AZTR 2013 Discussion Thread

[rhino]

Anyone have any updates on Team Alaska?  Michael & Sharon. Thanks!

saw them late Saturday night at Rincon Market.  They were heading up Reddington Pass to camp.  I rode up after them and never saw them, and didn't see them pass me while I was camping either.  But they could have pushed on late into the night and gotten much farther ahead of me.  I stopped at about 12:30 am Sunday morning after turning off Reddington Rd. Probably outdated info, but that's what I know.  Do either of them have SPOT?

[skidmark]

Big Dave, was that you on the SS that passed me was I was sucking wind, rolling like nothing through the deep sand in the wash (and the next wash, and the next) and jumping all the bumps in the track? You mentioned you had a flat b/c of running your tire pressure too low.

If so, you totally win for having the most fun on that first segment in the 'hills.  

That was probably me. I always try and have as much fun on the downhills and fun singletrack as I can, weather I'm racing or not.

[AZTtripper]

Max stopped in Payson at the hike and bike store to buy his hiking shoes and pack. Not sure how much he'll really use the shoes on the Highline but at least now he doesn't have to stop at the South Rim.

Ross glad to help out sorry you had to drop, we do our best to make the route as brutally fun as possible.

The AZTHABR will always be here for those who want to test themselves.

To those still out there keep it up.

[Holt]

I just went to TL to see how I finished?  I'm not listed as finished?
Mark Allen and myself (Holt Harlan) killed a all night run to the finish. We got in around 2:30AM.

[windowace]

For what it is worth, I rode through the night and barried myself trying to go under 4 days, but alas I rolled through PP at 9:05AM.  I forgot to reset my spot.  More later, I need to pass out.  Cheers.

[ScottM]

I just went to TL to see how I finished?  I'm not listed as finished?
Mark Allen and myself (Holt Harlan) killed a all night run to the finish. We got in around 2:30AM.

That's strong work, Holt.

I marked you guys as finishers.  I just like to leave the dots at the finish for a while before marking finishers.

I've edited the first post in this thread with the current 300 finishers list.  Please let me know if any time or place corrections.  Thx.

[Marshal]

Congrats to all AZT300 racers, oh & anything less than 3 days just blows my mind…….

BUT---Go AZT full meal deal 750 Racers…….

Max is sure riding well!  Blake & Aaron D looking good also, both well within striking distance for mixing it up for 1st.  But Max looks to be right on for a re supply in Pine before everything closes?  And then on into the Highline (which makes Oracle ridge look like a paved park path).  If Max has the energy and gets deep into Highline tonight he will be tough to catch……... 

I wonder if Eric will press on thru all or most of the night.  The section he is hitting, Apache Junction to Payson lends itself to night riding. He could make up some time here………

Any word on Forest getting back out on the route?

Did I miss a update on Cjell? 

Mark, Sheila & Rich here’s to wishing I was where you all are at right now, you all look to win big with most desert nights (the best reason imho for doing the 750!!)

[mikepro]

BUT---Go AZT full meal deal 750 Racers…….

Max is sure riding well!  Blake & Aaron D looking good also, both well within striking distance for mixing it up for 1st.
Did I miss a update on Cjell? 

Blake and Aaron D look to have really closed the gap.  Roughly 2 hours back?  Possible grouping up in Pine?
Hoping Cjell's batteries just went out on Spot.  He strikes me as a gamer.

[groundedkiwi]

saw them late Saturday night at Rincon Market.  They were heading up Reddington Pass to camp.  I rode up after them and never saw them, and didn't see them pass me while I was camping either.  But they could have pushed on late into the night and gotten much farther ahead of me.  I stopped at about 12:30 am Sunday morning after turning off Reddington Rd. Probably outdated info, but that's what I know.  Do either of them have SPOT?

Thanks for the update!  I hope they are doing well.  No, neither has a SPOT, hence no idea where they were.

Just got off the phone with Rich Wolf.  He is doing great!  He had just found the Freeman Rd water stash, and was busy re-hydrating.  He had bumped into Shelia there, and it was the first time they had seen each other in 2-ish days.  Which is amazing, as their SPOTS were reporting so close together that I thought they surely must have been riding together.  He said Shelia looked great and was hoping to push through to Gila river tonight, as was Rich.
He said the weather was great and the wind although strong was nice and cool.
He had a message for Aaron Boatman..."Thanks for the help with the new tire in Sierra Vista, it is holding up like a champ!"

