American Trail Race 5000

[youngmason]

Only closed to cars, pretty sure

[woody]

Looks like Dylan went up and over Cinnamon pass to Silverton. I read Engineer pass was open so wonder what's going on. Will be interesting to see which way he goes now to get back on track.

[jjmundt]

And Indiana appears to be tackling Engineer Pass as I type.  Yeah, it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of days.

[woody]

It's a little hazing down here from the fires in New Mexico. Hopefully Indiana won't be in it when he reaches the top of Engineer Pass. Views are spectacular up there.

Ophir Pass is open so I wonder if Dylan will take that instead of Imogene.

[jjmundt]

Indiana is approaching camp bird now...holy cow, is he gonna attempt engineer and imogene in one day?!?  Hard core!!!

[THE LONG RANGER]

Engineer Pass is closed! There's a reroute in effect.


Interestingly enough, Imogene is also currently listed as, "closed" on the USFS site. Engineer has rockfall, so I guess nothing wheeled is allowed through. I'm sure Imogene is closed because of snow.

I was def. wondering if these passes would be passable by the time people rolled through!

[jjohnson]

Indiana is approaching camp bird now...holy cow, is he gonna attempt engineer and imogene in one day?!?  Hard core!!!

Indiana is a crazy mofo. I've known him for a while now and paced him for a few hours on his 150 mile trail run a couple years back and have worked on his bike. His phone has been off so he had no idea about the reroute around Engineer Pass. Bad break for him, unfortunately. Hoping Mike Kinney can real back some distance between these two. He's had some stomach issues and bike problems, but with <2000 miles left, I think he's going to make a hard charge at it. These are two of the most positive dudes in the world.

[Platform Power]

Met Dylan, Indy, and Michael in Salida as they passed through. Amazing people. Dylan fought off dogs in TN. Michael battled with sickness early. Indy rode 600 miles on a Wal-Mart tire. This is one hell of a race going on! Looking forward to seeing the other racers soon.

[schillingsworth]

Looks like Indiana's SPOT points are either bouncing off the walls, or he's backtracking at the moment. Perhaps getting turned back due to snow??

Aaron's at the halfway point after getting a re-charge in KS. He said his tent pole snapped during an intense storm the other day, needed a mental boost for the second half of the race.

Some amazing stories trickling in from the riders.

[jjohnson]

Looks like Indiana's SPOT points are either bouncing off the walls, or he's backtracking at the moment. Perhaps getting turned back due to snow??

Indy's backtracking. Imogene Pass was completely impossible. He made an attempt to go over Imogene Pass, even trudging through snow after the plow tracks stopped, but was unsuccessful. He found an abandoned miner's cabin and slept there overnight and is now trying to find the best way back and around, per his Facebook update as of an hour ago. Hopefully Mike takes the reroute that Dylan did.

[THE LONG RANGER]

So who's the race director for ATR? Reading the Facebooks, they told Indiana to go for Imogene. I don't get this

[jjohnson]

So who's the race director for ATR? Reading the Facebooks, they told Indiana to go for Imogene. I don't get this

Just saw that. No clue who the RD is, or who would have told him to tackle Imogene. That rock slide looked gnarly. Can't believe he got over that in one piece.

[woody]

Boy Indiana is going to have a good story trying to tackle Imogene Pass and being force to backtrack. Had to burn tons of energy trying.
Dylan is hitting some hot temperatures going into Moab.

Can someone post photo of the rock slide? I can't seem to find it.

[schillingsworth]

Indiana's Rock Slide pic from FB:

 

[woody]

 Thanks for posting pic.
I went over Engineer Pass late last summer (end of August) from Lake City to Animas Forks and they had a bulldozer rebuilding the road. Close to Animas Forks.
That area is a big tourist area and I'm sure they are working hard to get those roads cleared. So maybe some of the other racers will get a chance to tackle them.

[jjohnson]

Indy's back on track, but Dylan's got about 160+ miles on Indy after that debacle. Real bad break.

[jjmundt]

It's the first year, so there will be some kinks to iron out.  And based on what I've read, the race may start a little too early to realistically include a 13,000-foot pass.  Next year might see an alteration to either the route or start date...?

[schillingsworth]

So, Dylan took a little side trip on his way into Moab y'day hitting the Practice Loop on the Slickrock trail. So good. It would be a shame to ride through there and not sample any of the goods. I'd be so tempted to sling my loaded rig down Porcupine Rim. Ha!

[ScottM]

Huge style points for Dylan on the Slickrock practice loop.  My interest in this route just went up ten-fold!

Neil B has asked us to change the route on the tracker to Cinnamon and Ophir, as Dylan rode.  Billy would be the other RD, I suppose, but he's on the divide.  No doubt there are some kinks to work out in the route, and it seems this will be the route going forward, and what should have been the route this year (this is per Neil).

[jjohnson]

Thankfully Mike was aware of the reroute and didn't try to go over Imogene. From Indy's words, it was crazy. Mad props to him for even having the balls to attempt it. He is a beast.