I'm defibrillating an old thread.  Has anybody ridden the Flagstone 500 since 2013?  I'm doing recon, and may try to tackle this in the early fall. Any additional info always welcomed.

A friend of mine, Scott Pauker, is the most recent person I know of to ride this -- he rode Prescott to the Gilas.  He's got GPX, too.

http://spokeandwords.com/

Is his website -- drop him a line.  Otherwise Mr. Schillingsworth would be the expert on linking up the best trails.

Had an ITT start yesterday on the 750.  No updates from Alexandera today, though.

She's still rolling, errr, pushing -- on Oracle ridge now.  Hope she can stay cool out there, it's late and hot to be be out in the Gilas.

If anyone is interested in reading about my race you can go to https://sites.google.com/view/dionsadventures/home
It was fun but I will need some time to figure if I will ever want to do that again.
Thanks for the company Dana Ernst. Thanks for the "race" Scott Morris.

Thanks for that.  I've linked a few more blogs and writeups on the results page.  Please let me know if I'm missing any.

Had an ITT start yesterday on the 750.  No updates from Alexandera today, though.

Hey Scott, when Dave W and I were doing our epic hire car shuttle the day after our finish (15 hours driving) I noted a road sign just out of Flagstaff, on the road to Page, that said that “HIGHWAY 67 CLOSED FROM JACOB LAKE”. Maybe ADOT does have it officially closed as there were temporary barriers across the road at JL and a large locked gate about 500 yards down the 67 toward the North Rim.

Doing the AZT from the north rim would make this thing MUCH more challenging (it just never gets any easier  ) but that first 9 miles might have to be added as a permanent section of the race trail to avoid conflict. Pack ya snowshoes folks............

The road is definitely closed to cars until May 15.  But we had it from an engineer that ADOT considers it open to bikes and feet.  It's just that the NPS disagrees.

You are right that the first 9 miles may need to be required in the future, which is unfortunate.  Stephen, thanks for the report and that is too bad about the ranger with nothing better to do than enforce a "rule" that makes no sense.

Jdoob -- excellent stream of consciousness report.  Thanks for that.

That's a wrap folks, just shut down the tracker and updated the 750 results.

Congratulations to all the finishers and to everyone that gave it a go.  It was quite a year, and a zoomy one at that.  Here's an article from Aaron Gulley, who still has one of the fastest times in the 300:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2298346/two-new-records-arizona-trail-race

Thanks for all the energy and enthusiasm here, as well as the many kind notes of thanks I've received.  This race is quite a deal and something I hope will continue indefinitely.

Cheers everyone.

Indeed the stuff of legends.  There are always bad apples, unfortunately even in law enforcement.  Hopefully this ranger has the rest of the week off.

Looks like Keith, behind Mark, is taking the full on trail, even after the park boundary.  No way to say whether the ranger had anything to do with it or not. 

Just curious so does that mean they can't ride the road in the park boundaries or pretty much the whole thing?

NPS only has jurisdiction to their boundary, which is the first ~9 miles.  ADOT says it is open after that (actually they say the whole thing is open, disagreeing with NPS). 

No one is aware of any closure of the road through USFS land.

I am taking trail out of park
Threatened by park ranger

Sorry, Mark.  We all knew this could happen.  Perhaps it is why Greg took the trail as well?

I'm going to give the remaining very few riders a heads up. 

Looks like Greg H. is going for style points on the North Rim!! Love it!!

Well spotted.  Kurt said everywhere on the plateau was looking pretty free of snow.... except the trail!  So we'll see if he can stick to it.  He requested an 'alternator' status after skipping the section of trail from Canelo Pass to Sonoita.  Perhaps this is his way of making up for it.  I like it.

300 results should be getting close to final, and 750s are coming together:

http://topofusion.com/azt/results.php

Scott, Steven says he can clean that Reddington cache up tomorrow!

Super, thanks Kurt and thanks to Steven.

Has anyone been out to Redington yet?


