AZT Shakeout Trip- 3/21-3/23

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to take on a 2 day/night shakeout ride in preparation for the AZT 300. I had originally scheduled three days in Utah but had to cut out Friday's leg of the adventure because of work in Durango. The original plan was to head to Moab, leave from town heading up the Potash Road and camp at iSky on Friday night, do WRIAD on Saturday and then take Magini back to town...However, I skipped Friday's grind and instead used the time to chill with my sweetie, put in a water cache at the top of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks and spent the night bivied at Horsetheif Campground to start my adventure.

 Trip Report

I spent Friday evening repacking food, tweaking gear and enjoying the comfort of Ht campground's picnic table and vault toilet. (It's the little things that matter most right?) I was excited to test my sleeping system and this weekend's cold temps did not disappoint. (more on that Night 2)

Canyonlands Entrance Gate 

I awoke at 4 am sharp with no alarm and was packed up and moving by 4:45- First up, about 10 miles of pavement to the entrance station at Canyonlands National Park. I quickly purchased a permit and launched out on the Shafer Switchbacks. Barreling down those turns in the dark was a good test of my bike lights and courage. A totally scary, poorly illuminated, break burning blast! Here's what the swtichbacks look like in the daylight:

wiki photo

With the switchbacks done, I made the turn onto the White Rim road and enjoyed another hour of darkness. When first light hit, the power of my immediate surroundings was quite overwelming! I took the chance to take a solitary, sunrise walk across Little Bridge (Musselman Arch)

As the early morning light illuminated the landscape, the enormous scale of Canyonlands came to light

6 feet wide, 5 feet thick and 300ft. straight down!
wiki photo

All alone in the middle of nowhere

I had an awesome morning and the weather was great- at least for those of us attempting the White Rim in a Day- overcast, cool and not too much of a wind (yet!) I ran into Adam V from bikepacking .net who started last year's AZT 300. It was cool to cruise along with him, get some AZT beta,  discuss the upcoming ultra racing season and play the "do you know?" game with him. Adam is an impressive athlete and he's planning on tackling this year's CTR. Good luck in the Dirty K and see you in Denver this August my man!

Team Kokopelli Represent! Paul and Jeff- WRIAD 3/23
Photo-Jeff Hemperley

It seemed like many AZT racers had picked this weekend and route to shakeout their systems. It was so awesome running into so many great folks on the rim. Although I did see tourists, multi-dayers and jeepers, the majority of folks I saw biking on Sat. were all tackling the WRIAD in some form or another. However, I was the only fred that decided it would be a good idea to load his kit with 2 1/2 days of food and water and charge it all in a day.

For future WRIAD attempts, I'll go back with a light bike, some clothes and a hydro on my back. I'm confident that 9hrs. or less is totally doable for this guy...The times for some of these freaks are amazing!

However, I also want to do this ride like a river trip- Complete with a SAG wagon, beers, lawn chairs, etc....the scenery and camping is just too good to rush through this route! Future trip idea- I also think packrafting a bike, via the Colorado from Moab, to the river below White Crack camp and then hiking up to catch the White Rim would be a super fun, multi-sport expedition!

On this, my first ever White Rim trip, I had pounded out the first 50 miles and hit lunch on schedule at noon. Noah had told me Murphy's Hogback had a righteous view and it did not disappoint as a lunch spot.

Lunch at Murphy's Hogback

I spent a solid hour at Murph's. Chilling, hydrating, eating and cleaning up an unexpected mess. One of my 2 cans of Coke had punctured, flooding my hydropack with soda and turning a bag of Cheezits into orange cement. I choked down the orange mortar and drank the other can.

just keep grinding....

After lunch, I kept pedaling but stopped way to much too take it all in. The nature definitly slowed my pace down, as I took ample pictures/video and reflected upon how blessed I am to be able to do this. Finally, I made the turn towards the Green River, which is supposed to be the less scenic part of the White Rim route. Funny, I just thought the scenery kept getting better and better....

