Big Horn Trail Race 2018

[aarond]

Sorry to hear that Mason, hope you have a speedy recovery.

[Truckon09]

Aarond, reading your blog post and looking at Google Earth it looks like there is zero shade from Shell to 14a. How reliable is the water source after you leave Shell? The forcast in Lovell Friday and Saturday is calling 102/105 degrees. I might just stay high and skip the lower elevation if the temps are that high. No reason to bake for a fun ride.

[taprider]

^you don't want to miss the views staying high and Shell is a great place to resupply
the badlands would be great to ride at night
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/ultra-racing/big-horn-trail-race-discussion-thread/msg91075/#msg91075

I'm planning for 2019 now

[aarond]

Aarond, reading your blog post and looking at Google Earth it looks like there is zero shade from Shell to 14a. How reliable is the water source after you leave Shell? The forcast in Lovell Friday and Saturday is calling 102/105 degrees. I might just stay high and skip the lower elevation if the temps are that high. No reason to bake for a fun ride.

You are right, no shade on that section and the forecast high for Shell on Sat. is 98, baking hot.  From Shell at about mile 107, the next water source is at mile 132, and it is reliable.  The first 10 or 12 miles out of Shell are pretty fast, but then some slower sections. If the timing works out, riding this section early in the morning or at evening or night would be nice, but if not I can totally understand avoiding the heat.

[aarond]

Not sure what happened to Sarah Wallick's spot, either batteries are bad or she dropped it.  But I do know she is still on course, passing wyoming high country lodge and dropping into little big horn canyon around 11:30.

[Truckon09]

Spent most my life in th Big Horns hiking, riding and snowmobiling but never been in the basin area north of shell. I’m afraid I’ll hit it about midday in the heat.  I’ve got a couple detours in mind if it doesn’t workout. Anyone else planning on going? Maybe I’ll do a ITT and start Thursday evening.

[aarond]

Spent most my life in th Big Horns hiking, riding and snowmobiling but never been in the basin area north of shell. I’m afraid I’ll hit it about midday in the heat.  I’ve got a couple detours in mind if it doesn’t workout. Anyone else planning on going? Maybe I’ll do a ITT and start Thursday evening.

That could be a good plan, you would hit shell when it was open and likely hit the first two climbs during cooler hours.

[aarond]

Sarah Wallick finished her itt this morning at about 10:15, giving her a time ( in the sleep and stop to smell the flowers category) of about 3 days and 3 hours!

[SLW]

I just completed the race.  The scenery is amazing, especially the canyons, flowers and high-country: Nothing I ever would have seen if I had not done the ride.  Its probably the most beautiful ride I have done). 
I was really glad that I had the full suspension/had 130 travel and the dropper post.  There is some really fun single track, nice dirt roads but also some long steep hike a bikes (one is about 2 miles or more with over a  thousand feet of climbing) and rough terrain which was hard for me as I am not used to this, so I'm glad that I had comfortable shoes.  I also ran into some small mosquitoes which bit but did not itch, wished that I had some bug spray.  Other things:
-Loose rocks on the descents
-The Beef trail (drops into Shell) has amazing views and fun singletrack but also several technical exposed sections.  I would not ride the sections that are exposed with rocks or ride it at night.  Little Horn Canyon is also very beautiful but technical in spots so I would not this at night either
-I would bring lights just in case/everything took me longer than I thought it would as this ride is very hard; probable the hardest ride I have done (but it was my first bikepack race as well)
-I wished that I had bear spray.  I saw lots of bear tracks near Littlehorn canyon and also a herd of wild mountain goats at the bottom of Shell Canyon.  I wasn't sure if they were aggressive and so I just waited for them to get off the trail.  I also saw a dude from a local dude ranch on a horse with toxic masculinity. 

-I found that leaving my bike on full downhill suspension the whole ride helped me avoid saddle sores/except while standing

[taprider]

Congratulations Sarah
I like the idea of the "sleep and smell the flowers" category
how do you qualify?

[aarond]

Congratulations Sarah
I like the idea of the "sleep and smell the flowers" category
how do you qualify?

All you have to do to 'qualify' is ride 14 hours or less a day, or stop 10 or more hours a day.

[aarond]

If you are planning on leaving a vehicle at Ten Sleep Brewing, please "park down at the end of our main parking lot (the gravel area) by the porta potties....we use that area for camping, but we should be okay if we have a few cars parked down there as well.  I just can't have anyone leave their cars in the field because the guys have to off-load their brewing water through the irrigation system and so I have to have the field cleared of cars during the week. "

[aarond]

Austin Sullivan finished (and won) last night in a total time around 2 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes.  Congratulations Austin!

