Arizona Trail Race 300

Background – Last summer I made up my mind that I wanted to do the Colorado Trail Race on my singlespeed.  Not having done any bikepacking or ultra racing, I was going to try to put together a 300 mile adventure east of El Paso through the Cornuda’s and the Guadalupe National Forest.  I purchased a sewing machine and spent a lot of time making bags for my bike and buying a new GPS and Spot tracker.  Time flew by and the Guadalupe trip never happened.  I also needed a sleeping bag, pad, and puff jacket.  More time whipped by and next thing I know it was mid-Spring and I needed to make a decision quick.  I thought I’d try an individual time trial (ITT) on the AZT 300 course but figured I’d learn nothing doing it by myself.  So I got permission for some vacation days and found myself able to line up with the big crew on April 13….a Friday!

I had just finished up some new bags for my Racer-X and had done a total of about 6 nights in the back country of the Franklins.  I probably only put in about 300 miles of trail between Christmas and race day.  My only other mileage would be from my short commute to school which I included a 40 to 50 pound bike with load.  Needless to say I was a bit concerned about my fitness when the 13th rolled around.  I was also having some really bad saddle sore issues as well but saw a doc the Monday before the race and finally got some meds that cleared things right up.

Our trip to Parker Lake, AZ would be our first trip in the Caribou.  We battled a viscous head wind to AZ and arrived at the trail head well before dark.  The weather was really nice and others were looking forward to cooler temps but concerned about a BIG storm rolling in Saturday.

My final packing list was much heavier than I wanted it to be, but I soon figured out that I was just being a safe old man…aka pussy.  My main frame bag carried four 3 hour AyUp batteries, 2 CO2 containers, 2 MRE entrees with heaters, a pop tart, 2 packs of squeeze cheese, a spare pair of socks, a spare pair of shorts, PI leg warmers, a wool tee, fleece gloves, derailleur cable, and half of a camelbak bladder.  In the gas tank I had chapstick, 8 clif bars, 4 mojo bars, 2 Z bars, and a few rolls of my mom’s fruit leather.  On the bars I had all of my hygiene products, my GoPro camera, two 6 hour AyUp batts, and Smith hard case with glasses and lenses.   I also had a set of laminated cue cards on the outside pocket.  In the stuff sack I had my MontBell 30 degree sleeping bag, Thermarest NeoProXL pad, Tyvek bivy, and my MontBell UL down jacket.  In the seat bag I carried 2 Stans’d tubes wrapped in tyvek, 2 bottles of Stan’s, Park Tool, Leatherman, small bottle of Progold Extreme, cotton rag, and a patch kit box containing spare chain links, brake pads, plug tool with plugs and rubber bands, a cleat bolt, needle and a full prewound bobbin of thread as well as patches and glue.  On my back I carried a Camelbak blowfish with a full 100 oz bladder, PI rain jacket (XXL), Pur Hiker Pro water filter with some tablets, full size shock pump, Crank bro’s tire pump, cash and cards, Spot II, 2 spare AAA batts, 2 AA batts, and about a pound and a half of my mom’s fruit leather.  I also had a full bottle under the frame.  On me I wore a full zip jersey, SOS mid weight wool socks, Nema gloves, Rooly mirrored lens glasses, old Bell helmet with AyUp lights, Descent shorts, Spot wool arm warmers, and Shimano M087 shoes.  My bike is a custom ti Titus 29er with a brand new drive train, 180 cranks, 3×9 sram rear setup with OLD Sram half pipe shifters, Magura Marta SL brakes, Stan’s 355 rims, DT 340 rear hub, WTB Laserdisc Lite front hub, 120tpi WTB Exiwolf 2.3 rear tire, and 2.55 WeirWolf LT 60tpi front tire.  The frame is 4 years old and the oldest parts are 5 years old. I sat on a mid level WTB Silverado saddle and held on to a set of 4 year old Ergon grips with bar ends.

My GPS was a Garmin Etrex 20 with sweet topo maps from a free source via Scott Morris’ Topofusion forum and the official AZT gps track.  I also put on about 30 waypoints indicating water sources and bailout points.  On top of the headtube I used a Stem Captain thermometer.