Making the turn towards the upper west basin 

Hitting the Green River above Potato Bottom

As the rigors of the day began to wear on me, I focused on the basics: hydrate consistently, eat proactively and always move forward. This simple strategy has and continues to serve me very well on long days in the backcountry. I had little problem dispatching with Hardscrabble and was in high spirits late in the route. But there's some slow going with the sand along the river. I just continued visualizing a strong finish. Picturing the cold water cache and a Starbucks doubleshot  I'd left Friday at the top of Mineral Canyon was good motivation too.

Got Sand? The White Rim has plenty for you!

After a full day and 90+ deep, you end it all with a stiff climb up the Mineral Bottom switchbacks.
Photo-Jeff Hemperley

The final push up the MB switchbacks is a big, in your face, tasty way to finish WRIAD. Watching Shawn G from Koko clean the pitch on a singlespeed was a religious experience.....here I am, pushing a 2X10 and he passes me at mile 90 something, laughing and enjoying every second of the climb aboard his kitted out, one-geared pain machine. Very impressive my man! Actually, He did pause once. To rib me about my light-less finish at last year's Dolores 100....I guess there are worse nicknames than "no lights Mike" 

I set up a killer bivy on top of Mineral Canyon and settled in for the night. My first day came in at 13:37- with 2:37 of stopped time.

Camp Night 2 atop Mineral Canyon

Rachel and I had discussed the forecasted lows for Saturday night and I knew it was going to be the colder of the two nights out. I was determined to push my gear (clothing and sleep system) as far as possible and knew that if I couldn't get warm, I'd just get up and start moving. Afterall, I wanted to know exactly what my set-up was cut-out for....and I'd rather learn that now than in a snowstorm on Mt. Lemon... Well, mission accomplished! I shivered awake at 3:30 am and finally decided that I wasn't getting any warmer by lying on the ground in the pre-dawn chill on the rim top of this massive canyon. I got up, hastily packed and was moving by 5ish? I pedaled the 14 miles back to Horsetheif campground very slowly. It was really cold, even on the bike with all my layers on. 

A cold, early AM headwind, no breakfast and the sucky push up MB road had me a little down but things turned around once I hit Horsethief campground. As I leaned my bike up against the outhouses, I heard "bikepacking, huh?" behind me, I spun around surprised to see none other than Jeff, el Freako, Hemperley all rested from a warm night in his Wolfpup camper. He was there with Paul, just as surpirsed to see me, and they insisted I come rock some hot breakfast, coffee and heat with them. I politley declined the food, water and heat, as I was fully committed to the self support and wanted to stay in "field mode" I did however enjoy the company, their picnic table and linger with them probably an hour longer than I should have. It was quite a gift to find them there and thanks again guys for the hospitality!

 I arrived back at Horsetheif Campground to find Paul and El Freako just waking up and graciously offering me some picnic table space. Photo-Jeff Hemperly

Bottles topped off, trash into the dumpster, breakfast in my belly and some good conversation-on to Day Two! To get back to Moab, I planned to ride back towards the park but bail off to the east on Gemini Bridges road. From there, I'd take the first five trails of the Mag 7 route down to lower Gemini bridges road. I ended up getting a little turned around after being sucked into the Great Escape trail-what a cool trail that is!!!!  I eventually made it back to GB road, ate some tuna with meat cookie at the Gooney Bird, finished the last bit of my water and set out to grind up and over Gemini Pass back down to 191. I had the hill to myself and I soaked in the views across the way-  Moab Brands/Arches/Sovereign/Klondike etc.

I busted down to the bikepath and blazed into town. I pedaled straight to Milts. A bacon cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate shake proved a worthy ending to this ride. With only a few weeks to go until the line up at Parker Lake, I'm feeling strong and my head is filled with ideas and refinements after a terrific weekend on the go. I've got more race prep to do and at least one more shake out ride to go.

Day Two came in at 45 miles over 6:15 moving and 1:50 stopped

Bull Canyon

Gemini Bridges from Great Escape

Back in Moab