Loose Ends

I’ve been home for more than 24 hours now, after a wonderful stay in St. George, UT. I got a few rides in with my brother Alan there, some including significant hike-a-bike, fox tails and trails that barely exist. I felt right at home.

I just posted a large gallery of photos. They start here. …. [Continue reading]

Thanks

Temporary visitors is what we were to the trail. Always moving to the next part looking forward to seeing it and at the same time happy to be done with it. Always moving to the next place to get food water or sleep.

Many many people made this possible. People who made the trail, …. [Continue reading]

Lee’s Report – The Grand Canyon North

The cookhouse prepared us breakfast and we had ordered 4 sack lunches so we were set to hike. The bikes on our backs on smooth singletrack, as we hiked up to Cottonwood camp. The sun was hidden by the towering black walls of “The Box” and the cool wind blowing up from the river made …. [Continue reading]

Lee’s Report – The Grand Canyon South

We caught our first glimpse of the canyon from a wonderful singletrack approaching from the south. In the distance outlines of the towering formations could be seen as the evening light was fading. I was very proud to be at the canyon and approaching it in such a unique way away from the cars and …. [Continue reading]

Fin

Our night at the EDR (employee dining room) on the North Rim was a long one. Several of the employees were partaking of large amounts of alcohol. The big screen was on and the pool balls were rolling. At least it was warm and I was able to write an update on their computers, but …. [Continue reading]

Fin

Lee and I coasted down the final descent to the Utah State line early this morning. The last 25 miles of trail were nothing but a superb finale. The journey has come to its end. A full report on the last stretch and final observations will be forthcoming.

Rim to Rim

The questions began as early as the trailhead. We first coasted down the hill to the Bright Angel trailhead where we started disassembling our bikes to load them on our packs. The mule trains were getting ready to go and those watching wanted to know what we were up to. We’d repeat the story a …. [Continue reading]

To the Canyon

We left Flagstaff, bypassing the Elden/Peaks area since we had ridden it yesterday. So after a few miles of pavement we turned off onto the “closed” Hart Praire RD. Everyone in Flag had warned us that it would be an impassable muddy mess, and that even the lower desert could be trouble, so we were …. [Continue reading]

South Rim

We are now at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We left Flagstaff thinking that it was going to be muddy and possibly very snowy. But basically we only ran into piles of four to five foot deep snow drifts that we were able to ride across for the most part. The snow was …. [Continue reading]

Flagstaff

We’re still in Flagstaff but we managed to ride the AZT north of town to Snow Bowl road today. Troy Marino was our guide and was a blast to ride with. He was rolling and hopping over stuff on his singlespeed that I was dabbing on. Fun to watch, but more fun was to ride …. [Continue reading]

Lee’s Report – Standards

Through this all it is wonderful how my body is holding up. Early in the trip I had some knee pain and have had some problems with knees in the past but my body is up for the challenge. I have dealt with a lot of fatigue and “death march” has come to mind a …. [Continue reading]

Up to the rim

Wayne made us a smoothie/bagel breakfast that was out of sight. We’re definitely lacking in the nutirional department on this trip, so this really hit the spot.

He told us about a singletrack that took us out of town to connect on the Cracker Jack mine road. The singletrack had some brief hike-a-bike and some …. [Continue reading]

Finding the edge in the Mazatals

I left off last night with Lee and I at another decision point on the AZT north of Sunflower. Though the preceeding 4 miles had been nicely rideable, the next section looked dubious at best. I could tell Lee wasn’t much enjoying this, for a host of reasons, so I tried to weigh that into …. [Continue reading]

Lee’s Report – Rocks

The Roosevelt to Rye section which followed the Gunsight Pass Hike-a-bike was tough enough to to test my mental and physical endurance. We put the bikes on our backs to pick our way up one rocky section. In spite of the heavy load it seemed easier to just carry the bikes than shove them over …. [Continue reading]

In Payson

We’re in Payson now, set to recover from the Mighty Mazatals. And mighty they were.

But first, a bit more about Gunsight Gap. This stretch (from Superior to Roosevelt Lake) is probably the hardest of our entire route. Haunted Canyon is one of the slowest ways to make time on a mountain bike. But it’s …. [Continue reading]