My geezer training plan called for an easy six miles, a recovery run, preferably on a soft surface. The plan said nothing about bagels; that was my addition.
Problem was, Flagstaff’s locally famous “Bagel Run,” from Biff’s on the Southside on the FUTS to Sinclair Wash, the Arizona Trail and the Loop Trail was too darn long (9.1 miles) on this day.
So, rather than go longer, I decided to shorten the Bagel Run to what I thought was 6.5 miles by starting and finishing at the parking area where the FUTS meets Lone Tree Road. Then — best part — I’d drive to get my bagels.
A guy makes such compromises for the sake of carbs.
It turned out that this abridged route was 7.3 miles — a little long for my purposes, but no big deal. On a fine April morning, the surface was snow-free, with only a little mud and, with one big exception, pretty flat and mellow.
The Bagel Run is one of the most popular loops in the heart of Flagstaff, trod upon by both Olympians and mere mortals alike, a favorite of early-morning birders and afternoon mountain bikers and popular with quadrupeds (horses, dogs, elk) as well.
I started my jaunt where the Sinclair Wash section of the FUTS intersects with Lone Tree Road, then meandered the well-groomed open-space area under Interstate 40, headed up a short-but-killer hill on the Arizona Trail and eventually looped east on the Flagstaff Loop Trail before turning north on an unnamed trail that paralleled the Rio de Flag back to Sinclair Wash.
Yes, this route is already well-traveled enough without alerting the Sprinter Van touristic masses to its exact coordinates. But it’s not as if this is some super-secret, first-rule-of-Fight-Club course. It’s a shortened version of a staple for elites and visiting cross-country teams that begins and ends at Biff’s Bagels on the Southside. It’s been featured in countless running blogs, magazine articles and detailed in Matt Fitzgerald’s 2020 book, “Running the Dream,” about training with NAZ Elite.
Strangely, though, I recently ran into a few locals who were not aware of the trek. It is for those that this week’s installment is dedicated.
From a foot traffic and avian-viewing perspective, the best time to traverse is early mornings, when the birds and water fowl are most active and the mountain bikers are still asleep. But, misanthropes beware, there really is no time when you’ll have the trails to yourself. I started at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday, and saw three NAU runners, two binocular-toting birders and a lone mountain biker, and I considered myself fortunate that it wasn’t more crowded.
Elite runners like this course because, except for some rocky parts of the 1.8-mile AZT segment, it’s not technical; in fact, much of it is smooth single- or double-track. And that’s not counting the first (and, on the way back, last) mile on the hard-packed aggregate-surfaced Sinclair Wash part of the FUTS.
After that pleasant first-mile warmup, and upon reaching the sewage-treatment waterhole (cheekily nicknamed the Poo Pond), you reach the AZT and the short but hellacious climb.
There’s history in this mini-hill, which is barely 0.1 of mile in distance, but gains 98 feet, a 15.9% uphill grade. It’s a popular “segment” on the running and cycling social-media app Strava, where fastest-known-time obsessed folks vie for supremacy.
In any event, once you make that climb, the rest of the trip is basically flat or rolling. You go through several meadows and copses of Ponderosa pines on the AZT part — just remember to keep an eye on the directional signs so as not to make a wrong turn at various social side trails along the way.
Two of the most important intersections come right around the 3-mile mark. At 2.9 miles (according to my GPS), you take a slight left – look for an arrow pointing to Fisher Point – and go uphill for 0.1 of a mile. Look for the sign with the horse emblem denoting the Loop Trail. Make a left (north-east) turn and go 0.8 of a mile slightly downhill on singletrack worn smooth from the mountain bikers.
The only other tricky part comes when you make the left (north) turn off the Loop Trail to the unnamed doubletrack trail that leads back to Poo Pond and, eventually, Sinclair Wash. There are no signs, but look for a wood fence and gate to the left. If you keep going straight on the Loop Trail, you’ll go about six miles to Country Club Drive, perhaps slightly longer than you intended.
It was on the way back to Sinclair Wash, on the part of the trail that borders the Rio de Flag, that I encountered the birders.
Only a few birds and water fowl were flitting about in the cool of the morning that I couldn’t identify them even if I knew anything about ornithology, but the birders were so intensely focused that they failed to return my greeting upon passing. Or maybe they were annoyed that my presence loping by was disturbing the specimens being observed.
Who knows? At least the runners waved and nodded as I passed. So there’s that.
Sinclair Wash-AZT-Loop Trail, Flagstaff
Distance: 7.3 miles
Driving Directions: Park in a small paved lot on S. Brannen Circle, where S. Lone Tree Road in Flagstaff meets the FUTS. The lot is located just south of S. O’Leary Street and Lone Tree.
The Route: From the lot, head down to the Sinclair Wash Trail segment of the FUTS. Go slightly more than a mile, under Interstate 40 to the water sewage treatment pond. Go around the pond and veer right (west) to the Arizona Trail. Turn left (south) uphill for 0.1 of a mile and then another 1.9 miles on the AZT. Turn left (east) on the Loop Trail and go 0.8 of a mile. Look for an unnamed trail (with a wooden gate) on the left (north). Take the unmarked, double-track trail for about 2 miles back to the Sinclair Wash Trail and retrace steps to the parking lot.
Elevation gain: 401 feet
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