Drinking from the Gila is not recommended due to heavy metals coming down from the Ray mine up stream. Most likely not that big a deal once but that is the info coming from the ATA. I haven't done this exact route but I have been to the spring and it is a cool spot.

Goyo nice pics, that is some great country up there it's going to be really great when the AZT is completed.

Yep lots of ways to go about it in the words of one famous bikepacker there's more then one way to skin a cat. And I am pretty sure Lee Blackwell has his kit in the setups.

You can do a lot of trail riding with a bob but when things get hairy I wouldn't want to have one falling off the trail behind me. Racks and Panniers are heavy empty not to mention bulky and in the way if you have to hike a bike. I would say buy or make your own over sized seat post bag strap some thing onto the handle bars and carry a fair sized pack for light bulky items. The Epic should have room for a frame bag I would say it's good to have things balanced out as much as possible.

newbie coconino questions....somebody? Buehler?

1_What's a Coconino?
2_Water on route?
3_any other course newbie suggestions?

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconino_Sandstone

2 There are a couple of sources on day one the main one being on the west side of I-17 at the A-DOT picnic area be sure to carry enough for the night if you are staying at stage stop one. Also we need to find out if they have fixed the water in the camp ground on top of Mingus. It would be great to not have to carry so much up there. Stores in Sedona and Cottonwood and a spring that should be marked after Mingus as well as the Verde River before the climb from hell back up to the pines.

3 watch out for Chadism's ie fun pieces of single track that parallel dirt roads it's makes for fun riding but it pisses you off when you know the road would be easier.  

Just back after a long drive home.

Jeff nice job on the route I did skip a few pieces but over all it was a lot of fun.

Marshall I think the CX waypoints were meant to signify cross county travel ie no trail. Steve and I were getting a little tired at that point and I wasn't expecting to go bushwacking so I was letting it piss me off. Then I looked at the GPS base map and saw that there was a road that went straight through no bushwacking required. We choose to go back and take the road. I think I figured it out when we found the huge piles of trees. My guess is when Jeff went out to scout they were logging in that area so he had to come up with a by pass. But with no active logging going on we rode around the pile no problem. So Jeff did I get that right or were you just messing with us? Not that that's a bad thing.

The only other issue came at the 1st stream there wasn't a drop of water any where near the waypoint. Though it all worked out thanks to the base map I don't think we found the actual tank shown but we did find a shallow grassy pond.

Good job with the arrows they did help keep us on track or off track so to speak. I bailed shortly after that taking a short cut over to Big Lake then the high way down to Mexican Hay Lake. The South Fork trail was great but after that my bleeding cheeks would only stand for pavement riding and I did a lot of standing on the highway back.

Jeff good job on your first course layout it could use a couple of tweaks here and there but then I might be spoiled by Scott's courses. I am just guessing that you don't have a PHD in computer mapping so we won't fault you for a few minor errors.

I clearly haven't been riding enough for this but I am glad I got to do what I did and look forward to hitting the course again in the future.

OK nice to know it's not just me, always heard the hardest part of these things is getting the track loaded so it should be all down hill from here.

I am hoping to make this one again it is a great ride and the stage option made for some good times in camp as well.

Anybody else have trouble loading up the segmented file I only came up with two segments clearly not the whole thing.

I just went ahead and cut up the full version came up with at least 7 segments.

Weather is looking good as Chad said this should be a good one, then it's only 2 weeks to the Coco 250.

I have the Legend HCX works great for long rides with good long battery life. I personally would stay away from devices that try to do too much. As for the new Spot combo models. While it always sounds good on paper it seems that these combo devices never work as well as stand alone models.

I recently saw a documentary on this subject, sounds like some of the National Parks are considering banning the practice as it entices folks off trails thereby creating new trails.

I am sure it has it's place just never appealed to me personally to each his own as they say.

Here's the latest idea for the third ride. It's a lot more road but should be a very interesting loop. Looks like almost 270 miles.

My feet are so f'd up I can barely walk with out shoes in the past I would have said just suck it up and carry the Chacos. Lately I have been working towards lightening up my kit and they were the first thing to go. What I came up with is a pair of socks with an old shoe liner duct taped to the bottom. Not something I would want to have to walk very far in but for camp they are just enough to take the edge off. I haven't weighed them but it can't be more then an oz or two.

I think I would rather do the out and back that's all most all ST then a loop that's going to be mostly roads.

Actually I have been thinking that I should change this to do something north of Oracle. The Gila Ramble seems too short but maybe combined with the Antelope Peak section. 

Ya a big part of the ride is the out and back but that is such a fun section of trail I think it will pay off in the end.

nice! how much of the Pistol Pete route will I have done on this years AZT300? Looking at the map there is a glaring omission on the west for a kind of 4 points of the compass of AZ series!

The first 90 miles of this route this does everything from Colossal Cave south to Patagonia on the reverse of the 300 route.

If you wanted  4 points of the compass rides you could do this http://www.bikepacking.net/routes/kaibab-monstercross/ The Kaibab has some great riding as well more of the AZT north of the Canyon all the way down to the state line if you want. And the Rainbow Rim Trail has great views of the Canyon. 

Looks like there going to be some new trail at the start http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=638861

Not that the hab was that bad but new trail is always nice.

There is room for 20 500 point tracks in the saved tracks area in the memory for a total of 10,000 points.

I use TopoFusion but I am pretty sure it can be done with others.

Let the problem solving begin.

Still a ways a way date could be flexible at this point looks like about 100 miles of trail on the AZT and Elephant Head Mountain Bike route. About 21 miles of pavement the rest is on dirt roads some 4x4 some two wheel.

The Apache is just one week before the TOWM and the Coco is right after that I don't see these events having all that much cross over.

Something Lee and I were talking about on the way up to last years Coconino 250 putting together 3 big rides in AZ. Then DesertDog came up with his Apache 200 http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,932.0.html

For round 3 I am thinking about doing something I call Pistol Packing Rita, a 160 mile lollipop using the AZT Jamboree Route for the out and back and a loop of the Santa Rita mountains. I am thinking mid November most likely the weekend of the 13/14 as my B-day is 11/14.

To make the Triple Crown riders need to do all three event one each month starting with the Apache 200 on September 25, then the Coco 250 on October 9th, and the final ride Pistol Hill and the Santa Rita Loop on November 13th.

I do not consider myself as fast but I have learned that going light makes things a lot easier and more enjoyable at least if you want to ride challenging single track.

If you are looking at doing longish dirt road tours and want to do more camping then it would make sense to carry more gear and make the camping more enjoyable.

If I had that in mind I think I would look at the Tubus stuff or maybe even just pull a Bob.

You must have caught him at a slow time I know in the fall he gets really busy with winter stuff.