The week before the start I spent some time making sure the bike was good to go.

DAY 1 – Since cooler weather was in store for the start, I decided I’d roll out at 9 with everyone else.  I spent some time with Connor and did a surprisingly small amount of socializing.  I was not one bit nervous but only concerned with the fact that I was carrying a lot of crap.  I knew I wouldn’t need all the food I brought, but just felt more comfortable with it.

After the shuttle rolled up, I decided I’d better start getting stuff together and slabbed on the sunscreen.  The crowd built and Scott Morris briefed us and sent us on our way.

I let all the fast guys go and started to head down the trail but realized I had not turned on my gps.  Scott laughed at me as I mentioned something about hoping I could figure that thing out by the time I finished.  Pretty much everyone with an Etrex 20 had some sort of complaint.

I rode a comfortable pace and passed lots of slower riders and riders already dealing with flats.  After about the first 30 minutes I rolled up on Kurt Refsnider (ultra bike racing god) and Max Morris on a hike-a-bike.  Aaron Gulley who had flatted caught me and we soon found the four of us riding pretty fast together.  I stayed with them all the way to Patagonia where we rolled into town about 4 hours after the start.  Their pace wasn’t exceptionally fast, but too fast for me to be doing with a 52 pound rig.  I stopped at the Velvet Elvis for a pizza and ordered a Sassy…which had way too much sausage and cheese.  I ate two pieces and wrapped the other two for the road.  Stopping in the general store I picked up some snacks while I heard another rider (Pete?) asking for sunscreen.

Rolling up the road to Sonoita I had a great tailwind, but my gut was a rock and my legs kind of stiff from the hard 30 miles and the half hour sit down for lunch.  I kept cruising and after turning into the headwind, Aaron G. came by me again after getting his tire patched at an auto shop.  Kurt S. came around me as well and I soon found myself quite alone in the wind heading to Kentucky Camp.  I took a good break at KC to eat a snack and fill up with water.  I headed out with the goal of La Sevilla picnic area for the night.  At about 9 pm or so, I passed Brad M. (started at 6 am) who had a dead light battery.  He was walking and was not using his backup light.  At 10, I was absolutely exhausted.  My legs felt great, but I had no sleep the night before due to Connor being a bit excited about his first night in the truck camper.  The first flat spot I found (about mile 80) I rolled out my bivy and was sacked out in less than 15 minutes.  I was really close to the trail and did not put in my earplugs.  Many riders passed me and shined their lights on me as I tried to ignore them.  After most of them passed me, I slept quite well….about 6 hours….until the wind started to scare me a bit and the moon came out.

DAY 2 -I heard a lot of people complain about the wind that night, but my spot was pretty much immune to it.  I heard it, but never got blasted.  The storm was moving in quickly so I boogied on out of there with the goal of making it to La Sevilla for shelter.  It was only misting, but quite cold and windy when I got there.

Some other riders were there but only Justin stuck around as he had minimal cold weather gear.  I heated up an MRE and decided to crash in the covered picnic area.  I was joined by Fred W. and Eric Lord.  Others came and went, but I figured I’d better stay out of the rain and sleep some more.  It rained and blew hard so I ended up with a 4 hour break.  When I got up to get going again, I had a bunch of water from my camelbak in my bivy.  Luckily it only got my pad wet and not my bag.  I packed up and took off down the trail after Justin.  We went off course about a mile, but quickly got back on and rolled out X9 to the pave.  I had to stop to put on my jacket when a session of sleet hit me, but soon after I stopped at the Rincon gas station where I scored the last bean burrito and a Mexican Coke.  I then continued on to the Safeway for some more hot food.  I chilled in the Quiznos eating a bowl of chicken soup.  At Safeway I picked up a loaf of whole wheat bread, an apple, some organic poptarts, a pack of tuna, and a small container of chocolate almond milk.

I connected with Dave Goldberg headed up to Reddington where I just chilled with him on our way to the top of La Milagrosa where I knew there would be a good camp spot and water not too far away.  On one of the descents I felt something hit my leg and backtracked to find my Park multi-tool.  Turns out my seat bag was WIDE effing open and gone was my patch kit box.  I’ve had that box for about 15 years.   Very bummed and a bit nervous after that since so many parts were in it.

