Dixie 200 2015

[evdog]

Just got home to San diego an hour ago, still trying to unwind.  Great course, Dave - you are an evil genius for sure!

That was definitely a tough one.  I will need a couple days to fully process it.  There were a lot of ups and downs for me.  I thought I could finish in 3 days but the heat and (concern/doubts about) food/re-supply posed huge challenges for me, as I'm sure they did for everyone. 

Day 1 went pretty well, felt pretty good though Marathon Tr felt like a marathon toward the end.  It is always harder not knowing what is coming.  Stopped early when my GPS lost satellites and I realized I had lost my paper map.  Day 2 got extremely hot mid-day.  I stopped at the spring in Water canyon, had a soak and napped in the shade for a couple hours to beat the heat.  It was not enough to avoid some heat exhaustion and I lost my appetite completely.  Entering Crawford pass around 930pm I thought I could finally eat - instead I yakked up all the water up I drank the prior hour as well as the food I just tried to eat.  Had to just sip water sparingly, but felt much better in the morning.  Day 3 I made it to Thunder Mtn TH at 1130am, finished and headed to the Red Canyon visitor center for water.  I knew there was no way I could tackle 89-Panguitch Lake in the heat so I hung out in the shade at the visitor center, napped and people-watched til 6pm.  I found food at the Indian store which was key as I otherwise would have had to camp at Panguitch Lake to hit the store when it opened the next morning.  Instead I was fully supplied and was able to truck well into the night finally crashing at Spruce Tr TH at 230am.  Had incredible temps aside from a few shockingly cold air drainages!  This morning was an "easy-ish" finish. 

I took a ton of pics and will do a writeup for a local forum, will post it here too.  While I didn't finish in 3 days as I wanted to I am very happy with how I did especially considering the heat.  I know I could do better for sure next time.

I am pretty in awe of the riders who are able to push through on pretty much no sleep.  Nice job everyone!

And great meeting Erin, Brad, and DaveH!

[evdog]

Oh, and you guys will never guess who I ran into this morning as I finished Spruce Trail...

A Conservation Corps crew warming up to go cut out all those downed trees I had just hauled my bike over!



And if that was not enough, I ran into a USFS crew at the bottom of Dark Hollow that was starting to work its way up the trail.

You guys just haaaaaaad to start the ride on Friday! : (With a Saturday start both trails would have been clear by the time my slow ass came through!)




And final pic for now, the tree on Granview...

It sucked climbing over it in the heat but I would not have wanted to descend into Water Canyon in the dark.  That trail seemed way worse than last time there!

[rick miller]

Good pic, but doesn't do it justice.  I'm still convinced it's 8' in diameter.

[Woodland]

Finish is a matter of location, and I consider all starters to have finished.

You weren't so profound at the Start gun Dave, but I'll give you that line 

My finish time as you have it is close enough.

That is a great course you have there Dave, you didn't go easy anywhere. I would find myself at a road junction saying, 'Now which one would Dave pick?'...and I would always pick the shittier/rougher/overgrown one and always be right! Plus you've got some nice gems in there with Thunder Mountian (magical at sundown), VRRT, Crawford Pass and Chimney rock.

Seeing those hoodoo's sticking out of the dark in the beam of my lights off the Grandview trail in the Sunset Cliffs will stick with me forever.

[Woodland]

Very bummed to announce I'm out...I started to have some saddle sore issues.

Mine are just toughening up now into callouses! Try it on a hardtail next time 

[mikedeber]

Whew what a great weekend!  My time was 1:22:15.  As I drove down on Sat evening I was planning to start super early on Sunday but when I got to the trailhead and saw everyone's vehicles I got really psyched and figured it would make more sense to start riding Saturday night.  I knocked out the initial climb and the Marathon singletrack to the creek and slept for 4 hours.  Not sure how people can do these rides without sleep, that's a level of nuttiness I just don't know about.

Pagans are known to celebrate the Solstice with mead and merriment, I celebrated by trying to finish off the Grandview trail before dark.  The sun was just refusing to go down, I love the long days.  Grandview has a real ebb & flow kind of quality about it, I really like the last few miles before the climb up to the road.

I had a bizarre mechanical on Thunder Mountain right where it starts to trend downwards.  My front brake suddenly felt like it needed a bleed, I adjusted the lever so I could at least get it to engage but it was grinding.  I thought that the pad must be dead, which would have been weird because they were only about a week old.  Turns out that one of the brake compounds had fallen off so I only had one brake pad and one piece of metal, can't say I've seen that happen before.  Easy enough to throw the extra set of pads in and I was back on my feet.

As I was walking up Spruces I thought it seemed a whole lot easier than the last time I had done it.  There were only a handful of trees at the very beginning.  I could see piles of sawdust and lots of fresh cut wood, the picture above now makes perfect sense.  Ha, looks like my timing was perfect.

Dark Hollow, one of the best trails ever!  What a great way to finish off this monster loop, with some real deal mountain biking.  It seems so wrong in my mind to ride that trail with a weekends worth of gear strapped to my bike, but it's so freakin fun.  Thanks for the motivation to get out there everyone. 

[ayayron]

Mine are just toughening up now into callouses! Try it on a hardtail next time 

Still haven't healed enough to ride yet....I should have the best callouses ever though!

[plesurnpain]

Baby Powder!

