Rich,
I assume you mean SPOT, not GPS... I'll drop it off at the house sometime today or tomorrow.

Rich,
You can borrow mine if needed.

The route is looking just fine. I'm hesitant to put it up in it's entirety until I ride another section that is still under snow in the Truckee area. I have a Strava file of it, but it's got a little drift to it so I'd like to tighten that up a bit before it goes public.

The route is definitely easier and will be a loop as opposed to the previous version which shared some tracks on the inbound and outbound sections. We lost some nice trail in the fire last year so those had to be abandoned. The route picked up some dirt road and lost a ton of the HAB. I haven't really put a lot of thought into it, but the route might be up in the 95-98% rideable.

Mileage is nearly identical and climbing is pretty close to prior versions, although it is easier climbing and nearly all rideable.

Re-supply is still very good, with the push from Lake Tahoe to Foresthill still being the longest stretch without supplies, about 90 miles of hard riding. With the record dry years(s) we've been having water might be an issue in a few sections up on the Tahoe Rim Trail, but nothing to be too worried about. The route passes through major rivers and lakes for nearly all of it.

It will still be a great route, probably a bit more doable to a larger percent of riders, but still right up there in difficulty with some of the other routes in CO and AZ.

I'll have the GPX up at 3 months out regardless of accuracy, just so folks have an idea of what they are looking at.

Mark,
 I totally get it. You mean women don't want to buy face cream from your ugly mug....? Good on you guys for thinking forward, I'm trying to get back to being smaller though, employees can be overrated.
 

I'll likely do this route again in September if your interested:

http://wanderlustandtheroadlesstraveled.blogspot.com/2014/10/9-days-in-arizona-desert-or-how-i-spent.html

http://wanderlustandtheroadlesstraveled.blogspot.com/2014/10/9-days-in-arizona-desert-continued.html

http://wanderlustandtheroadlesstraveled.blogspot.com/2014/10/sedona-to-flagstaff-home-stretch.html

Real easy logistics wise with no Canyon hike. Lots of things to walk up and down though....

3 1/2 weeks away and I have to pull the plug. So bummed, but it's the right decision. Back in mid-Feb. I was out on a 4-day shakedown ride, including the final 40 miles of the 300 route plus the next 50 of the 750, when I took a really dumb crash. I landed hard on my right wrist - left hand made up for it by going into a cactus!! X-rays came back negative.

Fast forward to this past weekend's ride down in the Gila River Canyons (Yes, Scott's pictures are TRUE - it's amazing down there right now!!) and I could tell early on I was in trouble. My right wrist just can't handle the abuse the AZT will dish out, especially the long chunky downhills. So, as much as I want to be lining up on April 3rd to test my grit, it will have to wait until 2016.

I'll still be down at the start for the 300, shuttling a buddy down. So don't be surprised if I high-five all of you 750'ers as you roll through Parker Canyon Lake TH. Ride safe, ride strong, Get it!!

-John Schilling

Bummer John. I've got a place for you to stay and a 450 mile odyssey around NorCal in July if your interested : )

I am out of the 750 too.
No injury I just have a huge deal going on. Fall River Botanicals is opening a new store soon in Albuquerque. We are also moving there from Colorado. Still running the Idaho Springs store, but we are moving into a new era of trying to be hands off business owners and not just simply being our own employees. So no triple crown repeat for me. I might make CTR later on this summer if I get the business figured out by then.

So for anyone ordering Geronimo! Pain Cream for the AZT races, time is running out!! Last year here was the lowdown on the best Geronimo! results:

AZT 300- Neil 3rd place
750- Mike P 3rd; me 6th

TD- Lorenzo S 4th- me 29th

CTR- Neil 1st- me 9th

Thats just a few riders. Others used the cream or balm too.

Sorry to hear that Mark. Although I'm out due to my knee being f-ed up again, work would have made it nearly impossible anyways. Sucks that life gets in the way of our playing sometimes. Good luck on your new endeavor.

Working this weekend on the route and website. Should be very close by the end of the weekend. I'm still looking for some input around the Truckee area but that will be the final piece. Looking forward to actually racing this year as well.

Coincidence or not, that is the official date. 7am start in Auburn. 

I and a couple of friends are planning for the CSTR this year. but plan to leave with the race and ride at our own fun-all-day pace. I'vew done a fair bit of riding around this area on my Hardtail and do not want to do tat for this event so I'm trying to figure out what kind of bike to build up.

Cool, it sounds like a fun time with your friends. We'll have a new course this year. I pretty much just blew up the original course as the entire middle section is pretty much scorched earth right now. I've got the outline of the new course out to a few souls who are familiar with the course or have done the original route to get their input and or criticism, both of which are appreciated. Mileage and climbing will be really close to the original course(400 miles and 64,000'), we'll lose some HAB and gain some dirt road and I feel generally the course will be a little easier. We will also be looking at a loop as it now heads out towards and across the HWY 80 corridor at Soda Springs and into the Truckee area. I'm excited to see what people think.

Fantastic, looking forward to the laughter.

I would do that again Mark.

I've had 3 die on me over the past few years, dead GPS on all, so just a red GPS signal light. SPOT warrantied the first two and the last one died on my recent trip across AZ. A friend bought and sent one to me on the trail since everyone was freaked out with no check-ins, so I paid for a Gen 3 which seems to be a much better unit, lets hope they hold up.
 They know there's a problem, and it's frustrating to have to rely on something that may be faulty, so maybe call them to see what they can do for you, if anything. I think the only piece of electronics that has lasted for me is my Garmin 60csx, can't kill that thing, unlike nearly every other electronic gadget I've bought over the years.

