Arizona Bikepacking Thanksgiving Weekend

[Smo]

Anyone interested in Bikepacking this next weekend?  I'm free from Friday-Sunday, and considering the Black Canyon Trail for my first bikepack.  But really, anywhere with good weather would work just fine.  If anyone has any other suggestions on good loops this time of year, I'm pretty open.  I'll probably be doing 30 mile days, or a little more.

[ScottM]

BCT this weekend would be a good call.  Weather looks prime.

We were looking at this too, though for Thurs/Fri.  We couldn't really figure out a good way to loop it or shuttle it.  Curious how you are going to run it?

I kinda liked the idea of "figure 8"-ing it as you go up.  The middle ~40 miles have parallel (very close) roads you can used to alternate trail/road on the way out, then road/trail on the way back.

[Smo]

Shuttling it would be the best, but I couldn't figure it out either.  I've decided to do an out-and-back of 1 or 2 nights.  Not sure where I'll start.  I have several GPX files of different loops on the route from the Arizona Endurance Series, so I might do one of those.  It would be useful to try out my GPS, I've never ridden with one.  Figure out any kinks while I'm on a chill, easier-to-find trail with few junctions.

If you see someone riding a very black 29er with green panniers on Friday, say hi.  I thought about leaving Saturday since several things are due to show up in the mail on Friday (titanium pot, zippers to finish frame bag, GPS mount), but why wait? - duct tape the GPS on and go!  I can sew when it's snowing, right?

[ScottM]

Why wait indeed!  We ended up touring in the lower Gila area / AZT.  How did the BCT go?  Did you ride loops?

[Smo]

The BCT was awesome!  I did it one-way from Hwy 69 to Black Canyon City in two days, then hitchhiked back to my car (no luck on the entrance ramp, but riding on the shoulder of I-17 with my thumb out it took about 1 minute to get a ride in a pickup bed).  A good test trip for my gear and myself, 40 miles in two days.  I wrote a trip report on my blog, I was looking into how to add it to the website here.

http://smozilla.blogspot.com/2013/12/first-bikepacking-trip.html