# Coconino Loop Bikepacking Conditions and Tips



## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

I was looking into doing the Coconino Loop and I wanted to ask MTBR for tips.

Looks like a sweet trip. I have done a bunch of backpacking, but this would be my first real bike packing trip. I'm going to do some test overnights next week.
Bikepacking The Coconino Loop - BIKEPACKING.com

1. How is the snow this year and could I go in early may?
2. Are any permits required?
3. Hard copy Maps?
4. What direction do you recommend for the loop?
5. How are resupplies in towns?

Thanks.


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

I called a Flagstaff bike shop and they said that parking at Walmart would be a good place to leave a car for a week. I'm not sure if that is a good idea and I'm looking for backpacker parking.


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## Hellcat405 (Mar 12, 2010)

Killroy said:


> I called a Flagstaff bike shop and they said that parking at Walmart would be a good place to leave a car for a week. I'm not sure if that is a good idea and I'm looking for backpacker parking.


Yeah, the last time I parked at that Walmart there were signs that said it was customer parking only and you could get towed. You might try one of the local hotels for extended parking. They probably wouldn't even notice.


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

Seems like the risk would be just as high at a Hotel, maybe even worse.


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## Matterhorn (Feb 15, 2015)

Drive a rental car to Flag then ditch it there.

No permits, easy resupply. I've hiked/ridden sections but not all so can't recommend a certain direction. Lots of trip reports online. Backpacking.com is the place to start for good info.

Bikepacking The Coconino Loop - BIKEPACKING.com


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

I think I will just get a night at Model 8 and make a deal to leave my car there.

I am just going to follow the GPS and the turn cues from the Coconino Loop race below. Looks like I will start heading south and clockwise.

https://rockyroad5050.wordpress.com/5-coconino-250-and-350/


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## pierre meux (Dec 1, 2008)

Snowpack is well below average; Mogollon melted out early but Flag just got hit with a half foot the other night.

Parking is free at the Flagstaff airport.


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## Maadjurguer (Mar 22, 2008)

We got an inch in town yesterday...but the forest is back to dry in most places. You may encounter spotty snow along the route in very shady, north aspects....but nothing to worry about. I suspect Bill Williams Mtn will be the only spot you may find anything lingering. If the weather holds, early May will be dry and dusty.


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## Maadjurguer (Mar 22, 2008)

Forgot to mention that there is 15-Day parking in Flagstaff by the tracks, just north of Flag Bike Revolution.


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## freeheel (Sep 27, 2005)

I was on the coco last week. There was some postholing on the williams descent, but not too bad. There were many many trees on the trail though...


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

freeheel said:


> I was on the coco last week. There was some postholing on the williams descent, but not too bad. There were many many trees on the trail though...


Great. Just the right amount of adventure.


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## mikedeber (May 10, 2006)

I parked on a side street in one of the neighborhoods by the end of the loop and had no issues. Just gotta remember how to get back to it so you don't waste half an hour riding up and down the city streets trying to find it after you're done like I did


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

Well I did that and it was tough. I would upgrade the difficulty to 9 out of 10. The conditions were really hard.

Good:
-Towns- Flagstaff, Sedona and Williams (Cottonwood - meh)
-Arizona Trail is really nice.
-Sedona

Bad:
-The weather - Temperatures from 27 F in Flagstaff to 90's in Cottonwood during First week of may
-The 5-6 miles of constant hike a bike of Arizona Trail Swap on accent to Marry Lake 
-Hike-a-bike on Lime Kilm and most of the rest of the trail.
-Mingus Mountain, dirt Road and hike a bike
-Lots of dry camps - no water.

I was very surprised at how nice the Arizona Trail and Sedona was and the rest of the towns. If I was to ride it again, I would only ride the Arizona Trail section and Sedona. I would cut everything else. I did do the trail in 5 days, so in order to stay on schedule, I did have to by pass some sections.

