So, Troy Marino emailed me last night with the closure of the AZT through the Warm Fire burn. That was doable, and a blessing in disguise. Then I received this (quoted in it’s entirety with permission):
Hi Dave,
We saw some information on your blog, and thus I wanted to bring your
attention to a couple concerns about the endurance ride you are
planning for this weekend. Your route as I understand it right now will
lead you into a potential conflict with a large recreation event, and will
send you down a closed road.
More specifically, the sections on Forest Roads 425 and 292 will have
you traveling through a handcart trek that is happening this Thursday-Saturday.
This will likely have you riding through the middle of a 100-150 person
group. More details can be found here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/kai/news/releases/2007/060807_handcart.php. I
hope you will be able to find an alternative route; if not, please make sure
everyone uses extreme caution while riding in this area. It will be
mostly children pulling the carts.
Also, though I appreciate you making adjustments based on the Arizona
Trail closure, your alternative route on the East Side Game Road puts you
into another closed area: the East Side Game Road itself (see the press
release about it here:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/kai/news/releases/2006/102506_game_road.php).
After the Warm Fire, flash flooding washed out some pretty wide and
deep swaths in the road. And though this may sound really inviting for
mountain biking, we hope you'll be able to find yet another alternative
route since further use of that road will lead to more erosion.
Finally, I appreciate that you've emphasized Leave No Trace practices
on your blog. Obviously, I encourage you to keep that emphasis strong
through the weekend, both during the ride and in camp.
If you have questions or concerns, please let me know. Otherwise, be
safe and have a good ride!
Kevin Larkin
Recreation and Lands Staff Officer
North Kaibab Ranger District
Kaibab National Forest
I responded that I'd try to find something instead of 220
(and thanks to Dave Harris have done so), that I would be a militant
enforcer ofLNT during the whole event, and that since we'd be through
thearea in question by 0700, I didn't think any riders would bother
the cart people.
He responded:
Hi Dave,
Sounds like everything will work out well. Thanks for being flexible
with all the fire closures -- it's going to take a little time for us
to get things back to normal in that area. And yeah, feel free to use my
message on your blog or message boards. Again, if you have any questions,
let us know.
kwl
Kevin Larkin
Overall I wished his timing had been better (today was mildly nuts at work,
by coincidence), but I think we did well. I'm committed to making this a fully
legal event, and to full disclosure. Hence this post. I find it tiresome to do
otherwise.
I do wish Kevin, or whomever, had been more timely in bringing up their issues,
and said as much. I also tried to access the 220 road closure notice from the FS
web sites front board, and had a hard time of it. Google isn't too helpful, either.
It'd be nice if this were not the case. Let us hope that this is a definitive
solution.
New route and a sweet 3D map Troy made are on the race blog.
I also played golf with some folks from work this afternoon; our Principle,
Guidance counselor/paperwork person, English teacher. The big guns, among whom
I after a year reside. And it was fun. I got a couple of single bogey's, and
would've sank a killer 40-50 foot putt on the last hole is the flag hadn't knocked
it back out. Overall, my short game was ok, and my driving was atrocious. If I have another
opportunity to play on the companies dime, I'll jump at it.
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