AZTR 2013 Planning

[RossC]

Ardent 2.4 front and prob a lust crossmark (its only 2.1 but i'll survive.)

[dream4est]

I ended up buying a LED Lenser light from Australia that also ran off AA's and it lasts right at 6 hours as well on lith AA's and there is absolutely no dark spot in it's flood pattern or spotlight. It is pretty amazing. It's definitely worth checking out. It's a little bulky and I would say that is it's only downside. It's not heavy just bulky. I just got on their website as I was writing this and it looks as though they have even more options than when I bought mine.

http://www.ledlenser.com

-Tanner

I have the Led Lenser H7 headlamp. Used it in azt750 and ctr on helmet. Totally worth the 40 bucks.

For tires I am running saguaro/aka TNT combo. Never flatted a saguaro in 2010 in azt/ctr so I am going back to that. Last year I tried captain control/race king 2.2 in the 750. Failed 4 times , all about as bad or worse as scotts pic above. I saved the tubeless twice because I am Macgruber skilled at fixing things with glue, tape and whatever. But eventually after a week or so I had to use a tube. In Arizona I always keep the tubeless until it just wont work anymore, as tubes are like gold out there.

With about 8 miles left in the 750 i had my final sidewall tear, just about like scotts pic. It left me in tears after 1+hour of repair. I barely had enough strength left to mount the final bead. When I saw Marshal near the finish line I about had a nervous breakdown the tire repair was such a struggle. I probably lost a whole day to tire failures in 2012.

[lukejay]

GEAX aka TNT 29x2.2 (maybe a saguaro up front)

[cheeseunit]

just pulled my 1 summer old ,riding all over az rampages off due to a sliced sidewall on picketpost.Replaced them conti kings.Wished I would have read this first,very conflicted now.May be buying another new set of rampages,they were excellent till this tear

[raybum]

Hey all, just another reminder about a PHX to Parker Canyon Lake Shuttle - Currently there are 9 out of 14 spots filled on the van.  If you are needing a ride from the end of the 300 (Picket Post) to Parker Canyon Lake, let me know!
cheers,
Ray

[tanman1337]

kings are junk for AZT...my opinion. Arizona eats them up

[Gimmearaise]

rookie here and I'm wondering about spigots. Will the Palisade Spigot be open? is Cott Tank spigot working this year, does anyone know?
that's all.
thanks,
NEIL

[AZTtripper]

If not the spigot, there's always water in pools in the wash there.

I hiker named loup was just there yesterday and says spigot and creek. http://www.fredgaudetphotography.com/aztrail/watercurrent.pdf

Palisade should be on even earlier usually it's on before mid April.

[Endurance Junkie]

Rampage front and rear for me!

[windowace]

Ditto on the double rampage.

[windowace]

Mr. Morris,

Any news on the updated track?

[Sean Allan]

I'm hoping someone can help a technically challenged individual here. I'd like to waypoint some water locations from the ATA water resource page and Tims water page into the 750 track, problem is I have no idea where anything is. The ATA website lists mileage south to north so I know I can use that info, but otherwise as someone who will doing this for the first time, I have no idea of the landmarks or features of the course.
I have Basecamp and Toposusion.
Not looking for anyone to do the work for me, just the process of how to do it. I don't want to die out there, at least not from lack of water..... This will also help me waypoint spots on the California Sierra Trail Race for racers, so hopefully others will benefit from some new knowledge for me.

[ne14cycling]

It's too bad someone hasn't come up with a test method for cut resistance and tested a bunch of tires with it for a fair comparison.  Marketing departments love to use terms like "protection" and "exo" etc, but I often wonder, if those tire design features that we are paying for are actually improving cut resistance a perceptible amount.  People get turned of on certain tires after they get a cut or two, but there are just so many variables that factor into it (air pressure, rider weight, terrain, etc).
All that being said, for me in this years 300...
Front: Panaracer Rampage (Arguably the best trail tire on front)
Rear: Either, conti x-king w/ protection (still evaluating), Michelin wild racer (wore 5 of these out w/o a slice, but the new design I believe is not as robust since I've cut a few), WTB Bronson (700 gram tire), or finally, a 1/2 worn out Rampage (they're only 700g's when worn!).
In any case, you'll bet I'll be carrying dental floss, a curved needle, superglue, rubber cement, auto patches, and gorilla tape.

