Letter of Intent: AZT 300

I am racing the The Arizona Trail 300 on April 5th. The AZT 300 is a three-hundred mile self-supported mountain bike race. This basically means I'll be carrying food, water, shelter and whatever else I might need to my ride my bike from near Mexico to Superior, AZ mostly on the Arizona Trail.

You can follow my progress on trackleaders.com.

My bike and I at Picketpost Mountain.

Here's a map of the AZT 300 route:

AZT300 on Trailforks.com

AZT: Montana Mountain

After our unfinished ride in January, we decided to head north from Picketpost and complete Passage 18 of the Arizona Trail.

This would entail climbing around five thousand feet over eighteen miles from Picketpost up to the Rogers Trough Trailhead. Most people ride up one of the forest roads and then head back down the trail. We decided to ride up the trail to get the full experience.

We headed out from Picketpost around 3:30 pm. The trail quickly becomes serious, with rocks and wash crossings before crossing under US 60.

I think we're ready.

First gate.

Crossing under US 60.

As we climbed through the warm desert we were treated to wide open spaces and no crowds.

Wide

Open

Spaces

Trying out new fashion options.

We've had lots of precipitation and found water plentiful. I wish I packed my filter!

One of many creek crossings.

Jake riding away.

Rugged Arizona beauty.

We met a southbound thru-hiker with a campfire just after the Reavis Trailhead who confirmed the next section would be slow and require lots of pushing. Even so, we decided to keep to the trail and try to make it to the top of Montana Mountain before stopping for the night.

Nice gate.

Pose with bikes.

Green

As we climbed the mountain it became steeper and at some point we abandoned the idea of riding and settled for pushing our loaded bikes up the loose, rocky switchbacks. The full moon helped find our way - we almost didn't need lights. We finally called it quits when we came upon a semi flat grassy spot.

Ready to crash in the grass

We woke up to views of the mountains with the lights of Superior in the distance.

Direct line of sight means full cell service!

Standing on top of the world.

Take in the view a bit longer.

Time to get moving.

 After looking over my cassette I discovered the source of my poor shifting - a mangled granny gear! I used some pliers to try and bend it back and it managed to work some.

We pushed our bikes up the last half mile and crested the final peak. We were treated to views of the Superstition Mountains and parts of the Valley in the distance.

The other side of the mountain.

Almost there.

No bikes allowed.

We now had to choose between returning down the trail the way we came (slower), or taking the forest road down (faster). Since we had used up most of our water, the choice was clear - take the forest road! We headed down FR 172 since it would take us west through a different part of the area.

Jake in the distance.

More water.

The road held lots of fast, loose downhill interspersed with some climbing to keep it interesting. I kept playing with my bike but it never would shift correctly. I could only find a couple of gears where it didn't sound like it was breaking apart.

Typical section of the road.

Water tank.

Looking for Indian ruins.

Watch for caution tortoises!

After thirty-eight miles, we made it back to the car.

Time for an apple!

Picketpost to nowhere

I try to ride my age in miles on my birthday each year, but I wasn't able to ride on my birthday, so I started making plans for New Years.

I floated the idea of riding Picketpost to Kelvin, which I had never ridden, and Jake jumped at the idea. He mentioned he had never seen the Coke Ovens up close, so I made a route that would take us by the Coke Ovens, cross the Gila River and finish in Florence via some easy dirt road riding. This would also allow us to drop a vehicle in Florence on our way to the Picketpost Trailhead for a shorter overall trip. Win-win, right?

I saw that John had recently ridden this area so I figured we had a couple places to cross the river based on his ride report.

We loaded up early, dropped off my truck in Florence and got on the bikes just as the sun was coming up.

Picketpost selfie

Jake rides up one of many climbs

We started out nice and easy and started ticking off the miles, stopping plenty for pictures. It had rained pretty good for the past several days, so there were some wet spots here and there, but the trail was in great shape.

Looking east

We didn't see anyone else out on the Arizona Trail (AZT), but did cross paths with some folks out four-wheeling.

It was cool to see so much water out in the desert!

Water crossing!

Waterfalls!

The climbs never seemed to stop, even though my GPS showed that we were "ridiculously close to the top". 

Unrelated note: I don't think Jake trusts my GPS anymore.

Jake rides up one of many climbs

Finally we reached the top and were rewarded with a great view.

Looking south

I took my phone out of airplane mode and was able to send a few texts to my wife. Then it was time to head down to the river. It's all downhill, or at least it looked that way on the GPS.

Still south

Yup, south

Geology

We finally reached the point where the AZT heads east towards Kelvin, but we went west to check out the Coke Ovens.

Coke Ovens

Coke Ovens with bikes

I was pretty tired by this point so I took off of my pack, shoes, helmet and gloves and sat down to eat some snacks. I didn't quite pack enough food, but Jake shared some of his goodies.

I was excited to get over the river and have a nice easy roll into town to get a burger!

We rode down to the river and looked for a nice place to cross.

Looking south, but not heading south [Photo by Jake]

The problem was all that rain cause the river to swell! I felt foolish for not considering this. We tested a few spots and ended up in a bunch of mud. In the end the river looked too deep and fast to cross safely.

After ruling out the river we contemplated lugging our bikes up and over a mountain to get home. That didn't seem feasible either so we ended up with the only option left: take an additional ten mile detour though some rugged jeep roads.

We were able to send some texts home saying we'd be late, but mostly had no service.

While we were backtracking to the jeep roads, we met a couple out four-wheeling in a pickup who offered to take us across the river. Once they saw the water though they turned around and decided to go out the jeep roads too. Thankfully they were willing to carry a couple of dirty muddy mountain bikers and their gear too. Those jeep roads are no joke though and it took several hours to get back to town.

I didn't get all my miles, but I definitely got my elevation. We had an adventure and stayed alive. Next time I think I'll stick to the plan!

2016 by the numbers

Here are my bicycling totals for 2016. Elevation gain is way up! I also did my longest ride of 62 miles, and finished the Kentucky Camp endurance event.

2016

Distance	1,717.1 mi
Time	158h 57m
Elev Gain	65,043 ft
Rides	160

Here are my 2015 numbers for comparison

2015

Distance	1,650.0 mi
Time	131h 38m
Elev Gain	36,732 ft
Rides	152

Strava includes yearly summaries so I pulled the numbers from there.

2015 by the numbers

Here are my bicycling totals for 2015. My total miles are down a bit, but I did increase my elevation gain. I also rode a bunch of new trail.

2015
Distance	1,650.0 mi
Time	131h 38m
Elev Gain	36,732 ft
Rides	152

Here are my running totals for 2015. I spent more time running and hiking with the dog:

2015
Distance	394.1 mi
Time	115h 4m
Elev Gain	10,712 ft
Runs	309

Strava now includes yearly summaries so I just pulled the numbers from there.