Nice McGyver action not sure if it's really necessary to do all of that though. Seems like if you set the chain a little loose it just climbs up the shift ramps until it's tight.

Nothing wrong with being prepared for anything though. And a little McGyverisim is a good thing.

Glad to help it's great to see so many riders showing interest in my favorite trail.

So here's the full beta on the Molino creek. After the trail crosses the creek keep going a few feet until the AZT heads west. At this point there is a social trail heading east mostly rideable until it recrosses the creek. Leave the bike at this point and then walk a couple of more minutes up the creek. I will take the GPS next time and make a waypoint. Last year there was water right above the trail and Mark C used tabs on it. If that is your preferred method it will likely work here as well. This one is in a great spot hopefully it will still be flowing come race day.

Tim

I have lots of ‘water’ questions as I build up my set of profiles.  One question is the section from Tucson to Mt Lemmon.  Not that big of a deal but I am looking for a better water strategy for this section than what I have done in the past.  Any ideas, suggestions?

Hope the list helps I know it really helped me last year to always travel light knowing where the water sources were and having the guts to not carry too much water weight sure helped. I ran into Jackson out on Reddington he said he had been carrying 6 liters and filling up when ever he could. Man that's a lot of weight nothing wrong with playing it safe but all that weight would be brutal.

Tim

I'll be sending this to Scott for inclusion along with the cues.

# 1.    Bear Creek (spring fed) crosses under road.         6.5 miles N of the Border
# 2.   Parker Creek (dam fed)               2.5 miles N of Parker TH
# 3.   Cott Tank (solar pwd) spigot (no bikes)         4.5 miles N of Canelo Pass
# 4.   Patagonia (store, resterants, hotel, PO)
# 5.   Josephine Canyon (spring fed creek)            17 miles from Patagonia
# 6.   Hopkins VC picnic grounds (bathroom water fountain)   25 miles from Patagonia .5 off course
# 7.   Madera Canyon (spigot by bathroom) (or creek)      13 miles from Hopkins road         
# 8.   Oak Tree Canyon stock tank (well fed)         8 miles N of K Camp just north of trail
# 9.   The Lake (rain fed)                  12.6 miles N of Oak Tree west of and below the Lakes road   
#10.   Cienga Creek under Three Bridges (all year)         2 miles north of I-10
#11.   La Posta Quemada Ranch (sink off course)         2.6 miles from 3 Bridges .7 off
#12.   La Sevilla Campground (spigot on rock)         2.3 miles from LPQ Jct.
#13.   Tucson (store, resterants, hotel, PO)
#14.   Chiva Tank (rain)                  2.4 miles below Redington road
#15.   The Lake (rain usually has water)            4 miles after crossing Redington road
#16.   West Spring (spring fed) not great            3.5 miles past The Lake
#17.   Molino water hole (rain)                 up steam from trail crossing east of Highway
#18.   Palisades TH (spigot mid April to mid Nov.)         12 miles up the Highway
#19.   Summerhaven (visitor’s center, store, restaurant, rooms)   off course
#20.   Water Buffalo Oracle State Park            when the park reopens
#21.    Oracle (stores, resterants, motel)            off course
#22   Beehive Well (big metal tank not good)         19.5 miles north of Tiger mine rd.
#23.   Freeman Road (water cache)               just north of Freeman Road
#24.   
#27.   Boyce Thompson Arboretum 8am-5pm            facets 2.0m E from Picket Post TH on US60      

#14-17 I didn't pump from Chiva tank last year as there was creek flowing that came first not likely this year. I have pumped from the Lake before a little fishy tasting. West Spring is not that great a lot of the water in the Reddington area is brownish from Tannin. #17 was running again this weekend pretty strong flow about 5 min walk up stream from the trail crossing. I'll check it again before race time. Ultimately I should see about creating a bike version of the ATA water list ie web based with the ability to show how recent they have been used.

Sounds like a cool tour makes me jealous.

If you really want reliability why not go rigid. Just kidding actually I have done some riding on a rigid bike and it can be brutal.

I have had good luck with Fox air shocks on the AZT thru ride.

