falcon flow

Thursday.  H did a road ride (24.39 miles; 1:17:13 time; 18.9 average speed; 31.2 top speed) and then, at H's suggestion, we three went up to Sand Flats to hike Falcon Flow.  The Raptor Route is a series of three recently-constructed trails in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, put in as a slightly (but not all that much) easier alternative to the Porcupine Rim.  Falcon Flow was built in 2020, Eagle Eye in 2021 and Hawks Glide was completed in 2022.  

You can just barely make out H across the wash

We drove in a ways and parked at the first Falcon Flow lot.  There were a number of other vehicles there but, again, we only saw a handful of MTBers out on the trail.  Traffic on the Sand Flats road seemed to be starting to pick up a little, as folks were rolling in for long weekends.  We put Milton on his leash and walked up the road for over 2.5 miles to the upper entrance to the trail.  Although these MTB trails are technically two-way, you'd be foolish to bike up them.  Hiking up them isn't bad, though, although we preferred to get the road walk portion out of the way first.

So much green!

Falcon Flow is quite pretty, following along much of the Porcupine Rim trail but up above on the hillside.  A lot of the trail is sidehill-y, with steep downhill drop offs.  But it also goes through super pretty rocky bowls and washes.  It does have a long out, however: you see the Sand Flats road long before you come out on the Sand Flats road.

Cruisers

We paused at the Slickrock parking lot for a quick beer, then went home to shower and drop off a tired Milton.  Then we double- (me)/triple- (H) sessioned by hopping on our cruisers to go out along the river (no flat tires this time) before stopping by Woody's.

Hike stats: 8:08 miles; 2:27 time/3.3 m.p.h moving and 2:31/3.2 overall (not much stopping); 1,020' elevation

Cruise stats: 12.78 miles; 1:07 time; 16.8 average speed (that seems wrong/fast); 23.3 max. speed