Glad to see a lot of strong finishes in the last 24 hrs.  Also glad the wind has died...

Dusty!  Yes.  Hell of a rookie run, esp for a guy from Alaska. I'm impressed.

Cold winds at the canyon last night and this morning.

Still looking to check Redington's informal cache off the list.

Many people are putting together impressive rides out there, and still racing hard.

Temps are dropping just as the peloton gets into the high country.  Not the best timing, but at least there's no serious precip in the forecast.

Tucson folks: looking for a volunteer to head up to where the AZT crosses Redington.  Apparently there was a cache set up (for the race, but public??) on the south side, by the metal sign.  And there are bunches of empties, probably now floating around.  If someone could take a ride up there and clean up the mess, I'd sure appreciate it.

Thank you for the information! I´m new in this race.
It seems that he is going to beat Neil´s 2016 record! (In 2016 Neil also took the same deviation.)

Yep, snow detour.  Just added it to the map to make it more clear.

Looks like Kurt will take ~5 hrs off the record.  That's my call.  Quite an impressive overnight crossing for him.  The temptation to stop and 1) drop bike 2) close eyes, must have been strong!

It sure seems like Kurt tore it up today.  I'm not sure I could ride what he did today, unloaded. 

Still not a comfortable buffer on the record for him, but if he can keep up this momentum, it could soon be quite comfy.

300 results thus far:

Neil Beltchenko - 1:23:13
Kaitlyn Boyle - 2:02:57
Kurt Refsnider (750) - 2:04:55
Dion Clark - 2:15:06
Dana Ernst - 2:15:13
Dustin Eroh (750) - 2:18:07
Darren Smith - 2:18:48
Paul Spencer - 2:20:32
Max Morris (750) - 3:00:15
Jason Reamy - 2:23:47
Ben Hanus - 3:00:27
Rebecca Rusch - 3:00:46
Paul Wissenbach - 3:00:59
Curtis Barrett - 3:02:26
Adam Marcinkiewicz (750) - 3:06:38
Brad Ells (750) - 3:08:38
Brian Lovett - 3:09:56
Nick Armano - 3:12:24
Robert Weinhold - 3:12:24
Anthony Berberich - 3:12:50
Dan Holmes (750) - 3:16:38
Steve Denny - 3:17:14
Louie Konkol - 3:17:16
Jeremy Hardwick - 3:17:25
Beth Shaner (750) - 3:20:32
Greg Martin - 3:19:32
Randy Young - 3:22:17
Paul Kruger (750) - 3:23:25
Dave Hoswell (750) - 3:23:33
Alice Drobna (750) - 4:00:09
Dean Anderson (750) - 4:04:08
Justin Dubois (750) - 4:04:44

As always some of these are not fully accurate.  If you have a more precise finish time, send me an email with your elapsed time in this format and I'll drop it in.  Thanks.

Hey Scott I can go tidy up and refill the tiger mine and oracle caches Wednesday after work if you need?

That would be excellent, yes please, Colton.

Oh yeah, I'll be able to take care of the Kelvin cache on Friday.

Yes, please.  Thanks.

Update: Freeman is cleaned up and full again thanks to George Harris. 

Kurt and Denberg are on fire.  Kurt seems to be on record pace, and Aaron might not be much slower -- seems like seven day pace to me.

Thank you!  This race is a group effort.  I'll let the Hansons know you will cover it.

Good stuff here everyone.

Just heard from Leigh that Freeman only has one public gallon left.  (!) Anyone game to head out there tomorrow earlyish?  Since the majority of the pack is through it should cover that cache for the race's impact.  It would be *much* appreciated.

I've asked the Hansons since they are the most local, but haven't heard back yet.

This is quite the race.  Love the discussion, stoke and geekery here.  Keep it up everyone!

If anyone has info on David Weyer (if a racer reads this), his family would like to know.  His tracker is all plugged in correctly on our end, but he hasn't tracked since dropping down to Patagonia.