First, I should have brought a camera, but didn’t. Felt like a silly choice standing at 9k, watching massive thunderheads unload on the Lonesome Valley (location of our home) 50 miles to the south. I did bring the GPS, intent on map generation for this presentation, but neglected to check for signs of life in the batteries. Darn.

You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Had a leisurely morning. Up at 0600 (late these days), hangin’ out, iced coffee, eating all the cookies (for which I got in trouble), reading, watching This Week. Eventually, rally and load up and get on out. 50 minute drive north to Williams. The Bill Williams Trail had been sufficiently outstanding when I rode it on the Prescott-Grand Canyon trip that a return investigation was warranted. I brought the Karate Monkey, some thing about it suits my mood these days.

The TH for these adventures is within sight of I-40, south and then a bit west of exit 161. You roll south on the BW Trail for a bit, either turning left and traversing over to town, or continuing (pushing, on a SS) up for a ways before turning left and traversing. Both options are excellent. You’re in the pines, with a nice breeze, and a good amount of embedded volcanic rocks to dodge and hop. My bashring lost a good bit of metal on that short stretch. The rigid delivered a deliberate pace working the boulders and stepdowns in control. Soon you turn north, skirt through the edge of Williams, then climb south on pavement, into a headwind. I took things easy, obeying the month’s “no suffering” rule. I thought about just climbing the road, but couldn’t pass up the option of climbing the bottom, and best part of, the Benham Trail.

Good thing I did, as a half mile in I passed Don and Darren, two guys I ran into last time I was on the mountain. They turned around and climbed back up with me. Darren, on gears, dropped us hard. Don and I grunted up the singletrack, then turned on to the road at the first chance and continued. Don lives most-time in Williams, and saw fresh bear tracks on upper Benham a few days ago.

It’s a fun (dirt) road climb, and the scenery was exceptional. Eventually, at the top (nice benches right at the start of the descent), a sizable cloud prompted a “we should get low before we get zapped” conversation. Down.

Bixler shares the first half mile of BW, which is steep with tight corners through pines and ferns, and generally outstanding. Then, instead of continuing down the drainage north (with loads of rock launching, burly fun) it climbs over a saddle west and contours complexly down. It’s faint but also there, rocky on occasion, has a few very tight corners, and manages to be both outstanding and quite different in character from it’s brother next door. After two (long, in a good way) miles and some light rain (and one very close thunderclap), we were at the lower TH. Two miles of chunky fireroad, the sort that kills a rigid worse than anything, and another mile of smooth take you to the interstate, where four miles of riding the shoulder is a necessary evil.

It’s very worthwhile. And I’m sorry, again, that I lacked technology.

On the way home, damp and happy, I shivered my way through the grocery store’s air conditioning, then ran to the truck through a torrential rain. Ahhh, the pleasure of being COLD!