Even a coil shock can have a problem hard to imagine on a brand new fork but if you loose dampening things will get bouncy. I have had some issues with my reba once the dampener went out and the thing rode like a soft spring slapping on both ends of the travel it was rideable though. I should think you could keep riding anything no matter what as long as it's not a catastrophic failure.

If it were me and I was buying new I would go light weight for this kind of thing as well as Fox more pricey but better built IMO. Though I have a Reba and think Sram has done wonders with the company and their warranty rocks IMO. But warranty's won't do you much good in the field.

Have a great trip looking forward to seeing a trip report.

Tim   

Converting to SS isn't that hard to do I have done so with my standard steel hard tail. It's just a matter of shortening the chain and letting it climb up the cassette and come tight. I have also done this on a single pivot FS bike. Didn't work on the Blur though as the double pivot allowed the chain to constantly loosen and climb the cassette until it got so tight it broke. I have always picked a lower gear to allow for climbing and then coasting I should think that you could also set a higher gear if you get out on the flats.

The Lynskey looks nice but I wouldn't think sliders are absolutely necessary for SS conversion if you have a cassette on the bike.

If your bike is pretty new and fairly well maintained it's hard to imagine having more then one thing break on a ride.

If you loose the freehub you can still coast and have brakes to me that would be better then trying to ride Fixed. I only know one fixie rider and he made it sound like a real learned skill. I have ridden without a chain it's an interesting experience harder then you would think but doable. Walking or just one leg pushing on the road worked when I blew a freehub.

Can't see loosing both brakes at the same time so just ride on with one. Good to know how to deal with mechanicals but on the other hand you could easily ride a lot of miles trouble free.

 

not thinking water was on at Madera,
Jackson

Water at Madera, there are two spigots one right by the bathroom and one down by the fee station.

Met a ranger last year and got the beta on the on again off again water there, turns out that the system is old and they don't like to leave it on. So what they do is turn it on to feed a ranch down canyon then it's turned off. What we are getting is just water left in the pipe. So if there is not any the bathroom there might be some at the fee station as it is down hill. There is usually water running in the creek as well or about 1 mile up hill off course at the Whitehouse picnic area there is a fountain there that should work at all times.

the Legends of Superior Trail (LOST). This is a new connector trail that provides a route between the Picketpost Trailhead and the town of Superior.

We should be able to get a track from Laddie Cox he was running the volunteer work up there I'll send him an email.

Laddie has the track but I need to teach the old dog a new trick, how to send a GPX file should have it soon.

Tim

Where is Cott Tank?

Cott Tank is 19 miles from Parker TH. At a point where the trail is on a jeep road the road makes a hard right. There is a V gate to get to the old windmill now solar powered water tank. Spigot is on the South side. At that point it's only 12 more miles to Patagonia. It's easy enough to carry enough water to make Patagonia but since it's there I like to go as light as possible in the beginning.

There is a water sources page at the ATA web site http://www.fredgaudetphotography.com/aztrail/watercurrent.pdf

It's not as useful for the bike course though so I am working on one that follows the route the race will take.

There is also some new singletrack trail on the Ripsey Segment, rode it today. Fun stuff. We need to move the route over to Ripsey soon.

Ya it's really too bad that adding Ripsey puts us so far out of the way. I heard that the White Canyon is taking some real blasting and work is going slow. But the plan is still to be done for the Centennial next year.

The little creek above Molino is running again I'll check it again before the race. Rode the Canelo's today with some 300 hopefuls. The water spigot at Cott Tank is still working, 3 years in a row now. I left Parker with 2 liters on my back on 1 with hydration mix on the bike ran out of both right before Cott you gotta love it when a plan comes together.

While I have ridden the loop flat free twice now I don't think I could comfortably go out with only one tube. Assuming the Maxxis are true tubeless with heavy side walls you should be fine up there.

I am not very fast and I can handle the 4 day pace of the event. But if I were to ride it on my own I think 5 would be nice.

