Dixie

It looks like Dave has been busy working on his late June bikepacking event. Check out this link. It looks as though the route is going to become an instant classic. The forum for questions is up on bikepacking.net.

This route pieces together 311 miles of the of finest trails and remote terrain of Southern Utah. On June 25th, 8 AM riders will embark from Parowan, UT to begin this self-supported route challenge. The moon is full and the days are long.

See you there?

What: This is a multi-day self-supported mountain bike race.
When: Friday, June 25 8:00 AM
Where: Near Parowan, UT.

Casner

After a quick greasy spoon breakfast at 5am, we set off from Flagstaff to do the Casner Dirty Century Ride. Originally toted as a race for Flagstaffers, I halfheartedly decided to make this a ride. Curiosity prevailed as the date approached for this now rote ride, the new "group" factor could add some new flavor to the ride.

After meeting at Safeway, we drifted through Flagstaff to some forest roads and later, the main attraction: the telephone line to Casner Mountain. It borders wilderness on both sides; ergo as you can imagine the views are unique to northern Arizona.



The steep, rocky doubletrack squeezes through the Sycamore Wilderness (show on the left side of this picture) and the Red Rock Wilderness (right side).



~25 miles into the ride, the first sings of red rock appeared






As usual, pictures never really do justice for how steep the ride is. All 13 riders chugged along, some staying a bit longer to take some pictures.



We even fought off a few mechanicals...a broken spoke, seat post, and a flat tire.









The gang: Phil, Hobie, Jim, James, Max, Jeff, Nancy, Scott, Dave and Captain Irish




The only section that I had now ridden on this route was a brief 5-mile section between Casner and Dry Creek ST.




At first, the trail seemed to perfect for a group ride.



As Jeff called it, the ride quickly became a "death march" in some sections.







Even the singletrack was too sandy too ride. Here is a section that crossed Dry Creek.



Alas, singletrack in the form of Two Fences TH.

After a quick stint at Burger King (chicken sandwich, fries and Lemonade for me), we headed up to conquer Schnebly. Last year, I skipped the singletrack in favor of the road. I chose the harder, rockier singletrack this year.



The singletrack put me right behind the singlespeeders (Phil, Nancy, and Jeff). They were cranking up the mountain. Nancy was a climbing fool, I can't believe how fast she was motoring up that mountain.



A quick fill up in Woody's at Munds before taking Frog Trail to Iron Springs to Old Munds.



After Old Munds, we took the dirt option into Flagstaff, Fort Tuthill. This picture sums up the day. The chatting, smiles, and picturesque moments....these form a group ride that is truly a delight.

A few friends and I formed AES to promote endurance cycling, "races" being the objective....I never thought a group ride would be the vehicle that was possibly the most effective. Case in point...Phil, pictured above with his smile and thumbs up, wrote the following today:

You totally opened my eyes. Races are fun but, rides like that are awesome to be able to stop and take pictures and to chat a bit as you are rolling along. I had a great time riding with you, Jeff, Nancy, and Hobie. I am afraid you have ruined me, I can't stop thinking about the next big ride.


The first and last sentence life-changing; Phil is hooked on endurance riding now, having just finished one of his longest single-day rides. To the naysayers of group rides, this group ride was a near seamless ride. Check here for more pictures and positive comments.

Casner Dirty Century

This Saturday, May 15, the Casner Dirty Century group ride will be starting in Flagstaff. The past two years, this has been a race with ~5 riders in attendance. I decided to make it into a ride in order to increase the amount of participation. The weather seems to be cooperating, highs in the 70s for Sedona.



The views are amazing as you descend from Casner Mountain.







With nearly 11k of climbing, 100 miles, and about 30 miles of singletrack...



...I am guessing it will take about ~12-14 hours to finish. Anyone want to join us?

Tracks

The solo Tuesday Ride went as planned. The trail had no mtb tracks of any kind, just a few old footprints here and there. I decided to keep sessioning stuff until I cleaned each section. It made for some interesting moments, like re-ridng one section around 25 times. I even had a huge stan's burp while I was riding the what-I-thought-was-impossible section.

Alas, nearly two hours later, I cleaned all 1.5 miles and moved onto the bypass to Alamo.

I have been riding some slow, technical stuff in order this week in order to ease back into riding. This only after nearly 2 weeks of wheezing/coughing, blowing the nose, sinus pain, etc. It seems like this is an annual thing that really puts me out for 1-2 weeks. At the moment, I still have a light cough. Nonetheless, I can manage to ride 1-2 hours at a moderate pace with the aid of the inhaler.