California Sierra Trail Race is Friday, July 17th 2015 this coming year.

For me, I would never consider doing it on less than 4" front and rear and 2.4 tires, but Jack was able to do it this year on front suspension only, perhaps he'll weigh in on that decision. That being said, I've seen guys do crazy stuff rigid, but it's not a very popular bike in this neck of the woods.

Everything you need should be on the website. http://californiasierratrailrace.com/The_Route.php

The section of the route between French Meadows and Loon Lake heading towards Lake Tahoe is the area that burned this year and will need to be rerouted, so keep that in mind.

Let me know if you need anything else. You should be able to use the current route for planning until I get the reroute figured out.

Sean, You know how I feel about this route. I hope that we can have this race on the calender for next year. Yes it's tough, yes it has a shit load of climbing, yes it has mile after mile of killer single track. What more would someone want from a Bikepacking race/ride.
I think the draw to many of the routes that have a large percentage of gravel and dirt roads is that many of the riders view these routes as a shake down for the TDR. I enjoy it all as long as I'm on my bike. I hope to be on the start line next year at Raley's. I know all of us that have experienced the CSTR are thankful for all the passion you have put into it.
Blake
Now back to the Giants game. Go Giants!

Thanks Blake, I appreciate all the words of support from everyone.  If it weren't for the state trying to burn itself up every year this wouldn't be so bad.

  I've got maps spread out and I'm thinking of a singletrack reroute around all of the Hunters Trail and the paved section heading out towards Loon Lake.. I really am at the limit of the amount of road I want to throw in there and doing this reroute would result in a true cherry stem loop. It may involve some pushing though......

I'm thinking Friday, July 17th, 2015 for those of you thinking about doing the route as a group.

I'd love for it to continue, but it's going to take a ton of work to reroute it away from the burn area if it's really screwed up, and looking at the infrared maps it looks like it burned pretty hot down along the Rubicon. This is on top of rerouting it three times the first year. It seems as though it's been cursed from the beginning. If it stays on it's basic course I will have to possibly do a bunch of trailwork to open up some remote trails just outside the burn area. I'm hoping to be able to get in there in the coming weeks after we get another rain or two.

 It's been a labor of love for me, but it hasn't been real well accepted so far. I hate to think that most riders are more interested in riding gravel and dirt roads instead of world class singletrack, but given the numbers at some of the other races compared to this route it would seem that this is the case. I'm super happy people are getting out and finding adventure by bike regardless of what event it is, but the truth of the matter is I can't continue to devote as much time as it takes to make it a competitive event for 2 or 3 people to show up to race it.

The GPX will always be there for those that just want to ride it. I'll put something together regardless that will allow that aspect of the route to continue, if only for myself as I ride this loop or variations of it all the time.

I'm sure it will continue at least through next year and I'll see how well it is received and go from there.

Perhaps when Aaron Johnson is done with his video of the route there will be more interest.

Believe me, I wasn't disrespecting the route, I like it.  And yes, I've likely ridden nearly the whole route at some point, but also know that it would seem much harder looping it all together in one shot. I was just trying to point out( badly I guess) the difference between the routes as they are nearly opposites in terms of trail mileage. That was my intention in finding out what the OP was looking for since he was originally asking about the CSTR.

Depends on what you want in the way of terrain, challenge, mileage and logistics. I would say nothing above 6000' would be open at that time. If your looking to hammer out miles without a whole lot of technical riding or much pushing I would say that the TNCA is definitely the way to go, it's a great way to see a lot of different topography. Keep in mind it's a lot of road, both paved and dirt. I've ridden every inch of the trail on that route and except for inevitably getting lost in the Woodlands, depending on your speed your looking at no more than 8-10 hours of total singletrack. Depending on weather, it could be very foggy across the Sacramento Valley as well, not a good thing. There's also the slight problem of being 300 miles away from your car, a factor many seem to overlook on point to points when you don't live there or have a support system in place.

The CSTR route is really in limbo right now, Blake is correct that a large area of the route burned for the second year in a row. You likely wouldn't be able to get that far up anyways( above 6000') unless it is really dry again this year. Only one 10 mile section of trail was affected, but that area is still closed and may be until they can salvage log along the side of the roads to make them safe for travel.  All the lower elevation stuff is in really good shape right now with our recent rains, might be a different story in a month though.

If you're jonesing for trail and you can give me an idea of what your looking for,  I could likely put together a 2-300 mile route of mostly singletrack here in the lower to mid foothills. It would be lots of climbing and some pushing if that floats your boat. Lots of rain changes everything of course. If the snow is below 7000' at that time I could give you a GPX of a route from Auburn out to Downieville, through Nevada City and back to Auburn, about 330 miles and 3-4 days worth of good trail and not much pavement.

You could always just take a 3-4 day trip up the coast from SF on the coast highway( HWY1), it can be beautiful and pretty empty that time of year. I used to ride out to Mendocino from home every Thanksgiving, they were some great trips with great weather for the most part. Lots of quiet back roads and dirt connections along the coast.   

Correct, the store is boarded up and for sale. Made for a detour down into town a bit, but other than coming back up the hill not too bad.  I just finished up the first 550 miles of the AZT and the Coconino loop together and that was the only surprise, well that and the handlebar height grass..... Trail is certainly worse for the recent storms, I think it's safe to say the records are all safe, even from Kurt.