Tour Divide2012

We'll start with the few pictures I did take. Yea, I'm a little embarrassed by the lack of pictures in general. To undertake such a massively epic and beautiful endeavor and not really document it, is kinda silly. Though any extra bits of effort kinda went out the window. General hygiene, picture taking and bike maintenance kinda slowed to a crawl. Eating and riding took over as the primary functions. Its all still like foie gras in my brain and the regurgitation of brain film to decipherable thought is still taking place. That's 2 of the big 3. Stay riveted to your bar stools, church pews and inflatable furniture, I'll have a semi-legible report together soon. 

The Arizona credit check

The Border line up

Scott Morris's starting speech

Dusk on Oracle ridge

also a view from Oracle ridge

The mornings push toward Superior

The circulation in the toes was not so good so a little fresh air felt nice

stumble a bike

scramble a bike

San Francisco peaks

The Grand Crack from the top of the grand view tower

The depths of the ditch

The end of the first saga in the trilogy

AZTR 750

I'm heading back out to tackle this beast yet again!  Come Wednesday I will be touching down in Tuscon, AZ to embark once more on the sweet 750 miles of what make up that absolutely effin fantastic trail stretching the length of Arizona.  Heading north from Mexico to Utah, this off road trail is home to the longest single track bike race in the world.  And yes... that includes the 24 mile shlep of bike and gear through the big ditch.  Both the 300 and the 750 are getting raced again this year, with about 40 riders racing in total.  It's an early start for the 750s down along the border, with about an hour and a half of riding before meeting up with the rest of the 300s.  From there we mad dash it together, dropping the short runners near Superior before continuing north.  As usual, this is done self supported.

Feeling like a turd after coffee and ready to go, the bags have been packed and the gear sorted and weaned.  You can follow me here at: http://trackleaders.com/aztr.  Or to read a bit more about the 750 and check out the course:  http://www.topofusion.com/azt/aztr.php.

Stick a fork in that one.

                                            Snowy Durango Bikes

    Leaving ol' Durango CO once again.

The mailbox of the Beast

               All that air and none of it in my tire.                
 

                                          I had about a 130 a day average going but this was my longest day.

 Kelly and I in Austin.TX

The smile that says it all

The long short whole new ball of foot wax

So, yet not a full report. Just a snip to keep you confused.
    The truth is we were held in the balance of family matters and could not make New Orleans, even fer the tubby Tuesday shit show.
   We headed North East cycling away from Austin. Zig Zagging a maze of Texas and Northern Louisiana back roads.
 Were now in the last throes of a strangled beast and dashing New England bound. I've got to be back by March 1st. We are trying to wrangle out and sop up every last drop of self propelled mileage, we can get our chamois into. That is before surrendering ourselves to the "Dog" (A.K.A. Greyhound bus). More on this later, We gotta ride.  

pedal, eat, repeat

Kelly and I have been off pedaling through space and time, some call it Eastern Teaxas.  A real update soon to come.

A distorted, strange and fuzzy blob of wondrous and ever mutating existance

This has been a good ride so far. Not the rugged and brutal crash into off road amazingness that I'd like it to be, but a good fling down the shoulder of unknown roads non the less.
From Santa Cruz I mouw-ed southeast to Bakersfield and up and over the bottom of the Sierras. Splayed out and dug in, the Civia and I nuzzled the Valley of Death and streaked into Nevada. I took and early one and left on a late one after drinking a bit much with Archie and Sara in Vegas (thanx and good to see you guys again). Onward along lake Mead through the Valley of Fire and up into St. George UT. To the East, border jumping between Utah and The AZ I snacked on a constant headwind between meals. Through the Navajo Rez and a turn of all Four Corners soon we found the snowy slopes of the Rockies. I've been back in good ol Durango CO for a few days now.Its been great to chill with old friends, drink lots of coffee and wander the snowy streets. (Thanx to Joey D. for use of the shop. Barry and Shannon for taking me snowboarding and the ever-awesome Chris and Lily for being who they are).
Here we arrive at the fantastic new development:  Kelly and I meeting in Austin Texas next week and prolly pedaling to Mardi Gras together. Then we'll crunch a hasty pedal beaten path to Georgia before catching some transport or another to New York. Sounds like a plan!

A cold and windy night turned to a beautiful culvert morning

Down stream of the dam

Lake Powell

Bush camping on the Res

Lord loves a pedlin man, Don't trust drivers and find coffee and annihilate it. Got it

first rainy night in Hollister

Into the Sierras

The out skirts of Bakersfield

A great day where I got sun, rain and snow

Sunrise in Death Valley

Some times you need extra stakes on those particularly windy nights

Some thing every cyclist loves to see

Breakfast

I wonder if they got there one at a time or all at once in a big bra flock

 Its been 7 days of cycling I'm at about 850 miles. The weather has been all in all good so far.