For that reason, I have been riding to and fro work, adding in some quick sections of technical, like that less than 1 mile of Pima Canyon Trail before the Wilderness. If you ride it up and down and hop around some of those rocks, it makes for a quick treat on the ride home.

Next week, I will be heading up to do the Casner Dirty Century ride from Flagstaff to Sedona. I just finished uploading the GPX file to the AES website. There should be a good sized group in attendance for the 12-14 hour ride.

Rocks

What started as a unique, scavenger style race by Dave C. more than 4 years ago has now turned into quite the the loop. A few days before the Prescott Monstercross, Eric sent Scott an email about the route and a final suggestion, add the Dells. At first I pondered just adding the section next year, but after looking at some aerial shots of the Dells (along with its proximity to the starting line), I opted to add it...and I am glad I did.

We rolled out from Costco in a neutral start before heading on the railroad grade warm-up to the Dells. Having never ridden the Dells, I was anxious to see all the hyped singletrack…

Photo by Eric Nelson

…and let me say, all the hype is justified. The slickrock lines matched up perfectly to form a rideable line. In many sections, a nice fit rock wedged between a gap made for a perfect line. Eric, Scott, and Dan were off the front and disappeared.

Aaron and I would fend for ourselves, following the white lines to the first stream crossing, where we found Eric again giving us cues on where to go next. Eric snapped a few pictures of us as we rode by, giving us specific directions on where to go next. Not only did he have the idea to add this singletrack, he singlehandedly coached us through the area.

Photos by Eric Nelson

After the Dells, Aaron (riding a singlespeed) and I found ourselves alone again. I realized he was without a GPS. I suggested he either catch Scott or take the slower approach to the route, ride with me. He choose the later, smart guy. We descended into Granite Basin flying over water bars and enjoying every turn. A figure appeared on the road crossing. It was Scott, he had twisted his ankle on a slickrock section of the Dells and was pulling the plug. We stopped for a second only to get energized by his encouragement, “Go catch Dan!”

We sped off and had a good run. Our undoing was a gun-like, Stan’s explosion. I was chatting with a local as we rode neared the turn to ride down to White Spar and Aaron was about a few turns back. We waited for about 20 minutes before he rode up. A few feet behind him were Steve Becker and Nino. Shoot, while waiting for Aaron to change his flat, Steve and Nino had caught us.

I rode ahead until the start of Spruce Mountain, where Steve eventually caught up to me. I still thought I could beat him up Spruce Mountain. Oh man was I wrong. My legs did not want to catch him. He dropped me, never to be seen again until the finish line. I blame the lack of big rides on my inability to stay with Steve. I need to start riding bigger rides.

Trail 305 is a brilliant way to end a race, add in some Dells at the beginning and you have a race that will soon become a classic. At the finish line, we enjoyed some PBR and Costco pizza. Scott’s ankle was getting worse. We chatted about the route and future endeavors. A few more riders came in before we started heading back to Tucson.

After a rest day, I headed out to the Tuesday Ride. More exploration in order followed by what could be the last ride with wildflowers. It is starting to get warmer here in Tucson. With the warmth comes two things: less flowers and later start times. I think next week we will be starting at 3:50 at Rubio’s.



Adding the normal route at a “fast” pace made things interesting



Nearly 3 hours of riding and we never had to ride the same trail more than once.



The “fast” pace also meant I took less pictures until we got to the flower paradise.



This really is the best time of year here in Tucson, perfect weather, crisp mornings for commuting followed by a nice cool temperature for a late, after work ride.



And to the many times that we just skipped cleaning a section in favor of speed, we will be back next week to re-session. The picture above has a move that I have yet to do…perhaps next week.

Rocks… they are what make singletrack interesting. I love to ride them. I might not be the fastest person, but I can ride the rockiest of trails with a grace that is hard to find in these parts. Perhaps it is me rationalizing my failure to ride up Spruce Mountain with the speed required to take 2nd place, but man it feels so good to ride what once was thought to be undoable.

The only remaining question now is how to balance technical rides with the longer, all-day endurance rides.

Montrose Canyon

Riding up Lower Alamo was everything a technical ride calls for, plenty of rocks on some steep singletrack. The only thing missing...



....a few riders.



