Grand Loop 2009

[Slowerthensnot]

Oh shoot, not more fire closures on bikepacking routes!

I just added an active fire perimeters layer to Tour Divide.  Transferring it over to the GL tracker (it's in the Map Layers drawer) you can see the perimeter does cover a few miles of the route, climbing away from Buckeye.

Haven't done any reading to see if it's open yet.  Good luck in any case, Cat & Lynda!

Thanks Scott!

[JimL]

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!

[DaveH]

Daaaang.  I've been near big fires before and that is downright scary.  The edge of Carpenter ridge is not the easiest place to escape to either, good times.

The ladies have decided to start where the route crosses 141 near Uravan.  They had a bit of a rough evening getting it all figured out so are rolling out a bit later than expected but we should see some spot dots soon on route.  After a nice warmup they will be into some of the hardest miles of route, and at mid-day.  I have only passed through there in the cool darkness. 

They plan to move slowly and sleep plenty.  Then again, I know these two, and once the diesel is fired up we'll see about that   They also want to be able to finish on route - the fire is expected to be contained by Sunday.  Not sure how that relates to when the region will reopen though. The latest fire information is at http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2877/

[JimL]

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.