To the treeees!

What’s a poor Tucson couple to do when it’s 100 degrees and you’re too lazy to wake up early to ride/run?

Head to the trees, of course! Like winter dwellers flee to the desert in the winter, we flee to the forest in the summer.

With the rest of Tucson, so it seemed. …. [Continue reading]

2008 Stats and Traces

GPS Stats

According to my TopoFusion logbook, these are my year end stats:

5669.22 mi (1954.64 mi uphill, 2020.32 mi downhill, 1628.15 mi flat) 681,078 ft total ascent (679,717 ft descent) – 8.8 % avg uphill grade, 11.0 % avg downhill grade 31 days 5:33:06 moving time (60 days 12:45:38 total time) 8.3 mph …. [Continue reading]

Brown

I didn’t have anything to buy or sell, so I skipped the swap. But I rode down there anyway to meet Chad as he was closing up Arizona Endurance Series t-shirt shop. Lee joined (making it a 3x Lenz Leviathan ride) us and we pedaled west on the fastest path to Brown Mountain.

…. [Continue reading]

Arizona Trail 300 ’08

(thanks to Chad for the photo)

10 riders started this year’s AZT 300.

Surprise entrants included Mike Curiak and Pete Basigner. Mike wove an elaborate deceptive web in the days before the race. If you had asked me to estimate the chance of him showing up for the AZT 300, ever, I’d have …. [Continue reading]

The Grand Loop – Race Report

Prologue to the Prologue: Mike, Lee, Jim and I are pedaling over the railroad tracks en route to the Tabeguache Trailhead. My rear tire quickly goes flat. The tube split. Everyone stopped and the crew went to work to fix it. “Not a good omen,” I thought, “but the race hasn’t started yet.” I should …. [Continue reading]

Kokopelli Trail: Reloaded

12:30a, Sand Flats Road. I’m thinking about pulling the plug. I’m pedaling along, but my body cries at any exertion. People are all around me, with bright lights bobbing, casting shadows. I can’t see the mountains, cliffs, rocks, road. I don’t have the strength to drop them, so I fall back, only to get caught …. [Continue reading]

Arizona Trail 300 Race Report

It’s a secret to everyone…

Racing the Arizona Trail in 7 days

route map from TopoFusion software

Racing the Arizona Trail

The Arizona Trail has always been an obsession of mine. Whether riding, hiking, building or planning it, it seems to often be on my mind. In Spring 2005 I rode the length of the Arizona Trail (from Mexico to Utah) with my friend Lee …. [Continue reading]

Great Divide Race ’05

We watched the rain turn from moderate to pissing hard as we milled around outside the local bar in Roosville, Montana. The Canadian border is a stone’s throw away. I think we were all anxious to start the race, but no one was anxious to hop out into the rain. I met Matt and Kent, …. [Continue reading]