As it turned out, I would be riding my ride solo today. As I was riding up Lower Alamo, I realized that we had always ridden by a trail that ventured north. You would only see the trail if you were walking down (cha, which of course we do not do....ever) or if you were riding up.

The trail is even more technical than most of Lower Alamo. The trail eventually led to the Promise Land of Wildflowers.


Not a soul in site the entire ride today. Bird chirping, water running while I was snapping pictures.



After the past few weeks of riding amongst wildflowers, I can honestly say this is the place to see 'em. I have never seen this many so close to the trails.



So I did what any solo rider would do, take some pictures



and more pictures.



Scott's old bike (if you remember, my orange Leviathan broke on the Gila Ramble and this blue stallion is on loan from Scott) did not know what to do in some sections. Too many flowers and rocks. It slowly warmed up to the new trail.

Despite the recent neglect from its original owner, it is still riding as good as it ever did. Reminds of the classic Old School quote..."you're my boy blue!"

I even found one sweet B-line that is on the trail. Next weeks ride is going to do the same loop. Methinks I may even head back out on Thursday for a quick ride to see more wildflowers.

Black Canyon Trail to the Bradshaws, day 2

The next morning, Lee and I awoke to a cooler morning. Today would dictate the rest of the trip. Plenty of unknowns lay ahead. Lane Mountain Trail, Bradshaw Trail, Milk Ranch, Cottonwood Canyon and De Soto Forest Rd along with numerous forest roads that I had drawn in from aerials. In deciding to take forest roads (instead of the Crown King Rd), we would be doing a steeper, longer route to the north through De Soto Mine.

Basically, all of the proposed route was from aerial shots and moto GPXs...


We finished off the remaining Black Canyon Trail (BCT) singletrack



before pressing on to Crown King Rd to the town of Cleator.



At the town of Cleator, we found a closed bar and General Store. Cleator is a town of about 8 people and 9 corresponding houses. It was still pretty early in the morning, so the ghost-like feel of the town only increased our curosity to take a quick break in look around.

After a quick snack, we pressed on to the De Soto Mine Rd.



Lee has is running a 20x36 on his Leviathan, ergo you know it is steep when he is walking something. We went up and up on the De Soto Rd.



Checked out the De Soto Mine and a few others only to see that we had to drop down into the next valley.



and then climb back up again. We did this a 4 more times, super steep drops followed by a super steep ups, some of the steepest I have seen. We did find some singletrack on route, but it was too late.




The General Store at Crown King was closing at 4pm, nearly 2 hours and about ~4,000 feet of climbing from our current location/route. Also, snow storms were predicted for that night and the following day. We re-calcuated and hased out the plans. Continue up on route to Crown King or bail back down to Cleator?

The words from Lee echoed in my head as we chatted about the next pass..."Crown King or Bust!"

We hit the wall and hit it pretty hard. Getting shut down by your own route, a route that you carefully designed for at least a week, is tough. Weather dictated our change of plans to the BCT (instead of doing the McDowell-Cave Creek) and it was forcing us to change again. Although shortly lived, I felt discouraged.




Another epic quote from Lee put things in perspective...."We are lucky, lucky to be out here, to have time off, the fitness level required or even to have bikes and gear that are capable of doing these things"

Amen, amen and amen...we are lucky.

Crown King singletrack exploration will have to wait a few more weeks/months. For now, I was just happy to be riding in this remarkable area. We headed down to Cleator for some much needed food and liquid that came from the only place really open.... the 100-year old Cleator Bar. The place looks like it has not been cleaned for the past 15 years, dust from the dirt road in front lines every inch of the place. Insulation is sticking out of the ceiling, the place is lined with old license plates, signed dollar bills, and mining memorabilia.



We got the background about the bar and town of Cleator from the only paid employee in Cleator, the bartender. Basically, 90-year old Betty Cleator owns the entire town. Nobody has ever seen her; they just send her checks each month to her address in Texas. When she passes away, her son will inherit the town. Nobody has seen him for 15 years.

Bailing to Cleator also meant a change in the food. The Cleator Bar only had beer and chips. We had to head to Cordes Junction to resupply, a 10-mile, one-way detour. About half way up the dirt road to Cordes, a local of Bumble Bee asked us if we needed a ride. We politely accepted and got whisked off to Subway.

Stomachs full (and an extra sandwich for each of us), we headed back to Black Canyon Trail singletrack.