Hey Dallas,

Not that I'm aware of.  I rode the entire route (S->N) over two full moon fever weekends in the fall and only skipped two sections, taking the roads instead.

They were:

- ~10 miles of Wilderness State Park, from Sturgeon Bay (Lakeview Road) to just outside Mackinaw City where I picked up the rail trail into town.  Excuse: Sand.

- The small section from M-115 <-> M-37 where the trail skirts around the town of Mesick. Excuse: Excessive bushwhacking.

I will probably start riding the trail again sometime in March or April if the snow clears out, so if I hear or see anything new, I'll post up.  I do see that they have updated several of the maps since I purchased mine.  Here's the link: http://northcountrytrail.org/shop/category.php?category_id=54&page=g

Your route sounds like a good one!  Have a great time!

Jim

Here's the post at the Kipp Road trailhead.

Excellent job ladies!   

Hmm...  I have my drive train fixed up and was thinking of making another run at it.  If the fire isn't contained until Sunday, I can see how starting on 141 might be the best strategy and hopefully get through at the very end.  I'll see how today goes and determine my intents.

I didn't take many pics this time until I started to get to the new stuff, of which I didn't see much.

No sign of fire at the border.




Bedrock overlook.




Turn before descent into Red Canyon.




Red Canyon Rubble.

Hi All,

Wow, that wind was seriously crazy.  I had a headwind for most of the time on the course, excepting (luckily) when cruising right through the fire on Carpenter Ridge.  That scared the crap out of me.  The fight or flight hit like a ton of bricks from the claustrophobic choke of the smoke and the super hot flames from the burning trees and 'mulch'.  It appeared they were doing some clearing in the area?  I'll pass on another experience like that...

As far as my ride, the wind and dryness (read: sand and blowing sand) on course caused my drive train to turn into rubble...  As I was going up the climb to the Koski traverse and lost the ability to shift in the granny gear without chain suck , I turned around and got a ride from a rancher from ~Uravan -> Whitewater, where I gingerly pedaled back to my car at the Tab TH.

Good Luck to Lynda and Cat!  Hopefully the fire is sorted out by the time they get back to Bedrock!

I'm planning to start on Wednesday after the winds calm down a bit.  Probably earlier in the day?  My friend doesn't have internet here in Denver so I'll probably only check in once more before rolling out to GJ.  Hopefully the weather/temps hold out too.  Let the fun begin...

BryanK: Nice job and thanks for the recon info.

prkoski: Maybe I'll run into you this time if i make it to Nucla.

Here's my spot page: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=04p6vV93zMQDNaNm3AireFI8WYJUIQsUT

Maybe Scott will resurrect the GL tracker?

 

Ahh...  Demystification!  This loop does need some additional tire tracks, for sure.  Reading those maps and making my original track did take some time and that's part of the appeal of it, IMO.  But track or not- the heat and hikin' is sure to make you wonder 'why to heck am I doing this'?

Here ya go Mark: http://trey.aiserv.net/~jal/grand_loop_11_final.gpx  You'll notice a bit of wonky-ness at the end of the Rooby walking through the woods, my err going up Long Creek and going to Naturita.  I also took 340 from GJ -> Fruita instead of the roads hugging the Monument from the TH.

I'll make sure I take a few pics out there on the Koski, Kurt.

Jim

Yep, I sure am mr cowboy.

My intent is to do the full Paradox Trail, adhering to the current reroute that skips Spradlin Park (pp issue) and takes the road into/out of Nucla.  Probably start in Grand Junction this time as well.

Wow, that's crazy.  Unfortunately, my window of opportunity for driving out doesn't open until May 18th at this point, which would probably mean a Monday the 21st-ish start.  My guess is that what little water there is on the Koko is gonna be in even shorter supply by then at this rate, besides pumping out of the muddy river.  It would be nice to have some cool temps in the desert though.

Anyone else thinkin' about it?

With snowpacks this year, on the other hand...

Yes, this is my thought as well...  I'd prolly still stick with starting ~Friday June 1 and going down Red Canyon and up and across the Koski Traverse, but hopefully not have to walk the Pool Creek section.   We'll see.  ~6 weeks to think about it.   

Gonna give it another go Kurt?

I get the overlays here: http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/earth/ and then open my track and overlay in Google Earth.  For the image posted, I turned on the snow cover layer and then the SWE layer.

Jim

Here's what it looks like as of today.  No idea if it's mucky, but the snow seems to have receded...

Thanks for the additional information Paul, hopefully they get things straightened out in a timely manner.

In addition, I was finally able to track down this little blip I had read and forgotten about...

As of 2011 the Forest Service plans to re-route the Pool Creek section (139). It’s part of the Parallel Trail, and plans to extend the Parallel Trail from East Bull Rd over to Columbine Pass are in the works.

Cite: http://www.copmoba.org/page.cfm?pageid=15479&rideid=80

Dunno how that will come into play, if at all.

   Excellent!

Red Canyon, Koski Traverse, new singletrack...  gettin' a little giddy there too Dave?

The GL needs a bit more traffic, for sure.  There's some beautiful country out there.  And the solitude is spot on.

I guess my only question is - if one decides to roll it, how passable would the reroute be from following a track eyeballed from the map if the new trail isn't complete at that time?

Well, 6 months or so to think about it...   

Hey guys, sorry for the delay.

I've posted the split track up on the blog and copied the link below.  10000 points - 20 tracks, 500 points per track.

I use topofusion to do most all of this track stuff (make, slice, dice, reduce, etc.), excepting loading maps from the Garmin software.  If you need different resolutions of reduction (fewer tracks, less points, etc.), let me know and I can post those as well.  I use a Garmin 60csx (batteries in every town, etc.) and have never had any issues with going back and forth between the computer and the unit - running win xp in vmware on osx.  GPSBabel on the mac works for track transfer as well.  ymmv.

