My Two Schillingsworth: Boulders on the AZT

April 13, 2013

Boulders on the AZT

One final shakedown ride before the AZT300 was in order, so I rounded up a few friends and we made the trek out to Freeman Rd. We'd do some cache maintenance, drop some gallons of water & remove all the empties, then do an out-n-back ride on the Boulders segment to Ripsey Ranch.

This is atypical of the AZT, 9+ miles of fast, smooth, flowy singletrack!! Yes, it does exist in Arizona's desert.

Seron and I left my place just after 7a to arrive at the trailhead by 9a. We even spotted a white-tailed deer galloping through the desert. Weird. 5 minutes to spare, we arrived. Soon followed by Leon & Jeff, then Phil and Michelle. This was everyone's first time out on this section of trail. I quickly dropped off the water into the new metal cache and we hit the trail.

New water cache @Freeman Rd TH.

Jeff by one of the few bouldery spots.

The boulders.

Still a fair amount of color.

Seron waiting in the weeds as riders approach.

Workin' those bar-ends!!

Michelle getting the Green Chili to the top.

Beautiful hedgehog blooms.

Oasis in the desert, the cottonwood tree @Ripsey Ranch.

Also doubles as a bike rack.

I had to take Phil out to this turnoff, he just missed it on a recent Ripsey attempt!!

AZT Passage #15 Tortilla Mtns are divided into two segments: Boulders & Ripsey.

Heading towards the boulder outcroppings on our way back.

Here they come!

Rut-roh. Sheared crank arm bolt!! 6+ miles from the car!!

In step MacGyver (Phil), 'anyone have zip-ties? I can fix this!'

2 zip-ties & 2 sticks later the crank arm was attached.

Leon coming out of the wash.

Met two thru-hikers on day 11 of 30 heading north to Utah!! They were very appreciative of the water drop at Freeman Rd. They are travelling ultra light and hiking 25 miles per day!!

One of the fellas, Lint, has tats commemorating his hiking triumphs! We asked where the AZT tat is going, he said he had 500 miles to figure that out!!