[ScottM]

Lee Blackwell and I are planning to head up to Ten Sleep and ride starting... 14th of July-ish.  Solidly in the 'sleep and smell the flowers' cat.  Well under 14 hrs per day.... maybe even dig deep and shoot for less than 7 hours of moving per day!

Excited to see some new country!  Thanks to Aaron for putting this route together.

[ScottM]

The Bighorns are beautiful, and burly!  I've got to give some respect to anyone that's finished this route, especially when temps are in the 90's down low.  Impressive, folks.

Lee and I had a great ride out there, great adventure.  Loved all the demanding trail through West Ten Sleep, over Bald Ridge and down to Paint Rock Creek.  Then things get really interesting as the flags (were those placed by Aaron?) direct you off the dead-end 4x4 road and into the sage.  Such a magnificent and wild canyon.

Then you're out in the desert (wow!) facing a massive climb out.  We thought that the little active dig site at the end of Paint Rock was our last water, so we filtered the creek.... only to find the fancy campground later on.  Oops -- we didn't do our route research!

We took Aaron's advice to climb lovely 2-tracks to Alkalai road.  Light tailwinds greeted us for that big climb and it was a roaster!  A nap in the high country set things right.

At the bench trail we saw the sign about trail damage and felt the heat of the sun.  We tapped out there.

The "Beef Slide" trail called to us loudly -- what a piece of country over there!  But alas the southern slopes were nowhere to be for us weak little bikepackers in the afternoon.

Shell was a welcome respite.  The store closed suddenly but not before we could pick up 4 panninis and a few supplies.  We met the only mountain bikers in Shell (Laurie and Todd) who kindly shared map info, some snacks and their backyard for camping.

I never really cooled down that night and as we got going in the morning the warmth of the sun was just too much -- we opted for the slow crawl up the highway, rejoicing as clouds greeted us in the high country.  After food at the Bear Lodge we figured out how to rejoin the route over by Sheep Creek.  A lovely night before the final little HAB set us up for barreling down the Tongue River Trail and into Dayton.  Wahoo!

It's great to see a route that is a challenge to complete -- even in tour mode.  The world needs more routes like this.  I've become more and more weak to the heat in the last few years, so my perspective is likely skewed.  I would love to come back and see more of the Bighorns in the fall.

Thanks Aaron, for everything -- and especially for getting us out into the new country.  Again, hats off to everyone that completed it!

[aarond]

Hey Scott, so glad you and Lee could come up and check out the route, it was interesting hearing about some of your early efforts putting together the AZTR, like exploring east of the Superstitions.  I feel bad the weather was so hot this year, nearly record heat.  And contrary to my earlier assertions, the bugs were also bad, at least in spots.  Will definitely take your advice and schedule this for early September next year, this should eliminate any problems with heat, bugs and/or cows.  Next years route will also revert back to climbing out of Ten Sleep and crossing Brokeback ranch before descending Paintrock.  No one has been too excited about the atv track leaving Medicine Lodge, so next years route will follow the route you and Lee took up Alkali Road.  Still a looong climb, but way better surface and more consistent grade than the atv track.  Finally, next year will continue the 200 mile route, but also have a 300 mile loop course which descends (instead of climbs) east and west Ten Sleep trails before dropping down Ten Sleep canyon to complete the loop.  The 300 mile loop version will also likely see an 8 mile hike across the Cloud Peak Wilderness with bike strapped to back.  Thanks again to you and Lee for coming up I am honored that two founders of bikepack racing saw fit to check out this line!

[Adam Alphabet]

....schedule this for early September next year....  ....also have a 300 mile loop course....  ....will also likely see an 8 mile hike across the Cloud Peak Wilderness with bike strapped to back.....

might be saving a bit of vacation for next September!

[fredflinstone]

Hey, man, is this race going to happen in 2020?

[aarond]

Hey, man, is this race going to happen in 2020?

Hey Fred, this race will happen September 4, 2020.  There will be a significant reroute.  The track will stay higher, be a bit shorter, will avoid the cows and eliminate about 30 miles of dirt road.  Overall, it should be a much nicer route.  Will update website and start new thread in near future.

[chrisx]

http://bighorntrailrace.blogspot.com/
Just want to remind myself to read this page.
and find the new route