CSTR Planning

[tanman1337]

How's everything going so far Sean? Any updates?

[Sean Allan]

Nothing to update, it's pretty much ready to go. I've got to contact Matt about tracking but other than that I'm just waiting for the snow to melt to go out and take care of any small changes to the GPX. I've just about finished the water/supply table and have a basic "turn left here" set of cues I want to work on further.

[tanman1337]

Awesome! I'm getting so excited.

[AZTtripper]

have a basic "turn left here" set of cues I want to work on further.

That's great, not that many especially racers will need them. But I do see posts on occasion from guys who want to go GPS free. With a simple cue sheet some one could study the course and print out the maps to have a more back to basics adventure. Not the fastest way to roll but like I said I do see those postings.

Scott has said that to put a race on there should be a minimum effort required. The course should all be made of live tracks, no drawing tracks except perhaps major roads, and a cue sheet. If somebody's not willing to do that much it seems people should leave it to those who are willing. Sounds like your doing all that anyone can hope for and more.

[trebor]

I think this will be an awesome adventure. So long as nothing comes up I'll be there. And I may drag a couple of others with me.

[Sean Allan]

Forest Baker was kind enough to set up a Google Docs. page for us to sign in to. No hard commitments ( we won't come looking for you if you don't show  ). Just an opportunity to see who might show up on race day.

A friend and I will be working on finishing up a cue sheet in the next week or so. The water waypoint file is complete. I need to get a couple of changes that were made to trailheads last year mapped out and we will be good to go. I think these areas are melted out by now.

Tracking should be available from Scott and Trackleaders for the normal fees. It would be a really good idea to have a SPOT for this event. I'm not really worried about route cutting, but from a safety factor, it really would be a good idea. There are places on the route that could be very difficult to self extract if you were to get hurt. Beyond that, there are areas of the route where if you made a mistake, the consequences could be pretty steep. Don't let that scare you off, it's just best to be safe I think.

Sign up here: http://goo.gl/DPnYG

[Sean Allan]

Just wanted to give a heads up on the current GPX. It is just about finished up. I've been cleaning up the noise on it for the past several days and added the final couple of pieces from this past weekend. Other than one small area it looks pretty good, I may have to go out and re-ride that section. Of course it's in the middle of nowhere and it appears to be only a couple of hundred feet that are affected, but it is a critical turn on a very faint trail so I want to make sure it is correct.

Bottom line is don't make a ton of plans or do much work around the GPX on the website, it will be updated in the coming days.

Keep in mind when you are looking at the GPX that much of this route is in heavy tree cover and very steep river canyons, think 1,500' high on both sides and 100' wide at the bottom. You won't be always right on top of the track, I've done the route several times and the GPX is always slightly different. Luckily in most all of these areas there is no place else to go but to follow the singletrack, that or fall off the side of the mountain......

If any of you need the water waypoints early let me know, otherwise I'll put them up with the cues when they are complete.

[B_Bock]

Hey Sean,
Let me know if you need any help w/ cues in the Tahoe area. This is gonna be a great way to cap off the summer. I'm looking forward to pre-riding some of the course.
Cheers, Blake

[Sean Allan]

New route GPX is up. Cleaned it up and added the new bits and some small connections. This should be the finished route pending any logging operations. The faint turn at Buck Island Lake does not look right to me so I'm going to go out and ride that section and check it against the track.

http://californiasierratrailrace.com/The_Route.html

[trebor]

looks pretty bumpy! 

[tanman1337]

Haven't heard much talking about the race lately. Just making sure everything is still on for Aug 31st?

[aarond]

Hey Sean, looks like a great course!  Won't be able to make it up on the 31st, but thinking about an ITT a week or two later.  How well would a tandem work on this trail?

[Buttermilk]

How well would a tandem work on this trail?

Like a submarine with screen doors.
Plenty of technical but rideable stuff that would be more enjoyable on a bicycle built for one.

[Sean Allan]

Oh yeah were still going to go on the 31st. I've just been working on the cues and the water tables. I'm just kind of waiting for the TDR to die down a bit before I bother Matt about tracking, that should be up and available for sign up here soon. I'll put the water cues up and Trebor has a complete unsimplified GPX that I will also put up for those wishing to look at it in more detail.

Aaron,
I've been riding and racing mountain tandems for nearly 20 years, about 1/2 of the route would be marginally o.k. for a tandem, the other 1/2 would suck horrendously. That being said, I've likely done 90% of the route on our Ventana ECDM, just not all in one shot, or loaded.....

Trebor's profile looks more like what I thought it would look like, 65-70,000' of vert gain at around 410-430 miles.

[Buttermilk]

spent some time perusing the route today and it looks sweet.
Get those legs and lungs ready. Like the profile suggests...lots of big ups and downs 1000' here and 1000' there kind of bumps. I like the low point on the route of ~550' and the high of ~9600', that's a good bit of elevation change. The scenery will be breathtaking also.
Sean, thanks for pulling this all together and giving us west coast guys a local high caliber course!

[aaron w]

Hi, I'm having no luck accessing either of the gpx files on the route page...even though I'm pretty sure I've been able to do so in the past.  When I click on either of the tracks, a document type page is opened with lots of lat/lon coordinates.  I just tried clicking on other gpx files on the routes page of this site, and no problem opening those.  I get the usual pop-up asking me if I want to open or save the file.  I've also tried using my other computer with the same results.

Also what is the difference between the two files?  The one that says 10000 pt track is only a few KB, while the other file is 6MB?

Thanks!

[Sean Allan]

Aaron,
You're doing it right, a GPX is essentially just a text document. Just do a "save page as" on your computer and it should be there as a GPX in your download file on your computer. The 6 MB is the full route without the return leg from Deadwood to Auburn(you would just follow the outbound track). The smaller file is a reduced file for older Garmin units with a 10000 track point limit.

PM if you are still having issues, this stuff isn't easy for me either.

I'll be finishing up the water waypoints and uploading a full route file with both the outbound and inbound legs from Deadwood to Auburn later tonight.

I did the first 75 miles today and the 10000 point track was spot on in most areas and the water waypoints were within a 50 feet of where I wanted them.

Nearly 10,000' of up in the first 65 miles.....

[aaron w]

Sean, thanks a lot!  I've downloaded a lot of this type of stuff in the past, but this file behaved a bit differently and that stumped me. 

For any others with the same issue what worked for me is to right click on the file, then "save target as".

So 10,000' of climbing in the first 65 miles I figured for sure a downhill finish, but NO!  One last 1000 footer to keep it real!

[Sean Allan]

Cool!
I don't have any firm numbers, just what my legs have told me for the 15 years I've lived here, but my guess is nearly the same amount of climbing in the last 65 as well, plus that last 1000' up to the finish. I think it's flat to slightly downhill for the last couple of hundred feet into the parking lot though
One thing about this area is that there are no flats anywhere, you either are climbing out of a 2000' river canyon or descending down into one with the prospect of climbing out and likely dropping down into another one. I certainly could have upped the climbing stats significantly, but it would have all been gratuitous climbing and mileage. We'll see how everyone feels about the difficulty this year, I can make it harder and longer if needed.

I'm just hoping for it to go off without a hitch. I'm more nervous about it going well than doing well........

14 signed up so far plus 3 or 4 that have contacted me that haven't signed up. Hopefully most of us will be able to toe the line together.

[Sean Allan]

O.K.
The water waypoints are up and Trebor's full gpx is there as well. The waypoints also have some critical turn directions as some of the course crosses or travels the same track twice, don't want you going the wrong way!