Oh so Cocolicious...

Finally, I’ve done something blog-worthy! Whew, I was on a major dry spell regarding what I’d consider truly epic MTB rides….Until now… Monday 10/13 wrapped up the 2014 Coconino 250 Bikepacking Stage race which has to be one of the best(IMHO) multi-day events that combines racing, bikepacking and socializing all in one festering ball of sweat, dirt, faceplants, and phenomenal views. Kudo’s to the corporate staff at the AES headquarters for cooking up this gem.

It was my second coco, after my “win” (lol) in 2012 and a ITT fail in 2013. What I can say is that the stage racing format is awesome and I’d HIGHLY recommend it to anyone thinking about getting into the sport and considering bigger events like the AZT trail race. Ok, let’s get on with it…

Day 1: Mud and Beer
The easiest day of the 4, I decided for a little bit of a later start than the masses and rolled into Flag around 8:45AM. Loaded up and headed out, I passed Carlos shortly down the AZT fixing a flat. It was to be the beginning of his tire troubles that I believe led to his DNF. I passed Fisher Point and then made the left turn that would lead to a fun, rubly HAB section where I would catch the famous endurance freak, John Schilling. We would end up leap frogging a bit and finally entered the “mesa”…The “mesa” by the way is basically a raised portion of land that has been spread with dark brown peanut butter…but, 1) you can’t eat it and 2) it sticks to your tires better than a couple of low self-esteem centerfolds to Hugh Hefner…yeah, bad. We walked for about a mile, cleaning our tires every 20 yards or so.

I got mud on my sticker...that made me angry.

Finally, we arrived at Marshall Lake where we opted for the detour down to Lake Mary Road. I ended up riding with Artec, a Flag local with extensive bike touring experience that was just beginning to bikepack. We eventually rolled into the ADOT yard where we found Mike K. and Ben getting water. Rolled out after tanking up, we headed to the Schnebly overlook where we enjoyed a great sunset, a few beers (brought by John S and Jeff Z), and a great group of bikepackers.

Beer Sherpas and all-around good guys, John Schilling and Jeff Z.  Brian from Grand Junction in the back(with a hat on), Devon in the red, and Mike K. in the black.

Savoring the view above the red rocks of Sedona...Brad, me, and Ben.  Pic from Seron.

Brad and I resting at the overlook.  Judging by the dents all over my head, I now fully understand why I am the way I am.  Thanks Mom.   (pic from Ben)

Ben and I praying for an easy day 2.  Pic by Seron.

Corporate meeting room scene.  Pic by Seron.

The Money Shot!  Awesome pic by LAK.

Day 2: Goatheads, Sand and Extreme HAB
Woke up Saturday morning with everything soaking wet from a heavy dew that evening. I proceed to pack up the wet mess then proceeded down Munds Wagon Trail in the dim morning light. Bouncing my way down, I passed Mike K and Caroline, then rolled into the Circle K where I found Jeff & Nancy. I pounded down a fine breakfast consisting of a sausage biscuit and Red Bull then proceeded to make my way up to Morgan Rd. and around Chicken Point. I then caught Jeff, Nancy, and Jason, before going under the highway and eventually to Red Rocks State Park. There I watered up at the visitors center and proceeded to head up the cluster-f*ck of a trail called Lime Kiln. This thing truly has every bit of evil all mixed into one continuous ribbon of sharp rocks, cacti, sand, goatheads, tall grass, fire ants, and dirt. Oh, and I did I mention sand? Ugh, never have I been so glad to see the final ledgy descent into Cottonwood as I was Saturday. I stopped at the BBQ place and this time said to the woman taking orders, “What is the fastest sandwhich you can make?”. Apparently my sense of urgency made quite the impression since later than night, everyone mentioned how she was offering “quick” options. I’m 99.98% positive she thinks I’m a real d-bag. Brian was also there battling what I’m sure was his worst tire issues of his life. He rolled on, and I unpacked my sleep kit to dry the wet mess a bit in the hot sun.

If you're in a hurry, just tell them I sent you.

I packed up, hit the Maverick for some snacks, water and ice, then proceeded to climb the Mingus Monster. …and climb I did…riding, then lots of walking. Finally I hit the singletrack portion where even walking becomes hard with very steep, rocky sections beating you to a pulp. It's a full-body workout pushing a loaded bike up that thing.  This being my 3rd time up Mingus, I knew where the top was and not to get fooled by the false summits…but none-the-less, it was brutal…nothing short of a good swift kick to the nuts. Alas, I got to the top, stumbled along the boulder strewn trail till hitting the road where I found Brad. I headed to the campsite, built a fire, and spent a nice evening socializing with everyone as they rolled in.

