Continuing with the theme of AES group starts, I had to compromise on this one. I play bass guitar in some bands around town and I had a sound check later this evening. I thought I could probably do the full course and make it back in time but due to the remoteness of most of these routes and the fact that ANYTHING can happen out there, I decided it best to leave a sizeable time buffer so I didn't need to stress about it on the trail.
Heading out, I was reminded how far away this area is from my house - took a while to get to Picketpost, but the start is beyond that. It was my first time driving through superior and driving the 177. Many that road is steep - I think the steepest paved road I have driven on.
Passing the Ray Mine I was blown away with the scope of the place. Wow we are tiny, but we sure know how to make dents in the earth!
I turned off the FK Highway and made the dirt trek to the start. I passed the Wilson?? trailer court that I was familiar with due to it being a water source for Arizona Trail users in the area - though there is now a better and closer water source at the ADOT yard.
I did pass the ADOT yard and reminisced about sleeping right next to the water spigot in the middle of the night during the 2017 running of the AZTR. Soon after, I arrived at the trailhead and there was a decent number of vehicles. The long route people had already departed, so just the short course folks were gathering.
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Like minded people gathering.
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It was great seeing some familiar faces at the start - John S, Nancy G and others. The "entry fee" for this race was a gallon of water for the cache. Others brought more than that. Nice to help keep these water boxes topped off.
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John S gathering us together before the start.
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Immediately after starting, the route turns downhill for a bit and it is deceptive because you are feeling good... then you are faced with an endless dirt climb up the Florence Kelvin Hwy. This isn't your typical highway though haha
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Arizona Highway maybe.
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The dirt road was in great shape. I have only ridden this once, and it was in the opposite (AKA rocketship speed) direction. Going this way is a steady climb from 1800 feet to around 3200. For an early March morning, it sure was toasty in a few spots until we gained some elevation.
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| Pretty views to the west. |
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Trying to catch some riders after I got my legs under me.
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Almost ready to top out
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Prior to hitting the high point of this climb I caught Schilling and we ended up riding together for a good while. I think John and I align quite a bit on our approach to these rides, and our paces were looking to be a good match on this day. He was rolling single speed style on this ride too.
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Off the highway and approaching a link to the AZT proper.
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We were having such a good time talking that I didn't really take any pictures until we started to approach Ripsey! There was plenty of good trail in there - though the "official" route missed some reroutes of the AZT - since John is the "race director" of the AZTR, I decided to follow his lead, the reroute is way better than the old alignment anyway, though we did gain a small advantage and were able to catch up to some other riders this way.
We continued to ride together until John went to check on a water source near ripsey wash. I rode for a bit on the flanks of the "big hill" but started the HAB soon enough.
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Beginning the trudge up - the views will be worth it though!
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Still riding here...
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HAB commenced
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More hiking - I think JS is in this photo if you look close on that ribbon of trail below
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Up on the Ripsey ridgeline. One of the raddest places I have been. And that's Ray mine in the background.
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From here, it's mostly down hill with a few punchy uphill bits. I was kinda bummed out that the wildflowers just weren't popping on the trail today. The best spots were in the last mile or so.
Rolled in, and saw a few more familiar faces who weren't around at the beginning. Jeff Z, Steve and even Randy H and his boy were out - they were late to the start so were riding behind me all day.. they rode strong and almost caught me. We hung out and talked and we were curious about what COVID was going to do, this was about a week or so before everything started shutting down. Little did we know this would be the last official group start of the spring season. Bummer, go figure the year I was planning on doing all of them lol.
It was a great day to be out on a pretty great section of the AZT. Always a good time with the people who show up to these!
