2020 AZTR

[schillingsworth]

We have a few dots on the map heading north!! Best of luck to all the riders. Gonna be toasty in the Old Pueblo, but a nice break in the weather should be arriving in time for the Gila River Valley & riders continuing north around metro Phoenix. Why, it might actually rain here on Monday!!

http://trackleaders.com/aztr20

[bmattingly]

Wow,

Ralph is really sticking to it.  He is in some wilderness now East of Mormon Lake on the rim.  A friend and I did a long ride Saturday on the section he is in now and we saw alot of wildlife including elk, a bobcat, and a mountain Lion.  I've never seen a mtn lion in the daylight that close, usually they are out of sight and very stealth.  He will have a cold night.  Sunday night the forcaste is calling for 5 to 8 inches of snow and heavy wind.  He may have a tough weekend.  I bet he feels like he is in the twilight zone at times with the isolation and hours of riding alone.  Good news is he has shelter options in Flagstaff if he needs them.  He is now in many miles of good singletrack with the acception of some miles on Anderson Mesa.

I'm inspired by his sticktoitiveness!!

Brad

[AZTtripper]

Sticktoitiveness is right! Hopefully he's at least getting a tailwind out of all this weather. I was surprised no one chose to start at the state line.

[bmattingly]

He is going to have some furocious weather tonight and tomorrow.  The wind going through Babbit ranch will hopefully be at his back.  He looks to be gunning for the south rim before the second storm and more significant snow comes.  He is displaying some serious grit out there.  Go Ralph!!!!

[taprider]

Sticktoitiveness is right! Hopefully he's at least getting a tailwind out of all this weather. I was surprised no one chose to start at the state line.

I was looking at that, but windy.com shows that the big winds mainly blow from the south, but you would be able to start in late September or early October and ride towards the warmth

[AZTtripper]

Traveling south bound is the standard for fall hikers. Someone has asked John about reversing the course every other year like the CTR but the canyon requires permits for groups over 11 and if 30 plus start at the state line too many hit the canyon all at once. This year being all ITTs made it the perfect time for starting up North.

[bmattingly]

Good point of a large group of Southbounders.  That would be a cluster on the canyon section.

Wow Ralph is really ramboing it out there, full on.  Thirty degrees, windy, and snow.  Bet there is not alot of traffic out there on the single track today.  I think he will love shelter, warmth, and food in Tusyan.   He is a champion if he makes it to the canyon.  If he makes it to the North Rim I don't know how he can finish the last many miles if there are inches of fresh snow tonight???  And talk about isolation on the  North Rim. 

Love the grit!!!

[AZTtripper]

Yeah I guess it's possible to ride in fresh snow, it can even be fun for a little bit, but that's not a little bit. Also it's not likely the road would get plowed for the first little bit of snow. I would say he's this years only winner, most miles covered with no one else getting out there.

[bmattingly]

Agreed, I think he is a winner too.  He's been pushing hard for a long while. 930 miles or more is pretty awesome!  We got less snow in Flagstaff than predicted, only about 3 inches at the most.  Would be good even if he makes it to South Rim only.  I often thought this would be a good location to end the race and would motivate me to do it again.  The canyon is such a taunting obstacle for a ride.

[AZTtripper]

He's at the south rim village now hopefully he has a plan to safely cross the canyon. 3 inches is way better than 10 likely he can ride the trail.

[bmattingly]

I guess we got 4 inches of snow in Flag but the news said Jacob Lake got 10 inches.

Will be interesting to see if he goes for it.

[bmattingly]

And he is off!  He may have a good day in the sunshine and when he drops down a couple thousand feet he will be out of the snow.  A full day of rest, eating, and being out of the elements has likely juiced his body strength up alot.  Its cool to see the blue dot on top getting ready to drop down into the depths of the abyss.

Inspiring ride!!

[bmattingly]

Great progress yesterday.  I saw he made it to top of North Rim around 5pm.  Shocked to see that he made it to Jacob Lake about midnight last night.  Thats 40 miles from top of N. Rim to Jacob Lake over 8,000 to 9,000 feet elevation in the dark with a foot of snow on the ground.  He may have some luck with the highway being plowed or significant melting?  None the less thats a killer day in way isolated terrain.  Most years they lock off the highway in October from Jacob Lake to the Rim for car traffic.  Very impressive endurance and grit!!!  Not sure if the route ends at Jacob Lake this year with the fire damage from summer or continues to State Line?  I do see he has tracked over 1,000 miles.  So maybe we have a winner.  Someone buy that guy a beer or heck maybe a six pack.  Great job.

This run kind of reminds me of the first 750 run where there was one finisher I think, maybe Max Morris?

[AZTtripper]

The first 750 finisher was Mark Camineti, even though Kurt finished ahead of him, Mark started in a blizzard with the GD, Kurt's was an ITT. That was 2010, Max was the only finisher in 11.