Bedrock & Paradox

I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.

Plans

I’ve spent the last two hours crawling around between my Kaibab FS map and the net, looking for holes. The issue, besides the obvious lack of on the ground knowledge for much of the course, is the maps. I have the huge scale FS map, which is old, utterly lacking in topographic detail, and features many jeep roads and trails with approximate locations. The other end are quads, which are too big (of scale), so I’d have to buy a dozen or more to be of use. Expensive, annoying to find, and again often very out of date.

The fix will be strategic printing of 1:50,000 maps from topozone.com, and lots of wandering this weekend. A fair bit of that will have to be in the truck I’m afraid, too much ground to cover in two days, plus it will allow reliable odo readings for some of the esoteric sections. I’ve got a list of half a dozen or more compelling questions that need answering, a yeah or ney for many of which will drastically alter the route in question. I’ll still get in some good riding, I think.

The other question will soon become that of route dissemination. I’m no technical wizard, as those of you who’ve seen the race posters may know. I like analogue, don’t use a bike computer, don’t trust numbers as a general idea. So, how to ensure my comrades do not become hopelessly lost, especially given the aforementioned shittiness of the available maps? Scott Morris offered help out with his topofusion gear, but I’m not sure how helpful he’ll be able to be without any GPS data from me (don’t own one of those). So, it may be a combo of the big FS map and cue sheets with pseudo mileages and verbals descriptions. At least the FS map will get you back to main roads and hence to the car, and while the route will be longer, more commiting, and more remote than the Rim Ride, bailing out will still in basically all cases shorten the deal substantially.

Any other ideas concerning this subject would be most welcome.

I will have some good stuff in store regardless. Plenty of scenery, plenty of climbing. Bring comfortable shoes.

DaveC

7 responses to “Plans”

  1. Dave Harris Avatar
    Dave Harris

    Here’s a thought. I use National Geographic Topo! software for mapping. I’ve only got the 100k res maps for AZ, but it might do the trick for your purposes. Most roads will likely be there, but any singletrack might need some explaining. Anyway, if you can describe to me where the course lies, I may be able to map it. Once mapped, you’ll know right off whether or not it’s accurate.Take a look here for 2 sample resolutions for the region. Lemme know if you think it’s viable. It’s worked wonders for GLR mapping.http://picasaweb.google.com/hairball.dh/Kaibabmonstercross

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  2. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    You wanna borrow my GPS unit?Ed

    Reply
  3. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Dave that looks pretty good, I’ve seen the software package in the outdoor shops, perhaps I need to take a closer look. Ed, I appreciate the offer. However, I’m leaving in 32 hours, and I’d have to figure out how to use it. 2 would I imagine be more problematic. Plus I just don’t like the things.

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  4. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Ok cool, you mentioned GPS in the post so just thought I’d throw the offer out there. The unit is really easy to use and you can simply throw it in your pack. I’m not much into bike gadgets but I do love maps, etc. and the GPS is pretty fun in that regard.But, it seems you may be even more of a retro-grouch than I :-)Ed

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  5. Dave Harris Avatar
    Dave Harris

    Well Ed, go figure – you both ride SS rigid bikes – talk about the battle of the retro-grouches!I like power meters, heart rate moniters, GPS units, bike computers, the scott oiler, and I’m working on a jetpack to aid the technical sections ;)

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  6. Meredith Avatar
    Meredith

    My Suunto altimeter watch is as high tech as I get.I think Dave has us pegged….

    Reply
  7. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    God damnit! You’d think looking in the upper right of the screen wouldn’t be so hard…..

    Reply

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