Coconino 250 Race Thread 2011

[aarong]

Sounds like we finally have a plan. Neat! Look forward to seeing you all at Starbucks at 7 tomorrow morning. --jen judge

[fieldmatt8]

Sounds good, where's everyone parking?

[Chad B]

Sounds good, where's everyone parking?

Schnebly and I17, about 1/4 mile west of the ADOT. Waking up at 530ish to ride down to the Starbucks. White Subaru. I plan on showing up at 9pm tonight.

I will have all the SPOTS.

[ScottM]

They are off, with the Sedona start.

http://trackleaders.com/coconino

Skipping the first 1.5-2 hrs of stage 2 should hopefully improve the odds of making it up Mingus.  With the rain, Lime Kiln should be in good shape -- and it's not going to be hot out there too.  I bet it's a brilliant day for stage 2.

Sucks to be at home instead of in the red dirt, but at least I get to follow along.

I'll get Aaron Gulley on the tracker -- last I heard he is thru-riding the full course, starting Saturday.

[aarong]

i was at the start at Starbucks this morning to see off the group. there were 9 riders there, and mike shultz, who chose to ride the trails down schnebly, was somewhere behind. attaching a photo of the group @ 7:30ish, just before they rolled.

i am hoping to ride the course ITT style from Flagstaff starting tomorrow morning, though I'm headed up to Marshall Lake this afternoon to check mud conditions.

good luck and have fun to all out there.

[ScottM]

Looks like a good crew, thanks for the pic, Aaron.  And good luck tomorrow.  Would be very curious to hear a mud report.  There's always backwards I guess?

Most of them are well into the Mingus Climb and ensuing hike-a-bike, with Matt Field and Chad at the front end.  Stage 2 is probably the hardest of the race, but having skipped some of the Sedona singletrack, it looks like most should be well finished or near the top by the time the sun dips.

Usually the cooler temps at the top are welcome after a toasty traversal of Lime Kiln down in the deserts below, but this year they may be questioning the wisdom of sleeping up high where it's undoubtedly going to be a cold night.  I bet there are some mud pits up there on the final bits of singletrack, where the route pops out by the hang glider launch and incredible view.  It was either '09 or '10 when we had some mud up there, which was a bit of a surprise given the not-so-recent rain.

Looks like Jen pulled the plug on Mingus before the hike-a-bike, coasting back down to Cottonwood.  I am guessing due to knee issues.  Too bad -- she was moving along nicely with the leaders.

[ScottM]

I talked to Chad from his camp on Mingus.  He said it wasn't wet on Schnebly or in the area last night or this morning, but it may be now.  We'll see what Aaron's SPOT does tomorrow.

It looks like maybe Matt and Bryan don't have the waypoints, or the cues, or for whatever reason didn't get the message that camping for stage 2 is a mile or so down the route, where Chad, Eric and Matt's SPOT are now showing.

At the time I talked to him (~7pm) the AK crew and Redrockgirl hadn't made it in, but he expected them soon.  Apparently some riders (such as Eric Foster) chose to ride Broken Arrow and Llama, and others skipped straight to Cathedral to save a bit of time.

Tomorrow they'll get to sample a Little Yaeger descent, then the big drop down to the Verde.  Should be another nice day for pedalin' a bike.

[aarong]

first, jen did indeed drop because of knee issues. her bike fit about a month ago hasn't gone well, and two hours in her knees were aching. felt fine otherwise, but she can't walk much tonight so it seems it was the right call. she's bummed.

mud report: i did a bit of scouting up by marshall lake today, and it was quite wet. lots of standing water on the dirt roads and the AZT was pretty slippery. according to a friend who works up there, it snowed and rained on and off all day in flag, and though nothing stuck, the area by marshall is quite wet. needs a day or two of sun to dry out.

i'm going to roll out of sedona in the morning early. i'd rather go from flag, but i'd also rather not slog through mud all morning. and this way, maybe i'll even see some of the others on the trail.

good luck to all. travel safely and have fun. -a

[ScottM]

Per Chad, both Mike Schultz and Bryan have scratched.  They skipped the singletrack up and over Williams, according to the tracking data.

Aaron started early this morning from Sedona, and did do Broken Arrow and Llama, so he will only need to descent Munds Wagon back into Sedona to finish off the loop.  By my calculations, he is crushing it so far, having essentially finished both stage 2 and stage 3 in one ~15 hour push.  That's super fast, but it's now night, and a cold one at that.  We'll see how much progress he can push into by sunrise.  It looks like he missed everyone, unless he caught up to a couple non-SPOT carrying riders before turning off for singletrack on Williams.

Several dots are at America's Best Value, the traditional hotel of Coco-racers.  We should get them to sponsor the race - ha!    And maybe the local Williams Pizza Hut, too -- delivery is the only way to go once you're at the motel.

Tomorrow will be interesting -- will everyone stop in Flag, which should be 'stage stop 3' now, or will anyone try to combine the last two stages and push on through back to Sedona.  To officially complete the Coco loop they'll have to drop back into Sedona and maybe ride the missed trail there, too.

Either way, these guys are putting in a lot of saddle, desert and forest time, and I'm supremely jealous.  I bet some of them are pushing limits and getting a lot of valuable bikepacking experience in too.  Very cool.

[ScottM]

Aaron is crushing it, at 28 hours and now leaving Flagstaff, he's got approximately 11 hours to make it back to Sedona and set a new record for thru-riding the Coco!  His Stage 1 time was ~5 hours last year, and though I doubt he'll be that fast, I'd be surprised if it takes him more than 6 hours.  Then he has to descend Munds and drop into Sedona adding another hour.  So I would look for him to take 3-4 hours off Chad's current record of 39 hours.  True, he started in a different spot, since the course is a loop, so it's not exactly comparable, but we've run the gamut on the arguments for this before on the Grand Loop.  It's also worth noting that he rode the new AZT that was tacked onto the course coming into Flag, which adds an hour minimum... with a smaller time bonus for Little Yaeger, which I think should be faster than the old course.

