Kaibab 160ish?

[danimal]

My wife and I are heading out to do a KMC 125/200 hybrid (skipping the 200 portion north of 89A, adding the loop to North Rim) as slowly as possible around September 8-12.  I was wondering if anyone had any current info on water, especially in the neighborhood of the Rainbow Rim Trail, give or take 20 miles?  Has anybody by chance taken the route south into the Park on 268B?  We will be heading that way and are hoping to find water at Big SaddleTank/Point, Parissawampitts Spring, and/or Kanabownits Spring 2 or 3 miles before we reach the Point Sublime road.  My Kaibab NF map shows that as a through route, as do the KMC200 route notes, but no other source (G-Maps, etc.) confirms that route as existing, so I'm digging around.  Anything else noteworthy?  Thanks in advance for any info.  -Dan

[Chad B]

You using the GPX I posted up?

[markphx]

Hey Dan, sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you on this. I bikepacked the majority of the Kaibab 125 route August 18 - 19, except I chose to stay on the AZT the entire way instead of dropping off the east side of the plateau. As for water, I carried around 220 ounces the first day from the Hwy 89A AZT Trailhead to the Kaibab Lodge. I still had about 20 ounces when I pulled up to the General Store across Hwy 67 from the Kaibab Lodge (where I refilled again to my 220 ounce carrying capacity). I didn't spot any sources of water my first day. I saw a few dried up ponds that looked like they held water at some point, but that's about it. My second day took me on the AZT from the North Rim Lookout Tower all the way back to Hwy 89A. I did spot a few sources as I pedaled along the AZT; namely, shallow, murky ponds, but better than nothing. I brought my water filter, but I didn't need to fill up at all on the second day and still had tons of water left when I finished up. After the Rainbow Rim Trail (which is super flowy and fast), if you're willing to detour (from the Kaibab 200 course) 15 miles or so to the General Store, that would definitely be a viable source. The North Rim is definitely another viable source. Once you're on the AZT, water shouldn't be a problem if you filter from the shallow murky ponds.

As for anything else noteworthy, I highly recommend rain gear. I lucked out and missed a nasty storm on my first day. However, on my second day, my luck ran out and all hell broke loose. Let's just say that it put any Rocky Mountain summer storm that I've been in to shame. My rain gear (and waterproof bivy sack) helped saved my tail when I was holed up for 2.5 hours waiting out a real beastly storm.

As for the route (at least the part I rode), it's solid. A few loose washed out climbs here and there, but all rideable. If you plan on riding the AZT through the burn scar, it's a tad overgrown there, so I recommend wearing something to cover up your legs because the grass is sharp and it cut my legs up a bit.

Hope I could be of help.

- Mark

[danimal]

Hey all, thanks for the replies.  Chad, I'm afraid that I can't figure out now which file is the one I started with, cuz I've modified it so much to make my own route that whatever I started with is long gone, but I do think that it might be yours.  It's just called KMC130m.kml in my GoogleEarth.   Mark, your trip sounds like it was a bit wet.  I've been watching the weather a bit and am hoping that mid-September will put us a little post-monsoon, but AZ is way out of my element, so what do I know.  We live in the Northwest, so rain gear we have.  I think we will be taking the detour off the plateau around the burn, but thanks for the tip on that.  It sure helps to confirm the choice to do the big climb back up.  But the cold Tecates will be so close by then.

 My wife and I like to take our time and wander off on foot here and there and generally linger for as long as such beautiful places warrant, so our routes and speeds tend to be a little different.  We took five days just to do the White Rim.  It's nice out there.  But our approach makes water a rather big factor.  So, I'm still wondering about the springs that are on the KNF map, and on the 2Epic site (http://2-epic.com/maps/311map.html?map=kmc200full.kml&index=10).  Namely, Big Saddle Tank, Quaking Aspen, Kanabownits, Parissawampits.  It doesn't sound like Mark went by these as they are a bit off the 125 route.  But they are going to be critical to us.  One of them better have water, or I sure hope we run into someone who likes to share.  If anyone has any recent data on these (possible) sources, I'm all ears.  When I get back I will try to figure out how to post my route and a little trip report.   Cheers, Dan

[Chad B]

Kanabownits and Parissawampit--just checked the map, as I recall we checked these during our trip and there was no water. We did find a tanker for water on Sublime and as luck would have it, some people I knew just happened to be on Rainbow Rim (Locust).

I think you might just have to see what is out there....