can anticipate by reading about the route, as well as reading recent comments: Black Canyon Trail on Bikepacking.com.

This ride will be on the chiller side for an advanced trip but will have some challenges with rough terrain and sandy sections. The organizers recommend a hardtail mountain bike with big tires or a full suspension. A great trip for someone looking to step up to an advanced bikepacking trip with some potential bail-out spots near the highway.

Ride pace is ride at your own comfortable pace. This is not a race. Organizers generally ride at a party pace with many meetups and stops so everyone can re-group and enjoy the scenery. Campfire Cycling will always have a mechanic at the back of the ride so no one is “stuck” alone at the back or in case a mechanical issue comes up.

Anticipate temperatures to range from: 30 degrees (or slightly below) at night to low 70’s during the day.

Organizers will be contacting everyone who signs up for the ride to make sure they are prepared for the challenge. Please sign up if you plan on joining us.

NonPremium RideWithGPS users can get access to premium features for this route and other Campfire Cycling routes.

• Go to CampfireCycling’s Ride with GPS page.
• Click Join Now.
• If not already signed in, sign in to your Ride with GPS Account.
• OR Setup a Free Basic Ride with GPS Account.
• You will now be able to access this route and our Route Library.

***Organizers strongly recommend all participants who do not have offline access to the route on their phone or other navigation device, set-up a free RideWithGPS account and use the above process to access the route and download it to their phone.

Protect the land/area that we recreate on. The ride wwill be on the traditional lands stewarded by the Hohokam, Yavapai Apache, and Akimel O’odham peoples.