Speaking of wilderness areas, I picked up several miles of Arizona Trail that I had not ridden before. I rode until I hit the dreaded “W” sign.
Sunnyside / Scotia canyon has some very pleasant, very mellow trail. I was gobbling it all up, super psyched to be exploring new AZT.
New and old technology. Not needed today as just about every creek was running.
Claret cup bloom.
It was a nice bonus to pick up some new AZT after dropping Mr. Kurt off at the Mexico border. The 4am wakeup was a little rough, but it meant that I got to ride in some nice morning light and air.
I rode down to the border with him, shocked at how much road improvement has occurred in such a remote area. So it goes in the border lands.
Kurt was riding pretty fast right off the gun. Nerves, maybe, I thought, but then he posted the fastest split time to Patagonia yet seen in the AZT 300.
He’s got the perfect bike for the AZT — a 4″ Leviathan. Well thought out setup, as well, it seemed.
He rode from the Tucson airport to my house and didn’t leave a single thing at my place — not even a spare shirt or a battery. Impressively efficient. I think he was ready, and he seemed pretty confident going in, only expressing his worry about tire/tube failures. It was great to hear some Tour Divide stories from him, and to swap tales of other multi-day races we have both done. There aren’t many people that have done several of the bikepacking races (and done them well) so we pretty much talked the entire time he was here.
I rode a bit of AZT with him, then wished him good luck as he pedaled into the Canelo Hills. It was hard not to be a little jealous. His foot injury had healed, he had waited and not started with everyone else, and was now enjoying perfect weather (compared to our inches of fresh snow and blizzard conditions).
And now he is killing it out there. He is currently running just shy of Jefe’s 2010 record pace. Very impressive given how much he has slept and that he said he was going to try to start out conservatively. Follow Kurt’s progress on the AZTR tracker:
Will he break Jefe’s record? We’ll know in a few hours. Then it will be interesting to see how the rest of the AZT goes for him. We still do not have good info on snow/mud conditions further north, due to most racers either doing the 300 only or dropping out beforehand.
Meanwhile I’m still struggling with a ligament in my ankle that is proving very slow to heal. But I’m still really happy I can ride, even if I can’t ride quite like I want to…
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