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+ 147

South Mountain: Javelina Canyon Loop

Mountain Biking Trail

Hard
5.06 mi
613 ft
One of the flowiest trails on South Mountain still packs a technical punch.

Javelina Canyon is a classic mountain bike descent in the popular South Mountain trail system. While it is renowned as one of the flowiest descents on South Mountain, none of the trails in this network could be considered a "flow trail" or even "easy." South Mountain's characteristic rocks and gnar still show up on Javelina, creating a chunky high speed romp that brings local riders back again and again.

The ride begins with a mellow climb on a doubletrack trail before taking a right-hand turn up a steep grunt to the first saddle. From here, the eponymous Javelina Canyon descent begins, filled with beautiful swooping sections of benchcut singletrack, chunky rock gardens, and a few cascading ledge-filled drops.

But this ride is far from over! Next up is a series of short, steep climbs followed by even steeper descents, with the technicality ratcheting incrementally upward on the ledge-filled downhills.

As you negotiate this section of the ride, you'll be confronted by a continuous cascade of non-obvious turns and trail junctions. Be sure to download this route to help you navigate the turns. However, if in doubt, look for whatever appears to be the easiest, least-steep way up the hills. While the most obvious line is always a steep, eroded, fall-line trail running straight up the mountain, more mountain bike-friendly benchcut singletrack reroutes have been added in many places to provide a more pedalable ascent.

The final downhill back to the trailhead is short, but it might be one of the sweetest sections of trail on this entire ride! Moderately-sized ledge drops with wide-open sightlines invite you to absolutely send it, with a few features offering intriguing gap options.

The ride is over all too soon! But if this 5-mile loop isn't enough for you, there are plenty more trails to explore on South Mountain. Written by Greg Heil
Created By
Strava Routes

Route and Elevation

Segments

NameDistanceElev. Diff.Avg. Grade
Boardwalk1.24 mi161 ft2.4%
The short and easy climb1.23 mi184 ft2.7%
Full Javelina Loop5.04 mi-417 ft-0.2%
Bench to ML-JC0.22 mi43 ft2.5%
Mormon Trail to Javalina Tr. Climb0.10 mi52 ft6.3%
Mormon to Javelina Saddle0.09 mi56 ft9.2%
Javelina - Mormon to the lot1.87 mi-397 ft-3.5%
Javelina just the fun bits.0.95 mi-322 ft-6.4%
Javalina back to Pima3.52 mi-417 ft-1.5%
Javelina Summit to Water Tanks1.15 mi-338 ft-5.5%
Javelina downhill (Without XC portion)0.34 mi-118 ft-6.5%
Javelina DH1.76 mi-410 ft-4.3%
Last pedal0.20 mi33 ft1.2%
save the sprint0.20 mi36 ft0.4%
jav final sprint0.47 mi-85 ft-3.4%
46th St 1st Hill0.11 mi52 ft8.9%
Beverly Canyon Trailhead mid-point up first hill to Ridgeline Trail0.13 mi62 ft8.6%
Beverly Canyon Trailhead - Ridgline across 2nd wash with big rocks0.18 mi16 ft0.1%
Beverley Technical Climb to Ridge0.54 mi128 ft4.3%
Earn It0.08 mi66 ft15.3%
Beverly Canyon Bypass Climb0.47 mi112 ft4.5%
Pima run0.68 mi-95 ft-2.0%
Bev’s Trail Gigolo0.32 mi-43 ft-2.3%
Pima DH0.11 mi-72 ft-11.8%
coast 2 coast out n back0.00 mi0 ft0.0%