Arrived in Tucson and met Fred Scott at the airport. One of my challenges on this trip was figuring out how I would get to, and back from, the Trail heads. I signed up as an Individual Time Trial, so I was not departing when everyone else was. My plan was to go a little slower and probably get more sleep than the rest of the racers but I wanted to finish the entire AZT 300 before I had to fly back to Boston. Brian Wacik, a fellow Peaks Coaching Group Coach, who lives in Tucson introduced me to Fred, who was my travel savior! Fred just purchased a camper and was hoping to test it out at a campground before his next big trip and volunteered to take me down to Parker Canyon Lake, where he would camp out and I would start my trip. By the time I set up my bike, (Thanks to Ben's Bike Shop for a great location and company while I did this), and drove down to the Campground it was pretty late in the afternoon.
I loaded up my bike bags and started for the trail head. After a couple of wrong turns and some extra miles, I arrived at the Parker Canyon Trail head, the official start of the Arizona Trail Race 300. I had started the satellite tracker (Garmin InReach) at the campsite but I wanted to make sure I had it start at the trail head so I turned it off and turned it on again then waited for the GPS to say it was tracking. It was 4:40pm. The trail is absolutely beautiful, lots of canyons, lots of hills, and so much gravel. Loose gravel makes for hard tracking and lots of hike-a-bike on the up hills. I needed to tweek my suspension and tire pressure a bit.
I only went a few miles today because of my late start and I'm tired. I am surviving on 7 hours of sleep total for the last 2 nights (due to late night last minute packing on Sunday night and having to get up at 5 to teach my spin class then on Monday night my flight delays and short forced overnight in Denver). It started to drizzle a little too, so I decided to stop just before sunset and set up camp. Glad I had my tent tonight rather than just a bivy because the drizzle turned to a thunderstorm and then a short downpour with quarter inch sized hail! I slept great!
Arrived in Tucson and met Fred Scott at the airport. One of my challenges on this trip was figuring out how I would get to, and back from, the Trail heads. I signed up as an Individual Time Trial, so I was not departing when everyone else was. My plan was to go a little slower and probably get more sleep than the rest of the racers but I wanted to finish the entire AZT 300 before I had to fly back to Boston. Brian Wacik, a fellow Peaks Coaching Group Coach, who lives in Tucson introduced me to Fred, who was my travel savior! Fred just purchased a camper and was hoping to test it out at a campground before his next big trip and volunteered to take me down to Parker Canyon Lake, where he would camp out and I would start my trip. By the time I set up my bike, (Thanks to Ben's Bike Shop for a great location and company while I did this), and drove down to the Campground it was pretty late in the afternoon.
I loaded up my bike bags and started for the trail head. After a couple of wrong turns and some extra miles, I arrived at the Parker Canyon Trail head, the official start of the Arizona Trail Race 300. I had started the satellite tracker (Garmin InReach) at the campsite but I wanted to make sure I had it start at the trail head so I turned it off and turned it on again then waited for the GPS to say it was tracking. It was 4:40pm. The trail is absolutely beautiful, lots of canyons, lots of hills, and so much gravel. Loose gravel makes for hard tracking and lots of hike-a-bike on the up hills. I needed to tweek my suspension and tire pressure a bit.
I only went a few miles today because of my late start and I'm tired. I am surviving on 7 hours of sleep total for the last 2 nights (due to late night last minute packing on Sunday night and having to get up at 5 to teach my spin class then on Monday night my flight delays and short forced overnight in Denver). It started to drizzle a little too, so I decided to stop just before sunset and set up camp. Glad I had my tent tonight rather than just a bivy because the drizzle turned to a thunderstorm and then a short downpour with quarter inch sized hail! I slept great!
Way to go on the 300 Karen. It was a blast riding with you, eating pizza on the side of the road, and sharing the bridge as place to sleep. (tried to comment on Trackleaders but it shut down the comments section). All the best - Hal
ReplyDeleteThanks - Congrats to YOU!!!! I tell you the Pizza story is one of my favorites. I am eventually going to get each of my days adventures up on this blog, just did my first day (ooops a little late, but better late than never!)
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