Day 3: Epic Descents, Ascents, and Gnar
Woke up early on Sunday knowing that this day as well is a long one. Got packed up and headed down the west side of Mingus. The two sides of Mingus are like Jerry and George, Laverne and Shirley….exact opposites! The west side descent will make you grin like the Cheshire Cat. At the bottom of the descent as the track crosses Hwy 89, I caught up to Ben, Jeff and Nancy where we proceeded through the magic gate and north along the powerline access road. I worked my way around the north side of the Woodchute Wilderness then plummeted down towards the Verde. There I filtered some water, while Jeff, Nancy, Brad, and Chris(?) rolled in. We all chatted a bit, watched Jeff swing out over the Verde on a rope, then I got back to business and began the last huge climb of the route. That climb goes from 3800ft up to 9000ft at the top of Bill Williams Mtn…yeah, it’s kinda rough. I finally made it back to the pines where I tried to regroup and stave off Brad. Finally, he caught me as we rolled through a meadow and made our way towards BW Mtn. All the way there, I kept thinking about skipping it…but like most of us nut jobs probably do, we argue with ourselves; we create mental games. I my case, I just kept saying, “make the turn to the trailhead…just make the turn”. So I did, and shortly up the trail I found Brad taping up some blisters and resting his aching back. We’d end up riding/HABing(mostly HABing) all the way to the top with a nearly constant conversation to help pass the time. Finally, at the top, we cheated death and mostly rode (plus a little downhill HAB) our way into Williams, neither of us wanting to do something silly to prematurely end the race. We grabbed some Mexican food and beers with Artec and Brian, hit the Safeway for supplies, then crashed for a good nights sleep.

Me feeling beat up and lucky

Day 4: Bitter Cold, Wind, and Yellow Carpets of Aspen Leaves
We got an early start, heading out at about 5:45, stopped at the Safeway for a hot coffee, and proceeded west. At the RR bridge, we started our clocks(stage start) and made our way down the chilly collection of roads that would get us to the Sycamore Rim Trail. This gem, often called the “suck-a-more” rim trail, or the “sick of more” rim trail, is an eclectic mix of sharp lava rock, stream bed rip-rap, post-holed singletrack, and a little primo singletrack along the rims edge. Any other day, this could be a fun trail, challenging your skills, but with the end in sight, it was generally just survival mode today. Luckily, it came to an end and we made our way back north, across I-40, and over to the Wing Mtn area were we’d ride a cluster-f*ck of moto trails until getting spit out at Hwy 180. There we ate a snack, jettisoned water we didn’t need, and began the climb up FR151 and eventually to Aspen Corner. We encountered Mike K. who was riding the course backwards to find his friend Ben and and ride back to the White Mountains. Chatted a minute, then proceeded to rip down the yellow carpet of aspen leaves towards the Y. There, we both decided to pass on the gap jump(lol) just prior to crossing Mt Elden Rd. Finally, we rolled out onto the finish at Quintana Drive. There we took a few pics and decided to grab a celebratory beer in town.

Brad at the finish...first BP trip and winner of this years Coco

Me at the finish...2nd place and damn happy to have it.

In Summary, I leave you with a few Angry thoughts.
1. Andersen Mesa sucks, but attempting to ride it after a hard rain is about as successful as wrestling with grizzly…you ain’t gonna win.
2. The view over Sedona with a cloud strewn sky and a setting sun is nothing short of stunning. Sharing it with a group of friends and like-minded individuals is a real bonus.
3. Mingus.Sucks.Bad
4. Getting a loaded bike from 3800ft to 9000ft takes a lot of calories and makes you angry. Very angry.
5. Bill Williams Mtn can cost you your front teeth. Unless you’re lucky. In the case of Jeff Z, his faceplant could ONLY improve his looks.
6. The last day of the Coco isn’t easy, but it is fun.
7. Do this route. If it doesn’t kill you, you’ll savor it forever.