I've not yet had the gumption to through ride the route yet this year, as my spring rides put quite a dent in my summer riding.  My current plan for the week of 17th -> 22nd is to go to Fruita, but if that falls through and the weather looks good I may track up from wc to mac.  When I rode some sections in June the nettles and ferns were already sky high and I crashed quite a few times hitting stuff in the underbrush.  Then while laying there trying to figure out what to hell happened, the flies and mosquitoes were having a full on assault.   

As far as going ultralight on the route, (wc -> mac city)- I do think you could go w/o sleeping gear and hit motels and fish/deer cabin rentals all the way.  You would have to be willing to go off course for some of these services, some up to about 5-6 miles one way.  So if you wanna xc pace rip all the singletrack minimally loaded, sleep in beds, take showers and have beers with a hot dinner, I'd say it's doable.

And be ready for hunters and fishermen!  Fall is definitely not a serene season on the NCT.  A bit of hunter orange might be advisable, I generally wear a full on orange jersey this time of year...

http://trey.aiserv.net/~jal/transmichigan_2011_reduced_split.gpx

And they're off...    Wish I were out there too.

Let's just hope they can all git'r done and safely off course before that storm blows in.

Here's my ride report: http://zipspot.blogspot.com/2011/06/grand-loop.html

Thanks again for all the support and well wishes everyone, happy trails!

Jim

Thanks Dave and Dave.

Yep, I sure did ride into Naturita and got a few winks and a shower at the motel there.  Along with a rotisserie chicken, a double cheese burger, two breakfast sandwiches, smoked salmon and all sorts of other yummy vittles.  I did resist the urge to wheel over to the liquor store for some Nor-Cal mixin's though.   

http://nick.zadrozny.com/post/318559399/the-norcal-margarita

Looks like a good race shaping up!  Go Kurt and Jefe!  I see Jefe isn't running his standard platform pedals on this one.

Good luck to everyone trying conquer this beast, keep going!!!

Wow!  That was an awesomely brutal ride.     I'm soooo totally smoked.  Thanks for all the encouragement!  I need a bit of time to decompress and I'll toss up a blog once I get back home but here are some highlights:

/* the dirty business */

I started from Dewey at 7:05 pm on Thurs, June 9th and finished 1:19 am on Thurs, June 16th - that puts my time at 6 days 6 hrs and 14 mins.  Feel free to double check my math.  I'll asterisk this with the fact that I did ride towards Nucla on the Paradox proper, but when I got to Spradlin Park where the pp issue is, there was a truck parked out by that white tank and quite a few ntp (no trespass) signs about.  I was unable to make contact with Paul K in Nucla about the issue and felt it proper to just ride back up the road from Nucla (the advised detour) to connect back up to trail on Pinto Mesa, since if it were that someone mentioned that there were 'footy prints all over my desert' (sic.) he - Paul - (and we as mtb'rs) could possibly feel the brunt of any repercussions.  I'm all for being loose and free around the edges and such, but...

398 miles

50,193' of ascent

/* end */


- Being totally stoked to get started only to be thwarted by the road to Westwater being flooded out, necessitating a last minute change to a Dewey start.  (A week later, the water was gone.)

- Thinking to myself as I descended Carpenter Ridge - 'Man, I can believe Scott and Chad rode/walked up this thing...'  Only to realize my Spot had fallen off somewhere since the top.  So I ended up blowing at least an hour walking back up and down to retrieve it.

- Almost baking to death on both the Coal Canyon and No Mas Hill sections.  I think they lied on the brochure- No Mas Hill ends at Little Park Road.     6hrs to do 22 miles?  Insane.

- Walking and dragging my bike through all that snow on the Pool Creek section.  If I would have not scouted that last fall, I would have been screwed with an unavoidable dnf since there was no way to navigate over/through the snow w/o my track.

- Saw five black bears in four encounters, luckily they scurried off quickly.  Lots of elk and deer.  One cat, but it was too quick for me to make out what it was.  Strangely enough, the first bear I saw was just after leaving Hideout.

- Making (and then realizing) the same error as my scouting run after riding up Long Creek instead of the 544.

- Having lightning crash all around me under a full moon as I did the Fish Ford / McGraw Bottom / Yellowjacket sections.  It was eerie, the moon was out in the east and the clouds were pretty stationary in the west.

- Being totally DONE when I wheeled into GJ but feeling like a million bucks after a shower/nap in a motel and a trip to the grocer for some sushi, fried chicken and fresh fruit.

- Super awesome winds helping to cool me down on the hot cloudless Salty Bitter pill sections of the Kokopelli.  The lack of sun really plucked the stinger out of the Yellowjacket as well.

- Realizing that the notion of a 'good idea' and 'grand loop' is quite the dichotomy, a Paradox (pun intended), if you will.  This course will certainly mess and mangle with your mettle.  That said, never say never (again).  Maybe once they get that pp issue figured out and there's no snow up high.

Here's a quick pic sampling (took 268 of 'em out there).

Overlooking Paradox Valley:



Bedrock Store - Closed:



Full Services in Nucla:



Snow on the Pool Creek section:



DH's River:



Good grub courtesy of the Naturita grocer:



Last bits of chicken somewhere on the Kokopelli:

My plan is to start Thursday at ~6pm at Westwater, going through Bedrock.  Looking at 4 days and some change?  Probably two days to Nucla, then two more to GJ/Fruita and the final push from there on the change.  DanNM, check yer messages.

Luckily(?) my friend here in Denver doesn't have internet, so I'll probably only check in once or twice more before the start.

I'll be spotting, there's a link on my blog, linked through my profile.