“Courage is knowing it might hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that’s why life is hard.” The Stoics
January 10-15 2025
"Oh this is gonna be bad" I thought as I flew headfirst into the steep ravine.
I had been wanting to do the Queen's Ransom route for several years and actually made a trip to go do it in 2023 but weather made an unexpected appearance and it rained for 2 days in Scottsdale where our son lives and we were visiting. Fast forward to January 2026. I generally get a bad idea in my head and let it stew for a couple days before openly articulating it. It's not uncommon for conversations with Joannie to start with "I have a crazy thought." So checking the forecast I started just such another conversation in exactly the same way. We had just been to Arizona for my birthday in December but when making those plans a year ago no thought of bikepacking had sprung into my head. This time, of course Joannie being Joannie, she was all in immediately and so plans were laid. Shortly thereafter I headed off into the desert and mountains surrounding the Phoenix metro area, aka: The Valley Of The Sun while Joannie did "fun" stuff with with Kirk and Laura.
The Queen's Ransom is a singletrack heavy multiday 232 mile, often technical route that threads together many of the areas trail systems together using dirt wherever possible throughout the large areas of still public land available for recreation. Here's what John Schilling, the routes creator says: "The Queen's Ransom is a 5 day / 4 night bikepacking route around the greater East Valley of metro Phoenix and beyond. It includes a series of trail networks and the famed Picketpost to Kelvin section of the Arizona Trail. This route is singletrack heavy and very technical. This is NOT a gravel bike route. It's been rated an 8/10 for difficulty." I tried to make it in the 5 days advertised but it took me 6. Yeah. I'm slow. And old. But still pushing.
Day 1 A New Hope
Joannie dropped me off at the Desert Trails park in Mesa. It's not the 'official' starting point but it's on route so it doesn't matter. I got started at my planned time of 8am and with a final pat for Wyatt and a good luck from Joannie I headed out.
I wound my way through devious little backways and urban trails marveling at how John had stitched this all together. Missing un-obvious turns through housing set the tone for the whole trip. Never went far off track though. Soon I turned into the Hawes trail network where I have ridden before. There is some tech in there but more or less knowing what to expect kept the pucker factor relatively low.
I had a goal of reaching a camping waypoint at around mile 52 of the route but would only be about 36 miles for me since I used a different start. After Hawes the trails mellowed out and I made better time until reaching Gold Link trail. I've also ridden this before and it is a slow chunky morale buster. But again I knew where I was and when it would end. It ends at Bulldog Wash on a 4x4 road. Now on the 4x4 road it was much easier even though this road is quite rocky as well. I turned off on another single track and was soon at camp. I made it! I was quite happy with myself and thought my 5 day goal would work. Oh the hubris...
During the night I got up half a dozen times to restake and guy out the tent as the strongish wind kept folding it over on top of me.
Day 2 The Empire Strikes Back
Getting up at first light and getting on trail slightly before 8 (Sunrise was a little after 8 this time of year) became the norm of my days. I made good time as far as the highway. Here begins the infamous Jacob's Crosscut trail. It started out easy enough but once beyond a mile or so it shows it's teeth. Slow chunky technical riding. Not really much elevation gain just slow and tedious and strenuous.
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| Superstition Mtns. Jacob's Crosscut pretty benign still. |
Finally exiting Jacob's Crosscut I made my way over to the Subway. By now I knew there was no time for a sit-down meal. So I ordered a subway and sat down anyway to eat half of it. I made my way through the housing and entered State Trust land (permit required, and yes you heathens, I had one). Back on singletrack working my way west, no south, no north wait what? John had routed through a mountain bike play pen with the trail looping all over the place. Nice! But would have been even better on my unloaded full suspension bike. But the realization hit hard that I wasn't going to be near my end of day goal today. Not by a long shot. Like a 20 miles long shot! I ended the day about route mile 80 completely spent. I wanted to be about route mile 100. Oops.
Day 3 The Phantom Menace
Today was mostly 2 track and I hoped I could catch up. But first, the obligatory missing of a turn at around mile 8 on the day. This one proved out to be advantageous though. I was getting low on water and my missed turn took me to a well where the cattle trough level was controlled by a ball float. Thinking myself smarter than the average cow I took my bottles and filled them all with fresh clean water by simply depressing the float and holding my bottle under the outflow of the pipe. It was a looong reach though because I suspect the rancher discounted the credibility of bikepacker usage and put the fill in the middle of one of those huge round tractor tire troughs. Backtracking perhaps a quarter mile got me back on route. In Queen Valley I stopped and got a banana muffin, a soda and some crackers. Then burnt up some more time eating the muffin and watching my contemporaries drive around in golf carts. More double track took me into Superior and the Circle K where strange things were afoot. (Bill and Ted). Well not really but I made a few loops around the Circle K until I found the route out the back. Then 15 minutes later broke my chain. My fault, cussing ensued. Followed by an easy repair. Bonus: I got to use the chain breaker of my multitool in the heat of battle. A bit later I dropped via pretty techy singletrack into amazing Arnett Canyon. I had heard that this was a highlight of the route. I was not disappointed. The trail crossed the stream several times and it was exceedingly beautiful in there. I camped less than a mile from the Picketpost Trailhead. I had made up 10 miles of my 20 mile shortfall.