A short distance from La Milagrosa we could smell a campfire.  I was hoping to roll up on a few U of A coeds but it ended up being Brad M. who had made a glorious fire.  I rolled up the road to find water and luckily there was a large puddle with crystal clear water in it about 200 yards from camp.  I had to prime my filter but I soon had one and a half bladders full for the trip up Lemmon.  Back at camp I pulled my stuff out to dry while I ate the bread, tuna, and apple.  I sacked out with earplugs but was awoken by Fred W’s coughing.  Poor guy ended up dropping out at Oracle.  He was riding very steady, but not sleeping much.  I got 7 hours that night and when I got up the next morning, decided I’d better get moving if I wanted to finish this thing in a respectable manner.

DAY 3 – After the hike-a-bike up to Molino, I took a pit stop at the Molino outhouse.  I soon caught Fred on the trail, and rode alone up Lemmon to the restaurant where I sat with Aaron Boatman and ordered a breakfast burrito.  On the way in to the restaurant I saw Les headed up to Oracle Ridge. After horrible service at the restaurant, I went to the general store for a complimentary cup of hot cocoa, a soda, and some snacks.  I ended up riding with Aaron all the way down to the Kannally Ranch house.  The trails were totally ripper on the way down despite a bit of snow we had to trudge through.  Our bikes got a bit muddy, but nothing I was worried about.  We passed Jill H. near the top and just said hello and kept moving.  At Kannally, Aaron wanted to hang out a bit, but I wanted real food and left him for Oracle.  I picked up two sandwiches, a Muscle Milk, and a small can of Pringels, exchanged pleasantries with Eric Foster, and rolled out.

After eating one of the sandwiches on the road, I felt great and decided to get to work.  I was flying through some great singletrack with the goal of hitting the Freeman Water Cache at a decent hour.  Just before it started getting dark, I took a header on a switchback and landed directly on my lights.  I removed my helmet and immediately plugged in a battery to make sure they still worked.  YES!  I quickly got back up and got rolling again.  The trails were incredible out there.  Lots of blooms and it smelled great.  The sun soon set and I was frequently checking my GPS as the route was becoming less used and more convoluted.  I started seeing some lights and gave chase.  I came up on Brad K. and Matt who were chilling in a wash.  I talked to them for a few minutes.  It’s always cool to meet guys from back east who are tough riders.  I grew up riding back east in the Appalachians and always loved riding in the slop and roots.  It’s fun to share with guys who can relate.

Soon after leaving them I passed Les.  Sometime in there I rolled passed a big tank with the old windmill fan flat on the ground.  There was a noisy owl there that was cracking me up.  He calmed down after I passed, but then I heard him again and looked back to see a bunch of lights in the area.  The singletrack seemed never ending and I was starting to get sleepy.  My legs felt great, but I crashed again in a wash and was looking forward to getting some rest.  I soon rolled up on Forrest who was just kind of standing around the junction with Freeman Rd.  I knew that the cache was not on the road, so I rolled on and soon found Steve and Pete bivied right next to the trail by the cache.  I found a spot a ways off the trail and threw my crap down.  I filled my camelbak, ate my other sandwich and the pringles, and drank half the muscle milk.  I crashed out hard until about 4 am.

Day 4 – The moon still was not out when I first woke up so I went back to sleep for a few more minutes.  When the moon came out I finished the muscle milk, ate some cookies, and got dressed to ride.  My helmet straps were almost completely chewed through by a rat and I think the rat threw dust down my snoring throat as I had a bitch of a cough.  Little bastards also got a hold of my  camelbak which I was using as my pillow.  Nothing like having vermin hanging out around your head while you sleep.

I was out of the cache by 5 am.  As soon as the sun came out, I put on my clean but still wet chamois and put my dirty chamois on top.  Two layers was super comfy and after sunscreen, some more snacks, and changing glasses, I was rolling again on the powerline towards Ripsey.  I cleaned about half of the Ripsey switchbacks and was soon flying down the ridge.  I got slightly off course but was soon back in the wash and rolled up on an unopened bottle of 7UP!  Yay!  I cracked it open and drank about half of it saving the rest for Kelvin.  I finally rolled into Kelvin just in time for an early lunch.