Finally, a pic from JS, what I call, "The Green Socks over the Red Rocks"

Pulverization Complete

Sometime back in summer, I mentioned to John and Jeff that we needed a replacement for the AES BCT race.  John had done some riding out at Picket Post exploring the AZT north of the highway, so I had mentioned that maybe we could cook up a couple loops, short and long to incorporate some of that trail as well as the great stuff south of Picket Post.  John delivered…and did a ton of work putting together GPX tracks and scouting the area with Jeff and Nancy a few times to identify water sources and connector trails.  So, thankfully, WE HAD A RACE; the Picket Post Punisher!

The morning of 11/2, 6 of us idiots gathered shortly before 5AM for the long loop…81 miles of fun.  We rolled out of the parking lot a few minutes after 5AM and made our way north, under Hwy 60, to the formal start point.  There, with few words said, we began the grind north up Montana Mountain.  Hunter and Neil led the charge and I slotted in a distant 3^rd.  At several points in the climb, I got within about 100 yards of Neil, but resigned to the fact that he was faster and chasing him would just burn those precious matches I’d need later in the day.  From that point mid-climb, I’d never see any of them, in front or behind me other than Neil’s lights a few switchbacks up.

The climb was tough…windy, and always seeming to be in your face.  I walked several of the steeper sections to conserve energy.  At what I thought was the peak, the road began to descend but unfortunately there was still ample climbing left.  At the AZT turnoff, I stopped to eat and took in the incredible views.  At this point, Picket Post Mountain was incredibly far away to the south and I knew the Gila River, my furthest point south was even another 20 miles trail beyond that.   So, I got after it, descending the sketchy, narrow switchbacks of the AZT off the mountain.  Literally, I felt as though I cheated death on a few of them with plenty of carnage awaiting should you crash.  Finally, the trail turned flatter and followed  a drainage out till it crossed the road we’d climbed.  There I saw several of the 50 milers as they ground their way up the mountain.  Continuing down the rough and rubly singletrack, I finally reached the LOST trail and took that over to the med clinic to refill water.  There, I filled up on some nasty, plastic garden hose like water (I really should have tasted it then removed the hose from the spigot).  

South from Superior, and up FR4, I passed by some dudes unloading their automatic weapons into the hillside, then along the slow, crappy road to the junction with the AZT.  This was decision point; I’d made it here by a few minutes before noon, and figured if I didn’t fall completely apart, I should be able to finish by 6pm.  (I was so wrong).  So I continued, generally west along FR4 and finally south towards the river.  This entire section was simply brutal.  The ups were super tough and steep; the downs where techy, steep and took every bit of attention and strength to avoid a crash.  Just before the Gila River, you make a final, sketchy rubly descent down a 4wd road covered in baby heads that wants you off your bike in a bad way…no way baby, at this point, I almost to the Gila and back to trail I know.

At the river, I attempted to access the water and fell in up to both knees. Shit.  Gotta find a better spot.  John had told me just before the trail turned north was better access.  Sure enough, at the rocky bank I used my Sawyer filter to filter a few quarts of water…good tasting water too…

It was 3pm on the nose, as I HAB’d up the first rocky section of jeep road to the singletrack.  At this point, I was totally blasted, stomach a mess, and hardly able to get any food down.  I set small goals for myself; get to the next ridge, once there, get to the next one.  I was literally walking almost anything with an upward slope.  Finally, while in the canyon section, I got a bit of a 2^nd wind and just kept telling myself, “you got this, you got this”.  (as if I had a choice!).  I stopped, put on my lights and my clear glasses and continued the grind out of the canyon.

Mentally, I knew once I got to this point, it was generally level or downhill so I rode more, powering up the small inclines.  Night riding for me isn’t something I do much except on these long trail races or bikepacking, but once you find that comfort zone, it’s actually quite enjoyable.  The trail was covered with this small spiders that had a very shiny spot, almost like a diamond.  I stopped a few times in amazement to look at them and used that thought to distract myself.  The night hawks along the trail are also a weird AZ thing.  The damn things sit on the trail and take flight when you are nearly on top of them.  I walked up on one and was amazed with such large eyes(and probably great night vision) they don’t take off sooner.

Finally, I was nearing the end…and thank God.  I rolled into the trail head at 8pm and was greeted by Jeff, Nancy, John, Chad, Neil and some of the other finishers.  Not feeling very well at all, I walked to the truck and laid in the passenger seat.  Finally, I decided to make the drive home…probably the longest 1 hour drive of my life.