I drove into town and it was rainy and cold. I road in about 6 miles and camped in the rain and woke up to a lot of snow around my tent and on the trail and temperatures as low as 27. The temperatures would be in the 30s F a lot of the day and more snow was forecast the rest of the day so I decided to go back to Flagstaff to spend the day.









The next day most of the snow was melted and the beginingof the Arizona trail was great until I ran to the saturated plateau next to Marry lake. Worst soil I have ever experienced in my life. It may look dry, but its extremely tacky and both wheels will be clogged and locked up. The trail was under 6" of water, there was no drainage and there was 5-6 miles of hike a bike. Pushing was extremely hard and I stopped to clear the mud, but it would pack up right away. It was very slow. I ended up bypassing to the road eventually. The bummer is that this put me behind scheduled and I did not make it to the Sedona Overlook campsite. I called the local bike shop asking for conditions a couple of weeks before and the day before and there was no mention to this section. I honestly think they have no idea. This whole area is just a swamp in the wet and the the trail is not built with any drainage.







































Sedona was great. Challenging ups on the Broken Arrow trail even if you were not loaded down.









Lime Kiln, starts with a nasty hike a bike with a lot of cactus. If I would of known, I would of just bypassed this on the pavement. The rest of the trail was not fun except the 1 mile from Cottonwood. Parts were chewed up by horses, other parts were sandy and hot. Some parts were just boring. I got a broken spoke and I wanted to hit the bike shop in Cottonwood, so I did not really have time to spend on trail that was just meh. Just some bad luck.

I ended up dry camping part way up Mingus Mountain. Boy that climb sucked. Parts of the fire road were really rough and steep. I originally planed on doing the main route and I did not have the bypass GPX file. I would recommend everyone take the bypass. I ended up planning my own bypass to the highway, but that route still took most of the infamous hike a bike.

Once you get off of Mingus, the trail go on jeep ranch roads through the hot desert that really suck. The ~7 miles of downhill on the Western Trail (well graded dirt road) to the Verde River in Perkinsville was a savings a pick me up. If filled and rested from the 90 degree F Heat at the river and took a swim. Finally, this is what the trail needs more of.









I was again behind and after all the bad luck I wanted to see if I could ride the dirt/ then paved road into Williams ~33 miles before dark, but I never made it. I wrestled a slow leak. I think the Stans was baking out and the bead was leaking. Its about 2000 ft up to Williams from the Verde River and there are a lot of rollers. I ended up dry camping and I had to do a lot of water rationing to get into Williams in the morning. That was not pretty.

I hung out in Williams most of the 4th day and stayed at Motel 6. If you get there before 9 am, you can catch the Grand Canyon Train, FYI.









On Day 5 when I finally got to the Arizona Trail, it was great. I short cut the route from ~68 miles to 55 miles. I waned a easier last day. Mostly down hill for a long time into Flagstaff and lots of urban paths to get back to the heart of Flag.


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## Welnic (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for writing your trip up. Looks like classic type 2 fun. I really like the mud pictures.


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## jmctav23 (Oct 16, 2010)

yup the Anderson Mesa section of the AZ trail is infamous for its' death mud...


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## evdog (Mar 18, 2007)

Killroy said:


> Bad:
> -The weather - Temperatures from 27 F in Flagstaff to 90's in Cottonwood during First week of may
> -The 5-6 miles of constant hike a bike of Arizona Trail Swap on accent to Marry Lake
> -Hike-a-bike on Lime Kilm and most of the rest of the trail.
> ...


Bummer about the poor trail conditions. For known routes like Coconino you can usually get a good idea of potential problem areas from past trip reports or asking about conditions on forums like this or bikepacking.net. Even if conditions are ok now, you'll usually get a warning about known death mud spots. You would think shop employees would have a clue, but not everyone rides beyond the local town trails.

Not sure what to say about the dislike of hike a bike. I can think of few long-ish routes that have lots of singletrack but little HAB, and unfortunately there are few routes that do not have long stretches of dirt road. It's all part of the adventure in completing the route on your own, and overcoming whatever challenges the route throws at you. Bikepacking isn't all rainbows and unicorns. It is tough, and that's a good thing. If it was easy everyone would be doing it, instead of just talking about doing it .