At the maintenance shed I topped off my camelbak and filled my water bottle.  I heated up my last MRE and chit chatted with Bill from Del Rio.  He was thru-hiking the entire trail.  He was loading his pack with 10L of water.  That’s 22 lbs for those of you who don’t know your conversions.  The MRE treated my stomach well and I was rolling on the machine cut singletrack down the Gila.

Wow!  I thought it would never end.  It went on and on and on and on.  Miles and miles of Sweco dozer action in terrain that would make the average dozer driver breakdown like a crying little bitch.  The heat cranked up to around 90 and I was a bit worried about my water supply.  I was soon down to the half  bladder I’d been carrying in my frame pack for a couple of days.  I passed Pawel with his 1×5 gearing.  He’d stopped to snap a pic and I quickly caught him.  It still took a long time to get to the finish as there seemed to be 9 or 10 inner canyons.  I seriously thought it would never end.  Eventually I passed a pair of horseback riders so I knew I couldn’t be far.  Then I started seeing foot prints so I started pinning it again and drinking my water since most people don’t walk very far from the trailhead.  Sure enough I soon saw the Caribou and other vehicles.  I felt a bit dry, but my legs felt great.  My hands were pretty cooked and I rode the last 10 miles or so without gloves as they were so crusty they were irritating my hands.

I finished in 3 days, 7 hours, and 50 minutes.  Pretty good for a total of 22 hours of sleep during that time.  No flats!  No bonking.  No major injuries.  Only 2 encounters with cactus and only one close call with evil gnawing mammals.

My beautiful wife and son spent their weekend learning all about our truck camper.  With minimal guidance she dumped the holding tanks, changed a propane tank, and had to deal with some tire issues…..that’s a whole different story.  I must thank her for supporting me in this endeavor and spending our 12th anniversary (Sunday) watching my blue dot on Trackleaders.  I spent many a late night on the sewing machine and several nights away from home testing out my gear….though I’m sure she slept sideways on our king size bed when I wasn’t there.  Connor was a good boy the entire time I was gone thanks to some solid entertainment from Paula and Beto’s chickens and their new pup Parker.  I also need to thank Scott Morris for all his help with my totally non-intuitive Garmin.  He helped me find some really sweet maps and understand how to load the track.

My apologies to those who were hoping for some trail pics.  I bet I spent a total of about 45 minutes stopping to take photos with my GoPro.  The little bugger kept acting up and none of the picture I took were saved.  I saw so much gorgeous green desert and I can only keep those in my memories.

Decked Out

I was going to pay someone to weld a metal deck to the hitch so everyone (dog, kid, wife, and myself) would have a larger platform to step on when entering and exiting the rig, but I really didn’t want to hassle with a last minute issue of driving around town and asking some busy welder to do an “I need it Wednesday” job.  I got to thinking about all the crap I had around the house and got to work and came up with this.

The kid and the dog can get up the ramp.  Connor has a bit of trouble coming down, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out.  Luna already figured it all out and was super stoked to have a nice large floor area to relax.  Not sure if the steps will ever be used again and I’m curious as to how I’ll rig all this up when we have a trailer on the hitch instead of the hitch rack.

So this rig just needs new hose and sprayer for the outside shower and it’s ready to roll.  Generator starts with the push of a button and 30 seconds later the AC is blasting cold air!  All gas appliances are finally cranking, and there’s a brand new water filter for drinking water at the sink.  Inverter has been installed under the sink so Jen can grind her fresh coffee in the morning.

So now we’re soon to be AZ bound where the temps are looking to be ridiculously low and maybe even some rain.  Too low and that means I have to carry more clothing.  Too high and I have to carry too much water.  No matter what, Jen and Connor are going to have a ton of fun in our new rig.

The big question will be whether or not I have a ton of fun on my rig.  It’s kind of heavy.

Follow all the action a multi-day endurance race can give you here.

