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Caption: AZT 300 2017 Edition
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Caption: March 3rd, 2017. I had airfare to Tuscon to ride the Arizona Trail (the shorter more wussy 300 mile version) starting on St. Patricks day. I had intentionally put off this ride for awhile. I am not much of a desert rat. Time to start training...
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Caption: It had been a very wet winter in California. I started my training ride in a remote part of the Los Padres NF by crossing La Brea Creek 25 times. Probably not the most appropriate training for the dry and dusty AZT! After a few crossings my feet became cold and numb. I made it to Miranda Pines camp around 11 pm and thawed out my feet over a camp fire.
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Caption: Miranda Pines Camp. Training ride day 2.
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Caption: I thought I would try a singletrack I had never been on. But quickly realized half the trail was half gone from all the winter storms...
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Caption: The Los Padres version of the Colorado Trail. Except only cows use this trail.
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Caption: Ending the training ride with the oh so flowy Willow Springs Trail made the suffering all worth it๐
Caption: After the training ride it was time for logistics. One of the reasons I did not do the group start in April was to avoid the heat. Weather report for March 17 through 22nd was unseasonably hot...all mid 90's! Fuck me! I decided to still give it a shot, so I shipped my bike to Kris at Ajo Bikes in Tuscon and he picked me up at the airport at 10:30 pm with my bike on the back of his car. No time wasted! The other shuttle company I found was going to charge me way more than Kris and they wouldn't pick me up at night. I highly reccomend using Kris if you need a shuttle.
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Caption: To avoid the heat I started around midnight. This would be my first all nighter ever on a bike.
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Caption: After 6 hours of riding, the sunrise! The Canelo Hills were no joke. Pitchy climbs, loose rock, narrow trail, and dry stream crossings. These first two segments might be the hardest miles of the 300. After the Canelos, it was easy pavement to Sonoita where I had brunch.
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Caption: 12 hours into my ride and it was only like noon. This riding through the night thing was wierd! I guess that lone horse I saw on the trail was not a hallucination afterall!
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Caption: Day 1 ended around. 8 pm. I even found a very small creek with water in it. 18 hours on the bike earned me about 80 miles.
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Caption: Day 2 began hard but the riding near Tuscon was very fun. Sagauros Corner Resturant is right on route and I had a quinoa with avocado salad and 2 IPAs. In hindsight I should have probably just had 1 beer.
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Caption: Then shit started to get real..
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Caption: The climb up Remington would have been ok on a normal day but it was 97 degrees on March 18 and there were rednecks everywhere on motos and ATVs. One white trash dude blew dust in my face at 45 mph as I was climbing while he clenched his un helmeted daughter with his right arm. Survival of the fitest as they say...
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Caption: I slept off the trail right before Gordon Herbyashi Camp for night 2. The traffic noise from the nearby highway kept me awake. The pavement climb up Mt. Lemmon was not so bad. Sort of reminded me of Sherman Pass Road in California.
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Caption: After a stop for fudge at the Summerhaven store (that fudge is damn good BTW), I started the Oracle ridge decent.
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Caption: Then shit started to
get real again...
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Caption: Oracle was not great but not as bad as expected. Hopefully my donation to the AZT foundation will go towards removing the deadfall along the ridge. The bottom of Orcale has seen a lot of work and was riding flowy.
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Caption: High Jinks Ranch was a rad stop. Good water and super friendly people. They said I could camp there but it was way too early in the day. It is a little off route but the water was good and the historic architecture was interesting.
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Caption: I skipped going to the town of Oracle, but I watered up at this cache. I can only imagine how these water caches must run dry during the race with 90 plus thirsty racers riding through....
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Caption: Southern Arizona was a bit too dry for my nose.
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Caption: Trail magic sunset. I think this area is called Tiger Mine.
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Caption: Day 4
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Caption: The Gila River Trail was amazingly well maintained and the wildflowers were poppin. I was super fried, but could still appreciate the hard work that the AZTA has put into this section.
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Caption: A Gila Lizard along the Gila River...
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Caption: then shit
got real for
one last time...
Caption: After the Gila River Trail, it got dark and I found the trailhead sign for the next segment. I estimated I had 4,000' of climbing left to do to finish. I started the climb by mostly hiking uphill. It was a steep climb. I was taking one 5 min. nap for every 15 min. of hiking. It was time for sleep but I also had a plane to catch in 15 hours or so. The screenshot on the previous page is not a Trackleaders anomaly. I actually did about 1,300' of climbing and then switchbacked on myself in the dark and went downhill what I just hiked uphill! Since I was still on the line on my gps I thought I was on course! I didn't realize what I had done until I saw the trailhead sign again at the bottom! Bonus climbing for me!
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Caption: The last big climb at sunrise. This just might have been the most epic moment of the entire ride. It was mostly hike a bike and I was exhuasted, but this was by far the most beautiful mountain pass on the AZT 300.
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Caption: I took a selfie at the finish line, which meant I was finished! But more importantly, I could start begging for water! Due to my mistake the night before, I had gone the last 10 miles or so without a drop. Luckily there was an older guy at the trailhead parking lot who gave me a 12 oz. which I finished in one sip. I was still very thirsty. I decided this guy was pretty nice so I hit him up for a ride too. He said he couldn't give me a ride, but I sensed some hesitation in his voice. I decided I would start riding towards the freeway, but ride really slow and pathetic looking. My acting job worked! As the guy was driving out, he offered me a ride to Queen Valley. That was not even close to Phoenix but it gained me 10 miles or so. He told me if I rode a few more miles I would reach a senior mobile home park. So I got back in the saddle and rode a few miles on interstate 60 after he dropped me off. At the mobile home park, a nice old lady and her daughter offered to drive me all the way to Mesa! I was amazed by the kindness that these retired snowbirds offered me. Getting an uber or a cab out here would have been very difficult. My asian wife called it "white priveledge" but I like to think that these folks would have helped me out either way... So would I ride the AZT again? Yes, but it is not a "hell yes" like the Colorado Trail. A desert with no water is not something I need to expirience every year. After a few years I will probably come out here to ride again. Maybe I will ride Superior to Flagstaff and then a do a backpacking trip of the Grand Canyon to complete a multi year section bike/hike of the entire AZT.
Caption: The End. Thanks to Scott Morris for putting this amazing event on, and to the Arizona Trail Foundation for all their trail work!
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