I find it really kind of disturbing that we are even having this argument.
I don't know of anyone willing to go fight for land and make 500 miles worth of trail for us to ride.... if we are going to go spend a week adding wear and tear to this trail, the least we could do is donate to help maintain or undo the damage that we all do to a trail over the course of a week.
It isn't a road.. our taxes aren't paying for it.  it's coming out of someone's pockets - and it should be coming out of the pockets of those of us who will use it.
riding one of these events comes with fairly large investments of time away from work and large travel expenses for many of us.  I just think it's dumb for some of us to spend 500 bucks or more just to get there but not be willing to give anything for using the trail itself.
I'll be the first to admit that last year I didn't donate anything because of lack of awareness.  I knew nothing about CTR and who they were or what they did.  With the knowledge that without them there would be no trail, however, I think if someone cannot afford to donate to the ctf, then they surely cannot afford the other costs of riding the ctr either.

perhaps if you collect "entry fees" and send a significant lump sum to the CTF, they will be more likely to keep us in mind for future updates as well.

I like the idea of more singletrack and dirt.
only thing really worth note in favor of 285 is time requirements.
I'd guess one of the biggest reasons people quit is because they either choose not to or can't take more than a week of vacation... this isn't an issue for the immortals (the ones who posses bikepacking abilities above human capabilities) but for a lot of people, getting to colorado, riding the whole thing and getting back to wherever you came from within a week's time can be quite difficult.
other than that, Tarryall seems like a nice little change up.
also, I will be doing ctr this year. ITT starting saturday afternoon from durango to try to help get to silverton before they close next day

is it downhill miles?
are you suggesting that we take out the ten mile and 22/23? or that we still leave all that the same and just change that one detour?
as painful as it is to say, I think 22/23 are kinda what make the CTR the challenge that it is.

thanks for the effort Scott

oh man gotta love the ATVs on sargents.
about the wildlife, last year on the CT, Mark and I saw a brown bear on the decent right after sargents mesa and we saw a mountain lion on the decent from stoney pass.
in both cases, we were flying down a super fast decent.... and in both cases, the animals were far more scared of us than we were of them.  I don't think the odds of seeing one on an uphill are very high cause they don't really like people and will flee the area.
after having a couple cat encounters on the trail and a brown bear encounter.... none of these encounters scared me near as bad as when I'm riding through rual oklahoma and some redneck's pit bull or doberman takes on the chase... I have had a couple of really close calls with domesticated dogs where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get away... non domesticated animals on the other hand aren't so bad.  Just be smart about it and don't let your mind wonder.  The brain tends to play tricks on us in the woods after dark to try to scare us.

Anyone care to guess why Chip is layed up in that particular location short of Oracle? Doesn't look to me like there's anything at that location? Is there a watersource or something close by that might have given him reason to go off route to bivvy?

I was wondering the same thing.  he looked like he was set to make it to oracle yesterday but kept getting off track.  wondering if he doesn't have gps and missed his turn onto the trail.

speaking of gps, is that 300 gpx file somewhere I can snag it? thanks

I don't think section 22-23 is near as fun for us low land people as it is for colorado residents who are used to the altitudes.  that section made time slow down and my head pound for 11 hours straight.  I remember barely having the strength to hold me head up cause the altitude seemed to make everything on my body feel like it weighed 10x as much as at sea level.  can't argue with the fact that the scenery was amazing but it is difficult to "take it in" when you feel like you have a plastic bag over your head.... can't wait to take it on again this year. LOL

what is the reason behind starting on sunday instead of saturday? that kind of makes the 7-8 day people have to take more than a week off work which is not always easy.

what date are you thinking?
would love to give this a go on my home made fat bike but don't know if it is possible depending on the date since I live in oklahoma

hey that route was a blast.
the snail like pace was mostly due to the muddy/rainy conditions... that being the case, I think the fat bikes actually helped out because there were several sections I do not think we would have been able to even ride on niners since the fat bikes were burried up in mud.
we were slaughtered on day 2 by an insane headwind which I blame for ogre quitting on us haha.
it seemed like we were rained/winded out almost every day and the only good riding conditions were at night but the nights were super creepy with cougar tracks everywhere in the mud.
overall is was a really fun route with many challenges but still almost completely rideable.
it was even fun pulling into Idy in the snow on our fat bikes... until we realized that that meant we were stuck there.
thanks to Brendan and everyone involved in creating the route and thanks to Mark for waiting on me when I fell behind constantly.
I think Mark took several good photos while he waited on me to catch up, so he should be able to come up with a pretty good trip report.