[bncrshr77]

I had some serious chaffing issues on day 1 and narrowed it down to my bike shorts rubbing me weird when I hike a bike.  I had ridden plenty of miles in the bike shorts (AZT 300) with no issues but hadn't done that much walking in them.  Ended up ditching the Pearl Izumi shorts on night 1 and by about mid day on day 2 I could start sitting on my seat again!!  My sit bones were sore from not having the pad but I can deal with that...

[DaveH]

That's a wrap! Everyone is done and accounted for.

I'm calling the 2015 Dixie a success. The hot forecast had me a bit nervous but everyone managed it perfectly. The kit sophistication has risen to new levels, apparently that translates to smarter riders too.

At least half the group uploaded files to Strava. You can see a blow by blow playback here: http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/?utm_source=strava_activity_header#330201732,xP+lE1KxrhO7yrAToraxE6a2sRMkpLkTRLi6Ew==

KOMs earned in bikepacking events are boss

Thanks for coming to play in SW Utah, see you next year if not before.

[bncrshr77]

Great course Dave! 

[DaveH]

Thanks Tom, glad you enjoyed it. I sure enjoyed putting the pieces together.

[Woodland]

As I was walking up Spruces I thought it seemed a whole lot easier than the last time I had done it.  There were only a handful of trees at the very beginning.  I could see piles of sawdust and lots of fresh cut wood, the picture above now makes perfect sense.  Ha, looks like my timing was perfect.

I can't believe your timing - totally not fair 

Well, now we all ought to be able to shave at least an hour off our times for next year!

[rick miller]

Don'tcha just hate how they keep dummin' down all the good hab? 

[wolfmansbro]

What a great route! I've never been on a long ride like the Dixie that kept my mind engaged and focused for so long. I would say, time wise, that the route was over half single track and a lot of those trails really felt like you were on a remote back country outing. This route has every type of trail imaginable. Day One was filled with some awesome mountain bike riding, with real trails that I would be happy to ride anytime on my bike. Day two started with a great ride through some dirt and gravel roads that explored areas of Utah I have never been. Found some fun little trail sections around Thunder Mountain that I didn't know existed. Once the slow crawl into Panguitch Lake started, I threw the ear buds in and kept the head down. Not so much a low point, but I was giving it everything I had just to stay on Mike's rear tire. He really pushed those pedals hard from Hwy 12 to Panguitch Lake. So props to you Mike for really pushing the limit for me through that section. I gave it everything just to keep up. Then, the remainder of the ride, after Thunder Mountain, sucked all the little bit of life I had left right out of me. No real free miles on this route. And just when you have absolutely no energy left in the legs, you start the decent down Dark Hollow; which further destroys whats left of your upper body with some techy rock sections. Couldn't have dreamed up a better Bikepacking adventure in a "short" 200 mile route.
Start
Start by jwolfski, on Flickr
Bridge Down
BridgeCrossing by jwolfski, on Flickr
Sunset Day One
Sunset by jwolfski, on Flickr
Mikeridingintothesunset by jwolfski, on Flickr

Thunder Mountain
image by jwolfski, on Flickr
Sucking the life right out of you. O we don't have to go this way?
image by jwolfski, on Flickr
O that's better
image by jwolfski, on Flickr
I lost count of how many down trees we crossed
image by jwolfski, on Flickr

[wolfmansbro]

Nice work Mike on really digging deep to find the energy up the last big climb. And just because Mike Barklow thought the Dixie 200 wasn't long enough, he is back on the saddle this weekend. This time it's to raise money for people affected by Multiple sclerosis. If you have the time check out his page and maybe donate a little to help the fight against MS. Here is the write-up and Link http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/HOMBikeEvents?px=12935864&pg=personal&fr_id=24736&fb_ref=Default
"For the second year in a row, this Saturday and Sunday, Mike Barklow will be joining team Beards and Gears, riding fat bikes to raise money for the National MS Society. This is an important cause to Kaitlin and Mike as her grand mother passed away from MS. Every donation big or small is tax deductible and helps greatly. We would be grateful for your support.
If there is someone you know that has or had MS, let me know and I will pedal hard for your loved one as well.
Please join us to help make a difference!"
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/HOMBikeEvents?px=12935864&pg=personal&fr_id=24736&fb_ref=Default

[plesurnpain]

Jason, you forgot to mention the possible lifesaving coke and ice cream at the trading post. Soaking our jerseys in the sprinklers was truly brilliant, although I was cursing my wicking jersey 15 minutes later when it was dry. I wish I had the strength to hang with you when Mike put on the hurt through the desolation zone after 89. I am still amazed at how you rode on a fat bike...truly bad ass!

[wolfmansbro]

Soaking our jerseys in the sprinklers was truly brilliant, although I was cursing my wicking jersey 15 minutes later when it was dry.

Awe yes, I also stopped at Cattle water trough to soak the jersey. Needless the say I smelt like a bovine the rest of the day.

[DaveH]

Those are some stunning shots Jason! Thanks for also including the "sucking the life right out of you" series, the route definitely needs a balanced reputation.

Great riding too! I'm going to guess that if those trail crews came through 2 days earlier you & Mike would have set a new course record.

[plesurnpain]

I have a feeling we're going to have a pretty good turn out next year with all the great feedback from this year. If the weather is decent I'm guessing the record will fall. After learning so much this year, I can't wait to make a run at a decent time.