Go Go Racers, you're all amazing!!!!
Katherine

[Marshal]

Blake and Aaron D look to have really closed the gap.  Roughly 2 hours back?  Possible grouping up in Pine?
Hoping Cjell's batteries just went out on Spot.  He strikes me as a gamer.

ya, hope Cjell is on up the trail near those 3 Spot's...........Fun with couch potato Spot speculations…………

Max’s Spot shows him at the base of a tricky hike-a-bike section, a mini-me introduction to the upcoming Highline, thick undergrowth and one turn that caused minor lost time for me in full daylight.  So Max might benefit from the fading light in this section were as Blake will hit it in the dark.  And Aaron is now in Payson at a terrible time—in the sense it will be so tempting to linger over a real meal etc…
But harder now to push into the deep night, body & mind are now 100% in the rhythm but legs are tired, lots of little aches & pains but yet many miles to go…….after Highline that UT border really starts to pull you forward……

[Marshal]

Thanks for the update!  I hope they are doing well.  No, neither has a SPOT, hence no idea where they were.

Just got off the phone with Rich Wolf.  He is doing great!  He had just found the Freeman Rd water stash, and was busy re-hydrating.  He had bumped into Shelia there, and it was the first time they had seen each other in 2-ish days.  Which is amazing, as their SPOTS were reporting so close together that I thought they surely must have been riding together.  He said Shelia looked great and was hoping to push through to Gila river tonight, as was Rich.
He said the weather was great and the wind although strong was nice and cool.
He had a message for Aaron Boatman..."Thanks for the help with the new tire in Sierra Vista, it is holding up like a champ!"

Go Go Racers, you're all amazing!!!!
Katherine

I suspect Sheila & Rich will enjoy the section of trail they are now on—at 1st they will see flowing singletrack and mild two track.  There is a steep climb that looks much worse than it really is, maybe it will be dark and they won’t have to think about it.  Also some sharp downhill single track.  But all in all this is a very nice section to knock out in the late evening!!  And if they make or get close to the Gila tonight that will set them up to get past that lowest/hottest section 1st thing in the cooler morning.

[ScottM]

Anxiously waiting on updates from both Forest and Cjell, hoping they are cruising along by now.

A few choice comments I've seen so far (all from different people):

"Holy crap that was hard. Oracle Ridge - WTF?!?"

"that's the closest I've been to Really Being In Trouble in a long while."

"only made 26miles from 9-7 after a night spent freezin and thankin god I didn't get that spot so every one could see what a turd I am.. second day couldn't sit on my saddle made it to sonoita... ass bleedin and all callin it quits... see u next year a hell of a lot more prepared..."

"Who ever came up with the idea that the Oracle Ridge section of the AZT was a place to take a mountain bike?  Oh, yeah, it was Scott.  I would have taken off my pedals and hiked the entire length of the ridge but couldn't get them off because all the pedal strikes have welded pedals to the crank arms."

"How can a 4000 foot descent suck so much?"

"Uh oh! Aaron Gulley just took your KOM on Arizona Trail Climb by 29 seconds."

"I saw some guy running on the HAB...is he racing the 300?"

"Official announcement: I am retired from bikepack racing. Arizona Trail 300 on my single speed took me to my limit."

Eszter had a hilarious one, regarding Oracle ridge, to the girls bikepacking south on the AZT (the Jen and Caroline crew), but it's not PG-13 approved.

[Marshal]

Any one looked at Ron T’s Spot track—wow, that is one painful bit of Spot dots to look at--had to hurt big time.

Looks like he missed a turn and started down the old pipeline route, not so big of a deal, but then he went most of the way back to Tiger mine rd—I am guessing he lost/dropped something important and went back to retrieve it.  And doing this section on a SS just compounds the pain…..

But he looks to be making good time now and is close to Freeman, hope there is water left for him as he probably worked thru his Oracle re-supply by now…….

I am impressed, would have been easy to backtrack all the way to Oracle, GO Ron!!

[Marshal]

Forest Spot is on the move—let hope it moves on up the route

Go Forest!!

edit--he is back on route, good rest & re-supply I am sure and bet he rides long into the night---------

[markphx]

My objective was to test physical and mental limits, meet some like-minded folks, shred some singletrack, and participate in some upper body strength building excercises... Mission accomplished!