I've just finished testing the Conti Race Kings w/ protection.  They suck IMHO.  The tread profile does not extend outward enough, leaving the sidewalls VERY exposed.  The THIN rubber coating over the "Protection" textured sidewalls was "significantly impacted" after one ride leaving my side walls fuzzy...a couple rides later - I had a cut while looping the VQ course here in SoCal....I've never had a cut on the VQ course.   Just saying.  PS I'm on a road team sponsored by Conti so I'm not negatively biased here.....LOVE there road tires though.  I'm going another direction.  

[AZTtripper]

The problem with Fred's mileage is that it includes Wilderness Passages we don't use.

The problem with my list is that I am not making it too easy to figure out. It's all there you just need to study up on things. Like if Cott Tank is a certain distance past Canelo Pass road, you need to figure out that Passage 2 of the AZT ends at Canelo Pass road. So if you know the length of Passage 2 you should be able to find Canelo Pass road. If you follow the course you should be able to then spot Cott tank. Then mark a way point using Topofusion. Also switching from My Topo to Open Street makes it easier to see the names on roads. That's as easy as I am willing to make it.

I will say this tho. I did find water source way points at Hike AZ http://hikearizona.com/ but to be honest they don't look super accurate. But they may help to get you started.

It's not that I am unwilling to help, I just feel that people need to study the course for themselves. Most all of the water sources are labeled on the Topo maps.

[ne14cycling]

Ignor my tires.....and the angle of the saddle....

clean and shinny for now.

[Sean Allan]

The problem with Fred's mileage is that it includes Wilderness Passages we don't use.

The problem with my list is that I am not making it too easy to figure out. It's all there you just need to study up on things. Like if Cott Tank is a certain distance past Canelo Pass road, you need to figure out that Passage 2 of the AZT ends at Canelo Pass road. So if you know the length of Passage 2 you should be able to find Canelo Pass road. If you follow the course you should be able to then spot Cott tank. Then mark a way point using Topofusion. Also switching from My Topo to Open Street makes it easier to see the names on roads. That's as easy as I am willing to make it.

I will say this tho. I did find water source way points at Hike AZ http://hikearizona.com/ but to be honest they don't look super accurate. But they may help to get you started.

It's not that I am unwilling to help, I just feel that people need to study the course for themselves. Most all of the water sources are labeled on the Topo maps.

Thanks Tim, I understand completely. I'm using the MTB guide from the ATA website, does that have the incorrect mileage?

I guess my problem is knowing where some of this stuff is and then figuring out the mileage distance from each. Simple stuff like Kentucky Camp don't seem to be on the Topo's.

 It would be nice if I could put my pointer on the track and know what mileage that is, is there a way to do that? That's all I really need to figure out. I'm studying the course, I just can't put a mileage to it, technical GPS stuff, not course specific.

I guess an analogy for others would be this as it applies to the CSTR. There is a spring to the right of the trail about 10 feet off trail, the spring is located 14.3 miles from FSR 1050, there is no mention of the spring on any topo's or maps, just local knowledge. How would you know where 14.3 miles past FSR 1050 is if you've never seen it before? That is my quandary, I'll figure out the AZTR, I just want to know if I can do my cues for the CSTR this way and others will be able to find that spot, because right now I wouldn't be able to do so.

[joeydurango]

Sean - I had great luck using a combo of Google Earth, research on bikepacking.net, the ATA MTB guidebook (which AZTtripper wrote), Scott's cue sheet, various AZTR blogs, the 2012 AZTR750 GPX, and a Benchmark Arizona Atlas.  It took me a lot of hours to piece together the whole picture, but it was worth it, and although I've never ridden any of the course I'm pretty confident about water/supply sources, various sections' difficulty, etc.  I basically just sat and stared at the map for a while, picked out the general gist of the trail, and began getting more and more detailed from there.  Then again, I do love maps.

This is all very ironic as I am not going to be able to make the race after all this year... but I suppose the knowledge will still apply in 2014, or if I tour the trail in May.

[forest_on_bike]

Anyone looking for a ride from Parker Lake to the border? I think we have room for 2 riders and their bikes in our pickup.

I'm camping at Parker Lake with some friends on the night of the 18th. They are going to drive me to the start of the AZT 750 on Friday morning. We are planning on leaving Parker Lake for the border by 4:45am. Ouch! But I want to make sure that I don't miss the 6am start.

Send me a PM if you want to get a ride with us to the border.

Forest

[ScottM]

Just a quick note - 6:30 start for the 750.

[forest_on_bike]

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out Scott. Another 30 minutes of sleep will be nice.

So, if you need a ride to the border, we'll be leaving by 5:15am.

Forest