In any case, he's having an amazing ride.  Fingers crossed that the mud has dried and that the trail hasn't been post-holed by Elk or Cow hoofs while it was wet!

[DaveH]

Yea, wow Aaron is killing it!  I just checked in to see how everyone was doing and was shocked to see AG beyond Flag.  Nothing short of a calamity will stop him from setting a new mark.  Fingers crossed that the mud coming his way is not too bad, I know he's been trying really hard at this game for awhile and always seems to have setbacks out of his control.  He has paid his dues!

Another big factor between Chad's and Aaron's ride is weather.  Chad had to contend with head boiling heat, and IME that is a lot slower than mud.  Not that it matters.  The art of the ITT is 75% about choosing a start date.

[aaron w]

Looks like aaron g is now climbing schnebly...he deserves an off the charts sunset right now. 

[ScottM]

Looks like aaron g is now climbing schnebly...he deserves an off the charts sunset right now. 

Amen to that!

He should take ~3 hours off.  Maybe a little more given that we don't know his exact start time.  Awesome.

[redrockgirl]

Myself and Endo wrapped it up tonight.  Safe, sound, beaten, battered...but grinning from ear to ear! Made it to the top of Schnebly for a spectacular sunset/fullmoon descent down Munds!  Sadly, due to some bike challenges (him) and near-hypothermia (mwa) issues, we skipped out on the lower AZT portion.  Was a long but perfect day starting at Williams and finishing at home.  Perfect weather.  

Incredible course....from Broken Arrow the full loop and back down Munds to the red rocks!  Definitely diversity, flow, challenges, weather, views, etc. for me to showcase to my visiting riding partner.  Thanks guys!!!  Looking forward to hearing/sharing more tales!

[ImAFred]

Congrats to all for finishing ... that's a monster of a tour

[Mike S]

Hey guys. I had to end my trip in Flagstaff this morning. I need travel back home tomorrow morning and didnt think I would have the time to ride the last stage, pack, and then complete a ten hour drive to get back to Denver by tonight.

It was a great trip, especially the last downhill singletrack into Flagstaff. That was fun. Good meeting all of you guys and hope to see some of you on a bikepacking trip next time around!

Way to go Aaron! Thats impressive.

Mike

 

[Chad B]

Well done Aaron! I knew I could do the course 2 hours faster....but you, man you killed it (especially with the added AZT singletrack/cold conditions). I hope you enjoy Sedona, drink some coffee at Bike n Bean, only to later put those tired feet in Oak Creek and drink an Oak Creek Brewery Beer.

The weather really made this "stage" race interesting. I think not having an easier Stage 1 where everyone gets to camps together made this race hard from the beginning. I wish we could have started from Flagstaff and got a little more riding with everyone. I did spend some trail time with half the group. I'll post up a few pictures later from my modified loop.

Thank you again to Scott for his killer software, both bikepacking.net and trackleaders. It's tough to imagine what bikepacking/racing would be without either.

[Chad B]

A few of my pictures that I hope show the tone of the race...from the new singletrack to the same ol' hike-a-bike sections, even old veteran racers coming out to cheer us on during one of the steepest sections.







I'll post the rest on the blog later tonight.

[aarong]

Hi everyone. Back home in Santa Fe after a tough and super enjoyable ride on the Coconino. I started at 6:40 on Saturday morning from the Starbucks in Sedona and, after a mostly straight-through ride, ended up finishing in 35:33:56. First off, kudos to Chad and Scott (and anyone else?) who concocted this loop. Mile for mile, there's as much enjoyable riding, compelling trail, and beautiful scenery as any ride I've ever done. While I personally really liked the tricky descent off of Mingus last year, I have to admit that Little Yaegar is a mighty fun piece of trail. And I'd say BIG thumbs up on the addition of the new AZT, especially when the race finishes in Flag as it's supposed to. That singletrack had me grinning even after a long, cold night of riding. I really hope you guys choose to keep it.

I've been thinking of doing this as a through ride for a while, mostly to rack up some experience for longer rides. In that sense it was a roaring success. I made just one stop, in Williams, which because of the cold turned out to be a bit longer than planned. Though I burned through several hours there, the long nap and hot food served me well later. I was initially disappointed to have to roll out of Sedona as I had a careful plan in my head based around the Flagstaff start, but given the mud I encountered Sunday morning on the 20 or so miles from Marshall Lake southward it was definitely the right call. I'm certain it would have been a slog any earlier. And yes, descending into Sedona in glorious sunset light felt like something scripted in a movie (although that Schnebly singletrack sure felt brutal after all those miles).

It was a really fun experience and I'd totally recommend this as a through ride. But I definitely missed the campsite hang and good company of last year's stage race format and I think when I line up in 2012 it will be with a sleeping bag and a flask to take the chill out of the night air around the campfire with everyone else. Congrats to everyone and hope you all had as meaningful and entertaining of an experience as I did.  

[bncrshr77]

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who had anything to do with setting this course up!

I was riding with a friend who really knows the area so I got a great history / geography lesson for 3 days and encountered some of the most awesome terrain and views I've seen... Totally opposite of what you think when you hear the word Arizona...

This was my first true bike packing experience and now I'm hopelessly hooked.. 

Awesome job for everyone who even showed up for the ride this year!

Thanks everyone....