Quartz Creek Trail Rocks!

You can take that as "Quartz Creek Trail, ROCKS!" or "Quartz Creek Trail Rocks!", because either way works.

But this trail, in all honesty, is not for the faint of heart.

This ATV/backpacking/biking trail is not your afternoon leisurely stroll through the woods on a bike. Though it's a short 14+ mile distance, it's a taxing ride through the heart of the White Mountains, and tricky on the way out from fatigue. The entire mileage you are in full-fledged concentration, constantly finding the route of least resistance, wondering if your tire can clear that big rock. Amazingly, your tires can, and will with enough momentum! It's not the concentration as much as the fatigue in your upper body which is bound to set in, from CONTINUAL jolting of rocks. If one had a full suspension mountain bike, I feel like things would be a lot easier, but so it goes. If I would have remembered my cycling gloves, that would have even been better. But a great trail - the first 0.8 mile is an uphill with loose rocks - it's rideable if you like hills, but for me, it saved a lot of energy and just went as fast pushing my bike up. Once up that hill, the elevation change is easy going with some fun but technical decents, not to mention some fabulous views.Though the trail is merely an ATV trail, and never does go to singletrack, it has the same feel as singletrack in the sense of obstacle-avoidance, in that there is none in many places! I enjoyed the rocks, despite the fatigue, because it was a challenge.There was some water on the trail, but not a whole lot, and nothing deep like I read about before going on this trail. The creeks were welcome during our ride in order to cool off!


As you can see, our weather was just incredible. 80 degrees and sun shining brightly! Hooray for summer! This was potentially our last true day of summer weather in the Interior. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit the mid to upper 70s a couple more times, but I doubt it will get into the mid 80s again.

Someone turn off the heat! Not the sun.. I enjoy the sun! But it's a little too hot out for working this hard!
I was totally pumped for the downhill at the end. Here Celine comes down with her expression about the downhill.. it was kind of sketchy with all of the loose rocks, but we made it out of our 16 mile rocky ride unscatched. No branches in the legs or even falls.. guess we weren't going fast enough?!!

Maybe it's a good goal to do the full potential 35 mile ride.. maybe I'll save that for next year!

Map o' route.

Oh and beware of bears if you go up here. There was a big grizz spotted on July 30th around 10pm.. we were yelling and singing the entire ride and avoided such encounters. Lots of yummy berries alongside the trail for such furry creatures (and humans) to eat.