Parts is Parts

In order to have a bit more confidence in my rig for the Arizona Trail Race 300, I did some part switching replacing parts that needed some love with parts that have been just hanging around the garage.

So off went the 5 year old Reba and on went the 4 year old Fox which hasn’t seen much use.  It’s a bit stiffer which is probably one reason why I was using the Reba….which probably makes no sense at all to some of you. With that switch, it included a different caliper due to the post mount of the Fox fork.  This included a newer and longer brake hose which replaced a hose that was cracked.  I also switched out my 175 Race Face cranks and BB for the 180 XT cranks and a Chris King BB that was sitting in my junk box.  The XT cranks have BRAND NEW rings!!!  I also took the newer style Crank Bro’s pedals off my Superfly 100 race rig and replaced the really old plastic Candy’s.

With all these changes, I added a sweet thermometer from Stem Captain.  This thing is really nice and will help me make the decision whether to keep riding when it’s hot or to seek a bit of shade and take a nap.

Some of you may also notice that the frame bags are a bit different.  Last week I decided that I needed a bit more room since I’m not using a large seat bag or seat post rack.  After going over my list a few times, and not wanting to use a large seat bag, I made new bags with a few tricks I’ve been wanting to apply to my bags.  They turned out pretty good and both hold a bit more.  I still need to make a nice thin bag to go in front of the seat.  I tried one that was as wide as the gas tank, but my thighs rubbed on it.

And finally….a trip to The Bicycle Company to borrow their rivnut tool and the dually now has 3 water bottle mounts.  The first two of course have been taken by the frame bag which easily holds a 100 oz. bladder as well as a day’s worth of food, Ayup batteries, and other gear.

So now it’s very easy for me to carry 224 oz of water and I have plenty of room in jersey pockets and my camelbak for more bottles if necessary.  I may even make a couple bottle/food bags to go behind the bars next to the stem.  This would make it easy to carry a cup of coffee or a stash of almonds.

Just over one week left.  I still need to construct my Tyvek bivy and a couple bags for the bike.  Everything is coming together….last minute!

There’s Hope!

Dealing with many of the social issues in El Paso can bring you down, but every now and then something gives you hope.  Lots of things gave me hope this weekend.  The first was when I took some students to an academic competition at another high school.  In the parking lot was this bad boy!

Check out the sissy bar on the back.  How often do you see one of those?

A couple of other things I saw at the competition was another teacher wearing a Frank Zappa for President shirt.  It looked brand new, but of course that’s been over 20 years now.  Does anyone even remember any of the songs 2 Live Crew did?  I don’t.  Were they bad?  Must not have been very good or else I’d remember something from one of them.  Poor Tipper Gore.  She made a big fool herself on that one.

One of the students taking the test was a cute little girl sporting jeans, running shoes, and a super rad tee with a beach cruiser on the front.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was in Colorado, but she was surrounded by other students wearing skinny jeans, or cheap clothes that didn’t quite fit.

Another student had a HUGE eraser.  He came prepared.  That thing was about the size of an iPhone with one of those big tactical cases.  That kid came to do work!

After getting home I headed out to bag North Franklin peak.  At almost 7,200′, it’s quite the haul.  I was able to ride more than I thought.  Of course, riding to the turn off for Mundy’s Gap is what I consider moderate and can be cleaned usually in the middle ring.  I ended up in the granny and spun out in one of the crux sections.  I actually was able to ride quite a bit to here.

This is about the half way point for the top half (from Mundy’s to the summit)  Just above this point it is GNARLY!  After the 2006 storms it was really deep where it washed out.  It’s more ledgy now, but I had to carry my bike a bit to get over stuff.  No big deal, that’s good training.

The views were really great and my camera does nothing to portray the incredible views I had up there.  It was like I was doing remote sensing with satellite imagery that was instant.  No uploading or waiting on the server required!

The pic above is one of the good ones.  I was kind of crunched for time as the sun was going down, but it made for some killer contrasts down below. 

The two above are of the west side of the range looking north.

These two above are looking to the south.  The second one shows the mountains that are behind our house.  Not a bad location if you like long walks and rides in the desert on some very difficult terrain.

