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. I wasn’t able to download pics from my camera until now, so this gallery has photos from the beginning. Newer stuff, including the Grand Canyon, is on the later pages.
Lee’s cyclometer read 890 miles at the end of the ride. But we also hiked ~25 miles to cross the canyon, so our total mileage is 915. That puts us at about 37 miles per day. That, my friends, is not exactly a burning pace, and speaks to the difficulty of the trail. That average does, however, include the three days we took off (zero days). So riding average is more like 42 per day. Our highest was 85, from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. Even though it was high in mileage, it was one of our easiest days, by far. Shortest day was the brutal descent (for our weak downhill legs) in the canyon, about 12 miles. My calves are still sore from that descent.
Here are the statistics from my GPS track of the ride:
814.85 mi (327.74 mi uphill, 344.91 mi downhill, 135.37 mi flat)
114573 ft total ascent (116432 ft descent) – 7.8 % uphill grade, 8.4 % downhill grade
25 days, 19:02:32 total time (6 days, 16:45:21 moving, 19 days, 2:17:11 stopped)
5.4 mph average speed, 39.0 mph max speed
606.876 TopoFusion difficulty index, 1720.293 effort
For comparison, here are the numbers on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route:
2562.77 mi (870.37 mi uphill, 951.49 mi downhill, 735.62 mi flat)
191,525 ft total ascent (191,325 ft descent) – 5.4 % ave uphill grade, 4.9 % ave downhill grade
38 days, 11:59:37 total time (11 days, 1:23:15 moving, 27 days, 10:36:22 stopped)
9.7 mph average speed, 37.1 mph max speed
933.385 TopoFusion difficulty index, 3241.248 effort
My GPS track of the AZT is not as high resolution as the GDMBR. So the estimate of the distance (and climbing, difficulty, moving time) is definitely on the low side. Lee’s cyclometer has a better handle on the distance. Lee’s GPS was on in parts where route finding was an issue, so after splicing his (higher quality) data in I should have some better numbers. It’s unfortunate that handheld GPS units are so limited on tracklog capacity, otherwise I’d have a full resolution track of the whole ride.
I already miss the mountains, the air, the clouds and the call of adventure. However, it’s sort of nice to feel more “in control” in terms of food, water, and vunerability to weather. What’s it worth to be “safe”, though? No one is ever really safe from everything, anyway.
The Arizona Trail was a journey in so many ways. There was the trail itself and the challenge of riding it (and not riding it). There was the vulnerability to the elements and to the varying condition of the trail. There were the interactions between the two of us, the encouragement offered and recurring conflicts. There was the mental aspect of keeping positive when things are hard. And there was doubt.
Doubt in our own abilities, our strength. Doubt in our gear (especially in Scott’s fork). Doubt in the amount of food and water we carried and how long it would take us to reach the next point to resupply. Doubt that we were still on the trail. Doubt in our ability to function as a team, and to continue to enjoy each others company. Fundamental doubt about what we were doing — the objective and the trip in general.
But often the doubts disappeared and everything came together. These times were a gift. Often they came at the end of a long day, as the sun set and the evening shadows grew. The mountains would speak silence to us. The pedal strokes were effortless; our tires floated on air. Sometimes these moments of levity would come just from finding a good rhythm on a climb, or after rallying through a technical stretch of trail. Other times they came from more simple things, like the joy of eating until you can’t breathe, or a good joke from your riding buddy.
We wrote often about how hard the trail and trip were. Let there be no doubt: it was hard. But it was not so bad, probably not as bad as it sounded. We were writing about what was happening, and often what stuck out were the challenges and conditions of the day. But throughout the trip we were riding a high of doing what we love to do: bicycle in the mountains and explore new trail. The simple pleasure of having nothing to do but ride bikes is more than enough to keep me going. There was always more AZT to ride, more adventure waiting around the next corner.
Life on the AZT is simple. You have some worries, but generally you just ride, and ride some more. Even though real life is much more complicated, there are similarities.Doubt is a big part of life, at least for me, and yet we continue riding along. At times everything comes together and we fly. It’s hard to keep positive when things get hard. On the AZT we had many a hard day, and on a few days I let negativity creep in and allowed myself to become miserable. Yet there were other days that were much harder and more desperate, and because of my mental attitude I was actually enjoying it and keeping positive. It really drove home the point of how mental state, expectations and attitude create more of our life experience than what actually happens–the facts–do. I have no answers about how to keep positive, only the observation that sometimes I have it and sometimes I definitely do not.
So, we did what we set out to: ride the Arizona Trail–as much as was reasonably possible. We’re now the 5th and 6th people to cycle the entire “trail” and we hold the distinction of riding more of the trail than anyone else. I can’t wait until someone comes along to crush us–whether by time or by hitting the pieces of trail we missed. I’ll be there to encourage them and help them plan their trip.
The list of people to thank is boundless. I think Lee’s entry below sums it up rather well, though I will update the “inspiration” page with mentions of people who really saved us out on the trail. It was just Lee and I out on the trail, but without all the people in our lives and along the trail, we are nothing.
Until the next time. Thanks for reading.
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