Stage 4: Out of the Canyon

I woke up quite sore from the day before. I took quite awhile to get my bike strapped back onto my bag. I decided today warranted 2 pouches of oatmeal. I quickly crossed the bridge across the Colorado River and through the tunnel. I ran into a group familiar with the race and they got some great photos of me and gave great words of encouragement. The day was a blur but here's some of the things people said:

Canyon Views

"I've seen plenty of men ride bicycles, but I've never seen a bicycle ride a man" -Mule train cowboy(w/Pit Vipers)
"Oh is there good trails at the bottom, no? And you found out the hard way"
"You must have really wanted a bicycle at the bottom"
"I bet you had a blast riding that thing down"
"So will you bring your bike to a shop to be reassembled when you get out?"

In the end hiking out was just as difficult as down & across. Huge props to the bikepacking lunatics who do the whole thing in a day! I'm not much of a hiker and my 35# bike might be one of the heavier to make the portage through the canyon. I did pack fairly light otherwise with only an 18# pack before adding my sleeping bag, pad, & bivvy. I only stopped and took my bag off a couple times but it still took all day! I saw an epic goat on a plateau over the canyon I wish I got a photo of. My legs were trashed when I got out. It took me about an hour to put my bike and bags back together. I got a bloody nose right before hopping on my bike. My legs were shaking from exhaustion. I got a bit lost on some of the power line connectors to the bike path but saw some gorgeous elk right at sunset, they looked so much different from the elk we have in Colorado. I ran into the trail steward named Forrest for the area on the bike path. He was super friendly and told me it would take about 2 hours to get where I was planning to go for the night and recommended getting tacos from Plaza Bonita if I stopped in Tusayan.

Note: Choose something less fragile than a
helmet as the outermost item

I got tacos and realized there was a hotel in the same plaza. It was cold when I went outside and I was pretty spent so I decided the hotel was a good call to charge all my things and start earlier and warmer the next day.

The hotel hot tub helped ale my worn out legs.

Stats: 10:45 moving time 6.6 miles hiking 10 Miles riding 4,750ft gain

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Stage 0: The Drive

I had planned to leave the house at 11 to pick up my rental car in Denver but work had other plans with an unplanned outage on my groups most important application starting at 10. I did end up getting out the door around 12:30 after resolving the issue. As we headed out the door and I test my GPS one more time I laughed when it said I was ~450 miles offroute and Erin pointed out that I'm only driving about half as far as I planned to ride. Erin dropped me off at the rental car place in downtown Denver, it felt a bit funny to only have the clothes I plan to wear for the next week on. I stopped in Fruita to pick up a big pizza from Pablos as my last meal before exiting society for a few weeks on and off. My original plan was to catch a ride from a trail angel who posted on the race forum a few months earlier but that plan had fallen through earlier in the week. Midnight at Page Airport I arrived in Page around midnight, a few hours later than planned due to work. I had some trouble

Stage 5: Leg Redemption

I started the day out nice and cozy from sleeping in a hotel. I woke up early and decided to grab a quick breakfast from the Mexican restaurant from the same plaza, it was freezing outside. I was expecting breakfast burritos but was surprised by an all you can eat American breakfast buffet. I grabbed my bike, stopped by the general store to grab some sugary snacks and an packet of Ramen as I was low on food and wasn't sure if it was gonna be a one or two day journey to Flagstaff. The trail to the lookout tower was in quite good condition. I was serenaded by the anthem of the Northern AZ woods: Chainsaws. There was a crew of 6 lumberjacks cutting trees just off trail. I ran into some hunters looking for elk just after and and let them know the elks probably don't like all the chainsaws going in the area. Warm Hotel in Tusayan Grandview Firetower At Grandview I had to go up the fire tower to get a look, I've never passed up a fire tower overlook. I decided to keep a go

Stage 8: Highline Trail

From General Springs I crossed the main forest road and got on what ended up being the rowdiest descent of the whole route. It was just straight down a steep loose telephone line access filled with rocks. I rode most of it but did have to walk a few feet of the descent since I would pick up speed to fast on the loaded bike. The Highline Trail is the most dreaded section of the AZT. I was optimistic by heading South this wouldn't be the case. It turns out starting in 2022 this will no longer be the case. A trail crew has made significant progress on cleaning up the trail. While I still did get a preview of the the past torture fest only a few hills at the start will still so rocky they were not rideable. The parts which have been reworked were rather soft and that made pedaling difficult but it will pack in. They basically ran a zamboni over the whole trail. I met the trail workers and thanked them for their work. I also ran in the ranger heading up the project and chatted with

AZTR Enduro

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