Turns out, of the 6 that started the 81 miler, only 3 of us finished...

Looking back on that day, it truly ranked up there as one of my top three toughest days on a bike.  Both physically and mentally, this course beat me down.  It beat me down bad.  It made me dig deep and question why I put myself through these sufferfests.  Riding bikes is fun…lots of fun.  Suffering like a dog, not so much.

…and to think this was my idea.  

Anyway, thanks again to all who did it and special thanks to John for turning my race idea into reality. It was his gpx wizardry and scouting trips that gave life to the idea.

Stomach and Mind Fail

Fail…hmmm, yet another story of an uncompleted challenge I took on…

Last October, I successfully completed and won the Coco250 stage race thanks to the fact that no one fast or in a racing mindset rode the race(and I felt really great and had no mechanicals!).  So this year comes along and I figured, OK, let’s do an ITT of the loop and gun for the recently set SS record of 36 hours and change set by Bobby Treadwell last week.  My cumulative stage race time was roughly 32 hours for the stage race leaving me about 4 hours of time for sleep and sections of the course not “on the clock” for the stage race.

I arrived at our cabin in Munds Friday afternoon and while organizing gear I realized I’d forgotten my battery packs for my lights….Sh*t. A few calls, several 4 letter words later, my wifes friend from PHX was on her way up and dropped them off Friday night.  During that time, my emotions went from “crap, I’m done” to “I’m still in!”…  (many thanks to her!)

So, after a few hours of sleep, I woke up Saturday AM at 4, and got ready to head out.  Unfortunately, there were still some doubts in my head about the next 36 hours.  Putting those aside, I left in the cold and dark at about 5:30, rolled south on the interstate a few miles, and joined the route at I-17 and Schnebly Hill Rd at about 5:50AM. 

As I began the descent down Munds Wagon Trail, I passed Caroline who had stopped to take a picture and remove a layer.  Pressing on, I dropped into Sedona, made my way around Chicken Point and then down by Oak Creek where I had a near miss with a big Cottonwood tree. 

Onward to Lime Kiln, I did the ugly HAB up the first ridge, then happily nailed all the switchbacks off the west side.  I battled epic wheel sucking sand and goat heads across the valley floor and finally arrived in Cottonwood where I stopped at Hog Wild for a BBQ Sandwhich…oh, and 3 root beers…. Which may have led to my eventual demise. 

You see, for some reason, my 48 year old body has decided that when doing endurance races, it doesn’t like excessive sugar…but oh, that root beer tasted so good!

Onward up Mingus, I kept looking up at the towers and yelling at the top of my lungs…”It’s not that far!...  Finally hitting the single track,  I did my usual fast HAB pace, up the loose, rocky trail.  I felt much better than last year, but like Mingus usually does, it handed me my a$S in a big way.  I even tromped through snow on the last couple rocky switchbacks to the summit.

At the top, I put layers back on in preparation for the descent.  As I reached the last smooth switchbacks on the descent(that are so damn much fun!), I came up upon a kid, maybe 20 or so, who was off his bike taking pictures.  He moved his bike off the trail then asked me, “Where did you park?”, I said, “Just south of Flagstaff in Munds”…his eyes got very big and he said, “DAMN!  You’re crazy! You’re a champion!”….lol…so funny.

Rolling north on the west side of Mingus, my mind began to get the best of me.  I started thinking about the task ahead.  Fighting to keep focused, I pressed on feeling really good and making good time.  I worked my way around the north side of Mingus, putting on my lights as darkness fell, and kept thinking about my plan.  “just get to the river, refill water, and climb for at least 3 hours before a short nap”…then at about 6:30pm, my stomach flipped…ughhh…sh*t…  Then the mind got weak…I’ve had stomach issue before…if it comes on bad, I’m worthless.  And given the fact that once I descend to the Verde, I’ve got to dig myself out of that hole….either going north to Williams, or south to Jerome.  So I stopped at that intersection on the north end of Mingus and called my wife.  Talked to her about things…she gave me great advice…just rest a bit and see how you feel.

So I jumped in my bivy and rested… and slept…all the while my stomach gurgled…

In my head, I felt done…but at the same time felt like the record may still be within reach but it would take at least 18 hours straight of riding…

This is that moment where your drive and desire is in competition with your body and mind…for me and my conservative mindset, I convinced myself I was done.  I slept till 6AM then called my wife and met her at 9:30 in the Verde Valley.

