AZT 300 -- 2017

[one1speed]

This could be the dumbest question to ever hit the forum, but here goes....

How difficult is the navigation on the AZT 300?

I assume riders are using GPS units with mapping software (recommendations?), but I've got no experience using these devices.

I'm sure there are tons of other things I should be concerning myself with, but this always filters up in my mind as an unknown.

Thanks.

 

[the tortoise]

You need a gps to follow the track. Even with it I got lost more than once both times I did it! Of course I always get lost!

[mikepro]

It's not a "need" to ride AZT300 with GPS, per se, it's just highly recommended.  Questions to answer: how good are you with maps?  how many maps would you need to take to cover 300 miles, and where do you keep them on the bike?  do the maps have all the bike detours (i.e. the bike route) clearly shown?  how's your map nav skills in the dark at biking/HAB speed? how's your map nav skills in the dark regardless of speed of travel? how fast do you want to ride the route?

Personally, I love maps, I love hiking with maps only.  When I got into bikepacking and BP ultra racing, I went with the maps for the Tour Divide (the ACA maps are good and it's all roads), but GPS for CTR and AZTR.  Now, having thru-ridden the AZT750 twice and the AZT300 once, and not knowing of a good mapset that covers the route, and being familiar with what's out there in the desert SW, and moving for several hours through the night darkness, and wanting to cover the route quickly, riding with GPS is highly recommended.

For devices, Garmin's eTrex30 is a good one that many riders use, myself included.  Download the route and background map tiles.  Garmin Basecamp is the basic free software for this device, and Garmin has a map installer software as well.  Besides a Garmin, smart phones with GAIA apps and what-not seem to be just as good if not better.  I saw some slick handlebar-mounted phone set-ups with ridiculously cool maps and fidelity last year.  Phone screens are bigger, too, just that phones are riskier to use should a rider crash or stack the bike.

[Adam Alphabet]

It's not terrible but 'snorting the pink line' is definitely easier and way faster if racing is what you're after. My first effort in 2015 my GPS crapped out on me at mile 100. I still finished... riding with people, following tire tracks, reading and following the cues of the site (which are more of a guide line than turn for turn). In winter of 2015 I toured the route again to familiarize myself and racing this year I knew the course well. It was way faster and I felt more confident and efficient. Way less second guessing junctions as I'd already done that twice before and had the 'pink line' to validate any confusion.
At the end of the day course knowledge and a GPS in any of these events are a definite speed advantage.
If you do your homework, study maps, make your own cues, etc.. you could for sure do it. At the same time in all that time spent doing that you could easily learn how to use basecamp or topofusion and a basic GPS like Mike suggested above.

[ScottM]

GPS is highly recommended.  It's really the best way to ensure you ride the same course as everyone else.  There are otherwise so many sections (however small) that could be open to interpretation (like where to turn off the trail and were to rejoin it).  Even as well as I know the route, I always had the track showing to do my best to follow the route everyone else is on.

[Jon Cal]

I assume riders are using GPS units with mapping software (recommendations?), but I've got no experience using these devices.

I just bought the Gaia GPS app for my phone and will try it out this weekend.  Allowed me to download the maps around a GPX file onto my phone, so that it will provide enough detail when out of bounds.

[Jeff Tomassetti]

Do go out and practice before you go. The Garmins have quirks, and you need to discover them before the AZT hits you in the face.

[AZTtripper]

I just bought the Gaia GPS app for my phone and will try it out this weekend.  Allowed me to download the maps around a GPX file onto my phone, so that it will provide enough detail when out of bounds.

I also have Gaia on my phone I do not currently have a handle bar mounted Garmin. If I were going to do the 300 again I would want to have a handle bar mounted GPS. Being able to look down at any time and see the line and see your location on the line, is way better then riding along realizing that you missed a turn having to get your phone to open wait for it to find you. Then realizing your over a mile off course.

Most of the course is pretty well marked but one sign down has in the passed caused some riders to get extra miles.

Tim

[schillingsworth]

Yep, learn to use a GPS. I love maps too, but also having the capability to zoom in super close on a questionable section really helps too. Like Scott, as well as I know the route, I still blew by a turn coming off Oracle Ridge last year giving me a 1/2 mile bonus HAB section.

[LandSharkBrian]

one1speed, like you, I had not ever really used GPS prior to building up for AZTR300 last year.  I got an eTrex30 in December and used it for everything over the next months - being in the frozen north that included XC skiing, road riding, mounting biking, and whatever the weather allowed for.  This gave me the opportunity to understand waypoints, following pre-set tracks from earlier trips across the same trails/roads (following the pink line as was mentioned), and generally understanding the quirks of the Garmin devices.
 
With that practice base, the GPS definitely helped to not take too long of "detours".  I think the worst for me was between Tiger Mine and Ripsey where an old jeep track went screaming down a hill and I followed it, fat, dumb and happy, only to discover at the bottom that the trail had turned off up near the top and in the dark, I'd missed it.
 
Remember the mantra: absolutely no support.  Get a GPS soon and learn how to use it.  Then, if you love maps like I do, carry a set of topos that you got access to from joining the Arizona Trail site and with luck your Garmin will work flawlessly and you'll never even look at them.

[MikeI]

There are lots of places, especially north of Tiger Mine, where the trail is a bit indistinguishable from a cow path.  Following a cow path and then turning around is a PITA.  And then lots of places where you enter a bed of rocks in a wash bottom and the exit on the other side is just not that obvious ( and that's in the daylight ).  The etrex30 is pretty rock solid, holds up in rain, runs on batteries, so you don't have to worry about recharging. About all you have to do is make sure to tie it to your handlebars so if it ever pops off the mount you don't have to go back and look for it ( Seriously !! ).

[krefs]

I've spent a lot of time riding on the AZT, and navigation by GPS (an eTrex 20 is my preference) is so much easier than any other option, especially when riding in the dark. If you don't know the area, I'd strongly recommend carrying some maps in addition to the GPS so you have a better idea of the big-picture geography out there and can get off the trail and to a town/road should something go awry.

[AZTtripper]

Copies of the appropriate pages from this book http://www.biblio.com/book/arizona-delorme-atlas-gazetteer/d/39110920?aid=frg&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=feed-details&gclid=Cj0KEQjwg8i_BRCT9dHt5ZSGi90BEiQAItdjpE4p1afLhma_f2zPJesB1hVGiz-_OfYt8ojjpr-xJtYaAoWg8P8HAQ will show most of the roads that you cross over and where they go. The AZT is not on the map but the TH are. If you study the course you should be able to recreate it on the map. As Kurt said not to replace GPS but to see the big picture.

Tim

[Snowbd2u]

How far from Tucson is the start?

[MikeI]

How far from Tucson is the start?

About 75 miles or so from Tucson to Parker Canyon Lake for the 300 start, and another 15 or so down to the border for the 750 start.  ( kinda depends on just where in Tucson you start, it's a bit spread out )