I was able to ride most of it back down except for the GNARLY section just above the UXO/No Trespassing sign.  Not bad considering I’m running a 6 year old Small Block 8 on the front.  Yeah….crazy huh?

Today was hot and we went on a short family ride around lunch time.  We stopped by a house that was for sale and I just rode right into the back yard Weehoo and all.  While looking inside, this guy looked around from the side of the house.

I know, not a great pic.  But he had a HUGE rack.  I counted 8 points and he probably had about at 28″ spread if not more.  Not bad for a creature who’s seen less than 6″ of rain in the past year.  He was hanging out in the arroyo behind a bunch of homes. 

I got out for a few hours with a ride over Mundy’s…dabbing in a normally easy section.  I got a few good doses of HEAT…the kind that makes your head feel like it’s going to explode.  If temps get into the 90′s at AZT, I’ll be having some siestas in the middle of the day.  With 24 hours of battery life, I’ll be more than happy to vamp a bit.

Crunch Time

It seems that everything is starting to pile up a bit, but I keep plugging away and try to keep things manageable.  Work has been fairly easy, but I always feel rushed.  I’m on the Campus Improvement Team and they keep trying to get me to do stuff unrelated to my job assignment.  Coming up with good ideas is pointless because I’ll be the only one that will want to do something and I don’t want to do more stuff.

With AZT 300 right around the corner, I can officially say I’m not totally ready to “race” my bike for 300 miles.  I am ready to do a fast tour and with the rides I’ve had this spring, I think I can still go under 3 days.  Worries?  Yes.  Especially with my feet, ass, and eyes.  Eyes you ask?  My left eye has been giving me issues with being real weepy, especially when I’m fatigued.  It got really bad with our massive dust/wind storm last weekend.  I’m really looking forward to getting out on the AZT, especially the section on Mt. Lemon.  I’ve yet to go up there and I hear it’s some burly riding.  The burliness of the trail seems to be the biggest issue for most.  As you can assume, it doesn’t really bother me.  It’s all we’ve got here in El Paso, and ALL of my long mtb rides have been with my bike loaded up to about 45 lbs.  I’ll probably be slightly heavier than that with a full load of water.  If it doesn’t get too hot, I should be ok with carrying the amount of water I’m able to carry.  My filter checks out and I’ve got tablets as well.  It would be nice to not have to pump, but if it get’s hot, it may be unavoidable.

I’m pretty much set on my personal gear.  I just ordered my sleeping pad.  I went long and luxurious with a full size Thermarest NeoAir.  All I need to make is a Tyvek bivy with the scrap Tyvek I found on a construction site.  Debating whether to build it with a bug net and zippers with a cover for rain, or just go with the bug net only.  I’m trying to get my sleeping kit to under 3.5 lbs.  Not bad for someone as long as I am.

I just finished up a set of sweet bags/harness for my buddy Don.  He’s got a Yeti 29er and needs some motivation to hit the road for a night or two.  He’s been eyeballing the same route I’ve been checking out for a few years behind the Guadalupes.  Water was a huge concern out there, but Don’s scouting drive from the edge of El Paso to Dell City, TX passed plenty of guzzlers and pump fed tanks.  That’s only the first 60 miles or so.  I’ll get to that eventually.

 

Mancation!

Jen and Connor are visiting Grandma in the great white north of Utah, so I’m going to make a big mess of the house, leave the toilet seat up, and eat crumbly foods on the couch.  I also plan to make some more bike bags, a backpack for Connor, do some bikepacking, and work on the Caribou. 

It looks like pretty good weather, so I’ll test out my new Montbell 30 deg down bag.  I’ve never owned a down sleeping bag, and I’m pretty stoked at how small it compresses.  If I can get my bag, bivy, and pad to less than 5 lbs total and have it on the bars, I’ll be g2g for AZT and CTR.  Now I need to figure out how to set up my lights so the bar bags don’t cast a shadow.  I figure I’ll ride about 4 hours a night on AZT so I’ll only need two batteries if I’m out there 2 nights.  Things are finally coming together.  If my Montbell UL down jacket comes next week, I’ll test it out next Friday. 

