Marble canyon, looking east from Navajo Bridge.

Scouting trip is done, route is set, que sheet is here. Pre-planning in the past weeks definitely made things more efficient. The final route will be a bit over 120 miles, 55 of singletrack, 63 on dirt roads, 2 on pavement. The diversity and quality of riding will be truly outstanding.

It was a good trip for wildlife. Lots of mule deer, half a dozen wild turkeys, lots of birds and rodents, a coyote, and what I’m pretty sure was a wolf. Above is California Condor #29.

And many dead bugs, it being spring. The plateau in the distance.

I camped at the east rim overlook Friday night, woke up to 1 degree Celsius and gorgeous frost. Walked out to watch the sunrise with perfect timing, and the camera died. So, you’ll have to take my word for it that it is one of the sublime sunrise watching locations on earth.

It also meant that pictures from a lot of the route that I drove that morning didn’t happen, which is unfortunate. You’ll just have to turn out in June to see some hidden gems.

I did ride a good piece of the route in the afternoon, and was particularly interested to see how the AZT through the Warm Fire area was doing.

Surprisingly well. Most of the downed trees have been cleared, the trail surface has solidified.

There is one major debris flow in a drainage that has annihilated a good stretch of trail. See the cairn pointing the way out to the left?

These are a few of the only trees I had to walk around. The trail markings are a bit spare is placed, though if you take the broad view of navigation things always sort themselves out in a couple hundred yards.

Toasted carsonite post.

The one downside to the fire is that the trail is growing back in, and eroding quite quickly. Therefore, the AZT through that area is much bumpier than it was a year ago.

Of course, the AZT south of the burned area is just outstanding.

Quality singletrack, good descending, some tough climbs.

Still a good bit of snow in places.

Some “barriers” that may or may not be present in June.

This stuff’ll get you psyched after 80 miles in the saddle.

There’s some very quality gravel in there as well. Most of it is gentle up or down, with a pretty good surface. Fast. Most of it.

SS gearing will be a, choice.

Bye bye!

The park service has been busy this spring taking out all the trees within a 100′ of highway 67, to ensure no blockages, I presume.

Not exactly aesthetically pleasing.

This will not be on the route.

Refueling for the drive home.

Overall, the trip went well. The scouting was very effective and rewarding, the west side section in particular was a great surprise. A couple variations I hoped to use didn’t work for several reasons, and when I sat down to an early lunch at 1000, I surprised after doing the math to realize I had a 105 mile course without closing the loop! I can only imagine that there’s great stuff north of 89a, but lamentably there are few reasonable ways to make loops, so it got cut.

The riding didn’t go so well, legs full of cheese, and the section through the fire is sloooow. I needed more sleep last week. Damn Switchback and night riding.