Nice job finishing and thanks for the report!


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

jmctav23 said:


> yup the Anderson Mesa section of the AZ trail is infamous for its' death mud...


It would of been nice to hear that from the local bike shop because its really easy to bypass it on the road by Marry Lake.


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

Yeah, the only other bikepacking route i have done was the Kokopelli and it was a while ago, but the I think it was way less Hike a bike and the dirt roads were more interesting. I remember liking the dirt roads. The Kokopelli is shorter.

I did the Kokopelli with as a supported tour with a good outfit called "Bikerpelli, so I never had to look for water, but I think there was more water opportunities.

The description on Backpacking.net never mentioned the death-mud. Now that I read Bikepacking.com, I see that they were "slowed" buy tacky mud, but that description is not specific enough for people to think 'maybe I should plan a bypass.

I did not even know Bikepacking.net had forms worth reading, but I see them now. That is why I turned here.


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## Matterhorn (Feb 15, 2015)

sounds like biking in AZ is not really for you. no judgement just sayin'.


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## evdog (Mar 18, 2007)

Killroy you should check out the Dixie 200. It has just one main hike a bike up to the Paunsaugunt Plateau, along with a few short ones depending on your fitness. There is plenty of dirt roads but most of it was pretty scenic, and water is not much of an issue. The Tour de los Padres would be pedallable as well though it has long segments of dirt road. I don't see that as a negative. Bikepacking is about the adventure and the journey, connecting places into one long route or loop so my criteria is a lot different from regular MTB rides when it comes to dirt roads if they are necessary.

But yeah, sections of the AZT and CO trail can have a lot of hike a bike.

Dixie 200 TR: http://forums.mtbr.com/bikepacking-bike-expedition/bikepacking-dixie-200-a-980045.html


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## jmctav23 (Oct 16, 2010)

Killroy said:


> It would of been nice to hear that from the local bike shop because its really easy to bypass it on the road by Marry Lake.


Let me rephrase that...it's infamous among AZT riders/thru hikers and bike packers who attempt the Coco loop. It is not a trail that gets ridden by recreational MTBers in town, mostly because it sucks compared to almost every other trail in Flag. Chances are the bike shop folks have never ridden it. I rode it a few weeks ago and it was fine, freewheel who posted above probably had no problems on it...you just caught a bad time, the last two days of sunshine probably dried it most of the way out.


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

Anderson Mesa is probably really awesome when its dry. You would fly by with a good average speed and good views.


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## schillingsworth (Oct 23, 2009)

Killroy said:


> Anderson Mesa is probably really awesome when its dry. You would fly by with a good average speed and good views.


Nope. Plenty of embedded lava rock to keep your speed down. Even if you successfully avoid most of the rock, the cattle post-holing will get you!! I lucked out this year on the AZTR750 as conditions were dry and the cattle hadn't tore up the trail too bad. It was probably the best it's ever been for me, but I still dealt with 30+mph crosswinds most of the way. It's tough to hold 5-6mph on that section in prime conditions.

Evdog & I moved our start down to Sedona a few years ago due to the wet conditions, it really paid off.

AES: Coco250


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## Killroy (Mar 9, 2006)

I was trying to be positive. 

Any condition where you could mostly stay on your bike and ride faster than 1 MPH, would of been better. 

Of course there are a lot of 1 MPH sections on the Coconino250


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## JoePAz (May 7, 2012)

The mingus HAB and potential death mud south of Flag are legendary. If you plan to do any long bikepack trips that involve any sections of the AZT or just about any places in Az contact Freeskier46. Just look at his tag line "I ride the crappy trails so you don't have to". He knows all.

BTW.... When they say this "I'd add to that our first day out of Flag was slowed down considerably by tacky, clay-like mud on the Anderson Plateau, thanks to rain the previous night. So keep an eye on the weather." That is code words for death mud.


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