Back in the Fold….Good Riddance 5th Wheel

While we were probably a year late on purchasing our 5th wheel, we couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.  Our biggest mistake was driving it off the lot when we bought it.  It was too small for our truck, didn’t have any window tint, and had all kinds of issues with the plumbing (nothing which couldn’t be fixed, but a pain in the ass).  Friday we were all packed up to head to Tucson for Dejay Birch’s birthday party SS extravaganza when I noticed that it wasn’t a flipped shackle that was causing the trailer to list to one side, it was a bent frame attachment for the shackle.  In order to find the number for the guy who did a spring lift on it, I had to look on Craigslist for one of his ads.  Just above one of his ads, there was an ad for this bad boy!

It was a bit overpriced, but I figured that it was time to ditch the embarrassing monstrosity dwarfing our tiny house and yard.  So after a weekend of haggling, it now sits on our truck in our driveway!

So here are the kick ass stats on this bad boy:

• I can stand up inside it and don’t hit head on AC!*
• Queen bed with storage underneath** and I can sit up on it!*
• Propane generator that will run the AC!**
• Slide** with dinette large enough to sleep a grandma!
• 46 gallons of fresh water!!!!!**
• Rear AND side awnings!**
• Fantastic fan!**
• Toilet that I can sit on with the bathroom door closed!*
• Separate grey and black holding tanks.
• Water filter**
• Smaller Blue Rhino grill tank size propane tanks (2) (old Lance had two big tanks that sat on sides)
• Tethered jack controller**
• Tinted windows
• Wet bath/shower/bathroom
• 9′ long.  Over a foot shorter than our old Lance

*unable to accomplish this in old Lance

**not an option on our old Lance

So we spent about 3 hours on the lot and in the RV dealer’s garage getting it all sorted out.  It’s a beauty inside with little use.  Shower was probably never used as the curtain appears brand new.  The floor is in good shape and the generator only had 40 hours of use on it.  The tie down points are in good shape, 2×6′s were permanently attached to the bottom so it fits in our deep GMC bed, and everything is pretty tight.

The bad stuff…..

• While minor, there has been some roof repair and there is still a crack on the nose above the front window.  Easy enough to fix.  Just not pretty.
• It has a front window.  Most truck camper companies don’t put front windows in their rigs anymore.  They leak and require a ton of sealant.  They also make the rigs super hot/cold during extreme weather.
• It does not have a dry bath.  I don’t mind this, but it will be interesting to see how Connor takes to not having bath time every evening.
• It’s really TALL.  On the outside it sits probably a foot taller than our old Lance.  It is a long way up to the door.  This may prove difficult with an 80 lb. dog named Luna who can’t jump.
• Generac generator.  This isn’t the cat’s meow and you’ll find no shortage of complaints, but hopefully with just a few hours on it we’ll be okay for a few summers.
• Less counter space.  …but then the 5th had less counter space than our Lance.  Kind of strange.
• Fiberglass siding.  While durable, it adds about 400 lbs. over aluminum.  But I don’t think I’ve seen an aluminum sided truck camper that has a slide.

So the plan with this bad boy is to grind it into the ground over the next 6 years or so and by then Connor will be approaching 6′.  I’m hoping he’ll want his own tent and will be happy to come inside for an occasional shower and meal by that time.  I’ll have to reconfigure our hitch/platform so we can use the ramp.  I’m hoping our Saris rack works well on it for shorter/local trips.  Our little Pace trailer is awesome, but a bit of overkill for local stuff.

I’m very excited to be back in the truck camper fold.  The roominess and luxury of the 5th was nice, but it was a bear to get anywhere cool like Hartman Rocks or any of the meadows in Colorado.  Hitching it up was easy, but I’ll be I won’t take more than 15 minutes extra to mount up the Caribou.  Bye Bye 5th.  You served your purpose.  Next time I’ll buy a trailer if I ever want anything with lots of room.  For now, it’s truck camper or bust.