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| Heading in to Superior |
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The start of Arnett Canyon
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| Camp spot less tent |
Day 4 The Attack Of The Clones
"Oh this is gonna be bad" Luckily all the spiny flora broke some of my fall. I saw blood dripping on the rocks a couple inches from my face and started an inventory to try to determine where it was coming from. I discovered my bike had followed my headfirst plunge and was now lying on my back somewhat pinning me to the ground in the ravine. I heaved it off me trying to stand up. I looked down and saw the cholla ball stuck in my leg. Problem for a later time. I found the source of the blood. Nothing serious. Looking nearly vertically up through the spiny brush I tried to move my bike. On the 3rd try I got it rotated 180* so that I could now push it up. More or less. A few more tries getting the bike up out of the ravine and then tending to some bloody legs. All things considered I was unscathed. Some cosmetic water bottle touch up and a bit of cholla needle removal and I was good to go. I tried to discern what had taken me out finally concluding that fortune favors the bold and I had been too timid coming into the turn going around the ravine and had simply tipped over, well of course on the downhill side. Ehh. The day had started with the climb and it wasn't bad. A little pushing here and there but certainly no big pushes. After the crash it continued that way up to the trail segment high point and the water collector beyond where I took another break to filter some water and eat.
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| AZT rain collector |
I filled all my bottles here as I didn't now expect to make it to Kelvin by day end. I forgot to mention that the day's fall had snapped off the bite valve of my hydration reservoir so I had 1.5 liters less water. Yay! Less weight! More climbing followed the rain collector, (I know, right?) Then it was some lovely descending and more amazing geology plus a group of Javelina's down to the AZT low point.
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| Look close for Javelina |
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| Deadfall, Arizona style |
Still 15 miles to Kelvin. I rode on hoping for the best. After a couple miles I determined to ride one more mile then start looking for a camp site. I made it about 100 yds. I texted Joannie via inreach I wasn't gonna make it tomorrow.
Day 5 The Force Awakens
I packed up and rode on into Kelvin stopping at the ADOT yard for a snack and water fill. No time for pizza, dang it! Just before mile 17 for the day I exited the AZT following the route onto the Florence-Kelvin hwy, a well manicured dirt road. Dropping 350 ft I re-climbed 1300 ft but from the top it was all downhill to my end of day camp at Area 52. I don't know if there's a secret underground military installation there or if Area 52 is Area 51's twin brother/sister, but there was military helicopter aircraft doing all kinds of night helicopter things around the area until around 9pm. Cool place though, camped in a wash among the rock outcroppings.
Day 6 Return Of The Jedi
Lots of miles to make but I assured Joannie that I would finish today. I had to have time for Kirk to grill me/us a nice steak and tomorrow was our last full day before heading home. I had arranged a backup pick up location with her at Alta Rock Gym if I started getting late. Because, you know, gym climbing. The day had some tough 4x4 roads leaving Area 52 but after that it is all easy riding until San Tan Mtn Regional Park. Then single track again took over but it's easy compared to what was already behind me and was only about 7 miles. After that last bit of singletrack it's pavement or dirt canal trails the rest of the way and basically flat. I could make good time. I passed the cutoff to Alta about 2:30 so texted that I was going all the way back to the Desert Trails start. Oh and to please have a cold beer for me. She was 20 minutes early but after 73 miles there she was with a big smile and Wyatt. And a cold beer...or two. What great support!
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| Crowning Saguaro known locally as 'The Shaka Cactus' |
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| Top of San Tan. Smooth sailing from here. |
Disclosures:
- Yes I know the Star Wars titles are not in the right order. Oh what a rebel!
- I am old enough to still laugh at Bill & Ted.
- I'm old enough that many of my contemporaries really do drive around in golf carts.
- I didn't talk much about the scenery because, well look at the photos!
- Yes I know I'm dating myself with all the 'isms.
- You can order pizza from Old Time Pizza and they deliver to the ADOT yard.
- OTAF = 10. From around Kelvin to Area 52. Maybe just time year or special exercises?
I obtained potable water at Wind Cave Trailhead (also available at Usery trailhead), Silly Mtn. trailhead (a drinking fountain able to fill bike bottle size bottles), the well on day 3 33.291766, -111.338919, the Kelvin ADOT yard, Desert Mtn Park in Queen Creek
I filtered water at: somewhere along here 33.364626, -111.350651 (probably didn't need to), the AZT water collector 33.179484, -111.136094
The official Queen's Ransom GPS file on RWGPS has all the resupply points you need.
GPS File: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53455442
Stats:
231.4 miles, 17,464 ft climbing per my Coros Dura.
Bike Setup:
Binary Kinetik, hardtail w/130mm suspension fork, bikepacking bags.