If you are really into the photo thing you are going to slow way down on the Sedona day. You could camp at Dead Horse State Park or maybe only climb part way up Mingus. But you have to go a ways up Mingus (no camping posted down low) and there's not a lot of flat ground. If you did Dead Horse you could run to town for food and come back.

Then ride over Mingus and maybe camp down near the Verde or near but not at the spring after the magic gate. If you went down by the river you could do that long hot climb in the AM when it's cooler. I have pumped from the Verde but you need to know if its clear ahead of time. You can check the gauge on line http://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/uv/?site_no=09504000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060 80cfs is base flow and should be clear any thing more is run off and likely silted. You can also just look down when you ride over the river after Dead Horse or both to be sure.

You could still do the room in Williams or if you camped at the river you would get there early enough to ride out far enough to camp by Sycamore.   

Hope that helps enjoy

Tim

Hi I was planing on doing the same loop around the 1st week of May or the 1st week of September and would like to know from a local which week would be better.

Also what would be a good tire choice, because I have never ridden in AZ (I am coming from South Florida )
Will tubeless with Stans hold up?

Last question (today) if I ride SS what would be a good gear to ride or should I just put on gears and be happy?

Didn't mean to hijack the post but I was wondering just aboutbthe same thing.

Lots of people swear by Stan's, I am not ready to go tubeless but I do run Stan's in tubes. I run schraders so it's an easy set up. Speaking of tubes make sure you have something in your spare tubes I know that has caught several people on the 300. Coco isn't as thorny but it's still AZ.

Not much of a SSer myself but I know Chad B ran a 32x20 on 29er wheels the first year. I was even able to keep up with him on the climb to Chicken Point that year. I was running 20x36 then but found 20x32 perfect for that climb. I knew better then to try to keep up with him on the DH. The Goat trail on Mingus has some fun stuff that I can barely ride with gears, pretty sure Chad said he walked more of it. Of course there's always the SS detour but you miss the summit that way.

Great for me it's a long ways from Madera  Canyon to Los Selvilla so I always need water there. I never have made it to CC in time for food at the Ranch. I have gotten water there from a sink by the restrooms but found it to be a pain plus it's out of the way.

I have a water que sheet ready at least as far as the 300 still needs a little work I sent the first part to Scott already. I think he will post it with the cues at some point. I'll get back on it next week now that we're talking about it I'll get motivated.

There are two spigots there, the easy one is on the North (facing the parking lot) side of the big Ramada.  The super secret one is right on the side of a rock facing away from but right on the side of the parking lot. As the trail comes into the parking area if you cut across the parking lot and beeline for the Ramada you go right past it. It's some how plumbed right into a rock. The one on the Ramada is way easier to find. I had been there a dozen times before someone pointed out the one in the rock. The Ramada one is easier to use also as it is higher off of the ground. But the rock one is closer so.

Hope that makes sense at least it should when you get there again.  

Tim

I would try to get a balanced set up if at all possible I like having my sleeping pad on the bars and the rest of my sleeping kit under the seat.

I tend to keep stickers on the bathroom mirror but I do have room for another and a Jersey would be great.

Nice to see we now have a way to report spam thanks Chad for pointing that out. Now I am wondering how many of us do you need bombarding you with spam reports? Or should I assume if something has already been viewed a bunch it's been reported.

But don't you find that there's such a thing as too-low a gear? Where you either can't start out riding once you've stopped, or walking / pushing would be quicker. I guess perhaps a loaded bike = more traction = easier to start off (sometimes)...

Unless it's really steep I'll have to shift down a few cogs as soon as I am rolling but I can start out in 20x36. I can also ride behind someone who's walking, it even helps me to practice going slow keeping the RPM's down. Otherwise it's easy to hyperventilate from over revving. Loaded or unloaded works either way. Sure walking would be quicker but I get enough walking on the AZT so it's nice to have a super low gear to keep riding as much as possible.

Interesting links if I could go back and start over with the buying process I could see going with the 17x34 setup. 

We should be able to get a track from Laddie Cox he was running the volunteer work up there I'll send him an email.

It took me about 34 hours to get home. I bet I could do it faster this year.

That's not too bad for hitching how you going to make it faster, show some skin?