Proper celestial alignment

For 5 years in a row now the El Paso Puzzler has had stellar weather.  This year was one of the best.  Not the warmest, but perfect racing weather that didn’t cook those from colder regions or freeze our amigos south of the border.  175 racers lined up for racing with 102 in the 50 mile race.  Only 25 didn’t finish!  That’s a record low number as we usually sit at about a 35% attrition rate.  This year’s event was sponsored by our Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and they stepped up our PR just a little.  They didn’t come on board until December, so we were lucky to get what we got.  Great swag bags for all entrants were filled with goodies from ProGold, Stan’s, lip balm from the CVB, and even cooler, the El Paso Visitor’s Guide spring edition with yours truly on the front cover.  I’m also inside with a full 2 page spread posing with my buddy Brent and Steve Ainsa, a local engineer helping us with our Redd Rd. parking lot.  I actually got a bit of compensation for that with free tickets to the Shrek broadway show at the Plaza Theater as well as a gift card to Cattleman‘s.

Finishers of this year’s Puzzler 50 took home a hoodie for their efforts.  Jen won the women’s race….handily.  She took home $400 cash, a set of Stan’s rims, a can of Okole Stuff and some of the new Lehe Stuff.  I asked her what she would want if she won, and that’s the stuff she wanted.

I did my best to manage Connor while I did some announcing, course management, and meeting/greeting of VIP’s.  He was a champ and really enjoyed a weehoo ride to do some sign checking.  We rode ALL of Lazy Cow back to the venue.  He didn’t like getting swiped by various plants, but hooted a few times when we went through some rolling dips and turns.  Eventually he realized I couldn’t pay much attention to him so he spent a lot of time on his Strider. He didn’t want anything to do with someone who planned to help out with him so I had to just keep an eye on him while he roamed around the venue and sat on the camper stairs giving me the stink eye.

Since the event went so well, we are meeting with the CVB tomorrow to discuss what we can do now for next year.  Some ideas I’m tossing around are:

• A bounty for a certain time or for an SS to take an overall win
• A relay (we have 3 laps….one 7, one 27, one 15)
• A free trip to marathon nationals

Those are just a few.  What do you think would get people to visit sunny El Paso during the winter to do a hard mountain bike race.

Almost half of our competitors were from out of the area this year.

Worth the effort

This weekend is my most difficult weekend of the year.  A huge physical effort is required to set up our venue for the Puzzler and mentally I just get wiped out.  Not being able to race is tough, but it’s worth every bit of effort.  I truly believe the Puzzler is one of the best run mtb events in the country.  It may not have lots of spectator fencing and course marshal on every corner, but the trails are well marked, our volunteers put their efforts where it counts, and we have a great value for the dollar.  I think we’re right up there with Laramie Enduro, but we charge a hell of a lot less.

We got some great coverage this year in our paper.  Here’s the online version.

See you on the trails.

Getting ready for another Puzzler

This year’s Puzzler came together really late in regards to sponsorship.  The El Paso Convention and Visitor’s Bureau picked us up just before Christmas.  This has brought about a bit more PR than we normally get.  It will be interesting to see how it affects turn out.  We’ve got some great new trail that we finally buffed out on Sunday.  We were a bit concerned about that as well.  Stan’s and WTB are back on with us….they hoped back on at the last minute as well….last week.

I spent 2 days in a row signing the east side of the mountain.  Signage is stellar!  Daniel Horsch from the CVB joined me for the first couple hours of marking course.  He took some video.  Not all of it is totally accurate.  He says riders from as far away as Utah are coming.  Nobody from Utah has signed up yet, but we’ve got 2 from Wisconsin and 6 from Louisiana who are registered  I think WI is a bit further of a drive than Utah….though I haven’t mapped it.

He also states something about riders taking home $400.  The men’s and women’s 50 mile winners will take home $400 plus some prizes.

Here’s the video.

Our payout is pretty good.  Our trails are awesome!  Our sponsors are on board.  Our cooks are making huge batches of chili.  Now it’s the weather that has me nervous.  This is the first year we’ve even bothered to come up with a back up plan for the weather.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  If we get nothing but a bit of rain and snow, we’ll roll on.  A lot of rain and snow and we may still roll but offer a bailout plan for those who don’t want to start.  If the winds are exceptionally high and the snow starts to accumulate, then we may make some course adjustments. We’ll see.  May the stars align for us!