There are some interesting things for me in this…every one of these, especially the failures, teaches me more about myself…

1. ITT’s are not only a test of your body, but moreso your mind.  Riding with others on multi-day trips are SO MUCH EASIER.

2.  Prior to the ride, you have to have NO DOUBTS in your mind…all in, no excuses.

3.  My body (other than my stomach) is up to the task…Training your body is easy.  Just ride a lot and mix in some intensity.

4.  Keep sugar to a minimum…I should know better…my last several multi-day trips have taught me this.

So, there you have it…That’s my story….

And I’m stickin’ to it.

Why your infatuation with single track is limiting you...

OK, so we love great singletrack…narrow, flowy, exposure, techy…all great stuff.  We live for it… Gives us a spandex chubby, right?

But, there just isn’t enough of it.  Worse yet, it can take miles of driving to get to it, travel time where we could have been riding,  be in tough shape due to weather, or get ridden so much by you that you can almost ride it in the dark without a light.

Well guess what…

You actually CAN take a mountain bike on dirt that does not have a 8” path worn in it…it actually does work!

You see young grasshopper, not all beautiful places on this rock we call earth have a nice buff ribbon of singletrack through them or leading to them.

So get off your high horse…And start to explore all the forest roads, 2 track jeep roads, and cattle track around you….it’s just not that bad… it leads you to beautiful places rich with history.

Digressing a bit… I feel super fortunate to enjoy a cabin in Munds Park that enables me to get away from the oppressive summer heat of Phoenix.   Munds is a great little “cabiny” community far away from Flagstaff enough to feel remote, yet close enough by car to enable a run into town for another 12 pack or growler refill when "supplies" get low. 

But Munds isn’t known for oodles of singletrack.  It is known for a funky little 4^th of July Parade, the Lone Pine Bar, and a bunch of old retired f*cks that look at me as I do hill repeats up Pinewood Blvd as their 3 lb chihuahua barks at me like I’m a pound of hamburger. 

Luckily, there are some really great maps of the forest roads in the Coconino National Forest.  That combined with a bunch of gpx files ripped off of strava, and some super-secret beta from friends has enabled me to explore this wonderful graben on the coco all accessible from Munds…  Miles and miles of forest road that might get a car or ATV on them a few times a day.

As it turns out, some cool geological sh*t happened a long time ago that lifted the northern half of Arizona.  Then a whole lot of erosion and other events that I don’t entirely pretend to understand caused some interesting rocks to be uncovered…Those rocks are what we love to ride…Sedona, Granite Dells, etc… That whole section of land south of Flag between 89A and lake Mary road that dropped in elevation a long time ago (a graben).  That ridge of land on the east side of lake Mary is where the escarpment is… for those that ride the AZT...as you ride south of Fisher Point then climb that rubly trail up out of the canyon, you are climbing up that escarpment!

Just north of Munds lies what I like to refer to as the Munds Divide… from about Mountainaire southeast to Mormon Mountain lies a small ridge that divides the watershed…rainfall north of there makes its way to the little Colorado, rainfall south of there flows down into Oak Creek and then into the Verde.  In that same area, accessible by forest roads, are a number of old railroad beds that were build back in the early 1900's to transport timber to Flagstaff for processing.  These railroad beds are simply amazing rock structures that are still existing today although the rails have long been removed.  Many of these cool things accessible only by forest road!

Railroad bed just north of munds off of FR700

Different view of the same built up RR bed

As I continued to explore the maze of forest roads around Munds, I found all kinds of cool stuff... again, only accessible by 2 track...

Funky, mind blowing graffiti

Captain Nemo must have been here

 As you travel west from Munds, there are some very cool things to see...all accessible by forest road.

big meadow full of flowers SW of Flagstaff, on the west side of Hwy89

Me overlooking Sycamore Canyon Wilderness on a narrow strip of land that bisects it and the Red Rock Wilderness.  This is part of the old Casner Dirty Century route.

Mark on the narrow 2 track that separates two beautiful sections of AZ wilderness...again, part of the Casner route

Finally, one of the classic views you get after riding a bunch of forest road...Point Sublime on the north rim...

So when you wondering what to ride next, and want to see some new stuff, pull up a map or Topofusion, and get creative...sketch out a route and let the adventure begin.  Fun trips aren't all on singletrack.

cheers...OGR