Had 5 rattlesnake encounters during my jaunt on the 300; 3 of 'em were from the Kelvin to Picketpost stretch... Friendly bunch might I say!

Thanks ScottM for putting this together.

Time to kickback and watch the 750 folks work their magic...

[Holt]

Incredible experience!!!!
Oracle is just nutz. And picket post at night... Insane, but in the heat of the day would be worse! We saw 3 ratlers in the dark??? Crazy to run up on one with trail brain.
Shout out to my fellow Texan Shella - GO GIRL!!!
I wasn't sure if "I bit off more than I could chew"
I am so hyped on this event!

[Sean Allan]

So happy to see Blake and Aaron D getting it on, we had a nice few days traveling down to SV together, they are super nice guys and I can't think of anyone else more deserving of their place in the race. Aaron pushed through some pretty good cramps the first day as we were riding most of the day together. I'm sure that has been tough on him the last couple of days, but I was really impressed by how positive he was. Blake is a super strong rider and very smart, he will pacing himself right to the end and finish strong. He has a backpack waiting for him at the south rim post office and I bet he rips the canyon hike.

I caught up to Max on the first day out near Kentucky Camp I believe, he looked very strong and smooth and was happy at his progress and effort to that point. The dust was too heavy through there so I let him go never to see him again that day.

I still can't believe I crashed out of this thing, the first time ever crashing during any race, and I've done nearly a hundred of them over the years. It really screwed up Blakes' return back to Cali as we were hoping to make the return trip together as well.

 I needed to go to the ER on Sat. morn. I managed to pull 3 each 3/4" needles out of my right quad that morn but there were still 4 in there that my Leatherman couldn't get to without some surgical precision. The Doc got those 4 out and basically waxed my ass to get the 50 or so that were in areas I've never seen personally...... I'm still pulling out those damn things from various body parts today. Two more days of antibiotics and I'm back to normal. Hopefully my left knee, which I bruised up pretty good will be better by the weekend.

I was hoping to salvage the shorts I was wearing during the crash. I spent an hour or so today on one side and gave up, they will likely go into the trash like my jersey and leg and arm warmers, just too many of those damn things to get out. Any helpful hints from you desert dwellers besides not rolling around in huge cactus patches.....?

Attached some pics of the carnage, the 4 doctor removed needles and today's futile attempt to save my shorts.

[mtbcast]

Eric Foster called in from Apache Junction. He’s had a rough ride and is battling some knee issues. And Max Morris called in from Payson where he’s feeling good.

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/azt13/

[Marshal]

So happy to see Blake and Aaron D getting it on, we had a nice few days traveling down to SV together, they are super nice guys and I can't think of anyone else more deserving of their place in the race. Aaron pushed through some pretty good cramps the first day as we were riding most of the day together. I'm sure that has been tough on him the last couple of days, but I was really impressed by how positive he was. Blake is a super strong rider and very smart, he will pacing himself right to the end and finish strong. He has a backpack waiting for him at the south rim post office and I bet he rips the canyon hike.

I caught up to Max on the first day out near Kentucky Camp I believe, he looked very strong and smooth and was happy at his progress and effort to that point. The dust was too heavy through there so I let him go never to see him again that day.

I still can't believe I crashed out of this thing, the first time ever crashing during any race, and I've done nearly a hundred of them over the years. It really screwed up Blakes' return back to Cali as we were hoping to make the return trip together as well.

 I needed to go to the ER on Sat. morn. I managed to pull 3 each 3/4" needles out of my right quad that morn but there were still 4 in there that my Leatherman couldn't get to without some surgical precision. The Doc got those 4 out and basically waxed my ass to get the 50 or so that were in areas I've never seen personally...... I'm still pulling out those damn things from various body parts today. Two more days of antibiotics and I'm back to normal. Hopefully my left knee, which I bruised up pretty good will be better by the weekend.

I was hoping to salvage the shorts I was wearing during the crash. I spent an hour or so today on one side and gave up, they will likely go into the trash like my jersey and leg and arm warmers, just too many of those damn things to get out. Any helpful hints from you desert dwellers besides not rolling around in huge cactus patches.....?

Attached some pics of the carnage, the 4 doctor removed needles and today's futile attempt to save my shorts.

oh that hurts just to look at----heal up fast with no infections.........

[mtbcast]

OUCH! Sean! EGADS! Heal quick, Dude!