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Greer bikepacking trip report

2K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Bike&Fish 
#1 ·
A bit of a late report but wanted to share our bikepacking experience around Greer. BTW, it's my first post.

A couple of friends and I enjoyed an overnight backpack in the White Mountains the last week of June. There was a post several years ago that detailed a possible loop ride from AZ260 down to Big Lake and back. That was our inspiration.

We drove up from the Phoenix on Friday night, enjoyed a fermented beverage at Pinetop Brewing (although, it was pretty dead...anybody under 50 live in the White Mountains?;)) and promptly headed out to the forest for a campfire and stargazing.

Then next morning we saddled up our Salsas and started our ride from the Pole Knoll TH off AZ260. It's a nice day use area and we had no issue leaving our truck there overnight.

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I will say that Pole Knoll and the adjacent Squirrel Spring recreational areas aren't exactly heavily or even lightly traveled areas...we had the place to ourselves. The "trails" were a mix of cross country ski trails, cross country rocks and tufts of grass, and old FS roads.

My venerable El Mariachi SS with Revelate Designs bags.

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Off and riding...and hike-a-biking...and getting lost just for a minute or two..

Natural environment Soil Trail Forest Woody plant


Nature Natural environment Branch Natural landscape Tree


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...we finally managed to make it to AZ373 into Greer.

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After almost frying from a lightning strike, the Molly Butler Lodge came into view. Hearing thunder all around us we decided to take refuge in the lodge and they actually had a fine selection of AZ craft beers on tap. Well, you can guess how that went...after a couple of cold ones and when the lightning cleared, we decided that we should hit the trail again.

We started up the West Fork Trail #94 invigorated and invulnerable. Ya, that lasted about 10 minutes until it started spitting rain and the trail started going up. Being at altitude, with gear on our SSs, and a belly full of beer it was a combo of hiking and riding. We finally topped out and were able to ride on a singletrack through a nice open forested area and on some muddy singletrack.

Natural environment Forest Trail Soil Old-growth forest


After about another hour of riding in a light rain, and over increasingly frequent rocks, we started to get cold, tired and hungry. Luckily the trail crossed under AZ273 and we found a nice culvert to take shelter in to warm up. After we fired up the stove and had a cup of joe the rain let up. We hooked up with the Apache Railroad Trail heading south.

Plant Natural landscape Plant community Highland Nature reserve


Now, this really isn't much of a biking trail, as it is a mix of crushed cinders, and in some places almost ceased to exist. It has potential but appears half executed and apparently is not maintained by the FS recently. The railroad grade paralleled AZ273 for awhile and we eventually found our way to an series of ranching roads that would hook us up with the East Fork Trail #95. As it was getting dark, knew we would never make it to the Big Lake area as planned. We knew that the East Fork Trail would take us back into Greer the next morning, so we fumbled around, got lost again, climbed an electric fence, scurried up over a rock ledge, enjoyed some time with a few cows, and finally found a nice place to set up camp for the night.

Grassland Bag Sneakers Adventure Backpack


Natural environment Tent Camping Leaf Plant community


After a pleasant evening camping, we saddled up, filled our camelbacks and proceeded on the East Fork Trail north back into Greer. There was some fun trail to ride, through some beautiful forest, but in places the trail was a bit sparse and we relied on our GPS to get us back on track. We had to hike over probably 30 downed trees, mostly due to deadfall from the fire there a few years ago.

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As our approach continued, the trail became more used and we started to see a few day hikers. We continued to a steep and loose decent back into Greer. We than headed north on AZ373, back out the Squirrel Spring and Pole Knoll areas to the truck.

Mission accomplished. Now, it wasn't quite the ride to Big Lake around to the Overland and South Fork trails we had envisioned, but it was a great weekend anyway.
 

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