I guess the weather was a little wonky this morning....

Scott should be heading thru this gate shortly and down into Patagonia.

Wow, Tim - great post! It's like a trip down memory lane. It's amazing, or maybe not, how I have many photos of the exact same spots.

Nice trip Rob. You look like you have lots of stand over on that bike - might be a good place for a bag/storage.

Scott does already hold the record for this route, though.  I'm not sure he's obligated to race it this year given that he's already got the time to beat!

I suspect this route is different than either of his previous thru rides. New route, new trails, new record.
Nice work Scott.

Looks like he smoked it into Cottonwood. Refueling and resting?

Posted my photos and write up here http://upsideout.blogspot.com/2009/10/coconino-250.html

Finish the push thru Spur Cross to 7 Springs, water up, ride up Bloody Basin Rd and camp.
Take pruners.

Looks like all is well as the remaining group trickles into Williams. I'm guessing showers and pizza are on tap this evening.

I'll be (fast touring) the stage race option as well. Glad to hear we get to hit Bill Williams. See ya'll at the Place at 7 (i'm going a little earlier to fuel up).

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the complete bypass of Williams.  Fire is only 20% contained.

I plotted the pines to mines route and noted it goes by White Horse Lake, which has a campground.  The water is shut off there and the CG is closed (I just called), but it might be a nice spot to hang out and would have picnic tables, flat spots, water to filter from the lake, etc.  It would still mean no more singletrack on day 3, but we'd quickly hop onto Sycamore ST on day 4.

Any opinions either way?  This would mean carrying more food from Cottonwood (no resupply in Williams), but it shaves ~20 miles of dirt roads / pavement that would take us out of the way to Williams, and net us no singletrack.  We'd also avoid any possible smoke this way.

I'm all for avoiding the smoke. If we go this route can you mark the campground as "Filter Water"?

Looks like a fire outside of Wiliams. Any idea if it is on the route?

I am thinking The Place, like Scott suggested. Load up on some carbs before heading out for some miles and a good time.

Fine by me. Where is it?

Yuri, are you rolling out at 7am with Chris and I?

Sounds good to me. I can watch you guys ride off into the distance.

So where we meeting Friday morn? Late for Train across from the Monte Vista? Macys? Somewhere else?

CLR tracker is online and ready for action:

http://www.trackleaders.com/coconino

Anyone else need to be added?  Looks like a good crew so far.

Cues and more precise details on stage stops / timing will be coming soon, likely in the next day or two.

Add me - I'll send you the spot info this weekend. I had a minor hiccup with my bike (cracked frame this week) but was able to secure a friend's bike so looks like all is well.

Innnnnnnteresting. Bodes well for those who like to sleep

and for those of us with kids and a full time (and then some) jobs who are kinda slow. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.

I'll take one of those

It looks like the stars are aligning. Looking forward to this one,

On the other hand Scott and I have discussed that it might be better to leave the AZT entirely in favor of the Black Canyon Trail thus skipping several big Wilderness passages all in one shot on good new ST.

That's a route I've been thinking about too - Flag to Phx via that Coco-ming-Bob Loop thing to the BCT to the maricopa trail via cave creek trails to Pima and Dynamite to...and on and on..........