AZT 300….
AZT 300 is a bikepacking race on the first 300 miles of the Arizona Trail, from Parker Canyon Lake to Picketpost trailhead east of Phoenix.
I can’t recall when I became aware of this event, but it’s been on my radar for a few years. The desire to ride it grew the more trip reports I saw and the more friends I saw riding it. April is always a busy time of year at work though and I’ve never been able to get enough time off to ride it. This year I was finally able to make it happen!
The 300 is known as a tough route requiring long days riding to finish in a typical 4-5 day period. I’ve ridden quite a bit of the route, but had yet to set tires to some notorious sections like the Canelo’s and Oracle Ridge. The gist of the route is ride 150 miles to Tucson, then climb up and over Mt Lemmon, then ride another 100 miles through the desert on the Gila 100 route. Riding the Gila 100 a couple years ago took me 2 full days, and some of the other segments near Tucson are respectable full day rides on their own, nevermind Mt Lemmon.
I non-committingly set 4.5 days as my goal for the 300, hoping to get to Box Canyon Rd (about mile 70) on Day 1 and past Redington Rd on day 2. Beyond that I wanted to set myself up to do the climb out of the Gila river early morning or in the evening rather than the heat of the day. If I could ride into Picketpost Monday morning I was thinking that would be my ideal 4.5 day finish. By bikepacking race math though, a noon finish on the 5th day would actually be a 4-day finish, since time is tracked based on 24 hour days from your start time, not calendar days. I didn’t realize this til a day or so into the race, that I actually had til midnight Monday to finish in 4.5 days!
With a hard deadline to return to work on Wednesday I decided to start Thursday morning rather than join the main group on Friday. Catching a shuttle down would have required me to take Thursday off work anyways, at least this way I would have an extra day to make the finish in case things didn’t go as planned. I have the means to self shuttle now, so may as well make use of it!
I hit the road Wednesday afternoon hoping to get to Picketpost and make it most of the way to the start line before crashing for the night. I asked around if I could hop in with anyone driving down early Thursday but no luck with the odd timing. Instead I was able to offer a ride to Mark Caminiti who was near Superior and looking for a lift down to the start. I got to Picketpost around 11pm, dropped of my moto and met Mark who was hanging out at the TH.
Mark is a bit of a bikepacking legend having done AZTR, CTR and Great Divide multiple times including Triple crown (all three of those) in one year twice, so it was a fun ride down chatting about bikepacking and racing. The weakness in my plan was we needed to do some shopping in Tucson before continuing on, so we ended up grabbing a motel so we could shop and get a good breakfast in the morning. I wanted to get to the start line early as possible, but even getting up at 630 we didn’t make it down there til well after 11. So much for cool morning ride temps!
Day 1
Noon – after getting bikes and gear ready and visiting with Scott and Eszter for a few minutes we got the obligatory start line photo and were ready to roll.
AZTR is Scott’s baby, and he and Eszter were hanging out at the start line to see the group off the next morning. I’ve rode with Eszter on a Death Valley bikepack a few years back, and have been on rides with Scott but never really got to meet him before. So that was cool – thanks for all the work you put into this Scott!
Ready to roll
At the stroke of noon we were off!
Scott mentioned to look out for Wendy who had slashed a tire and was hiking back. We ran into her a short distance down Gear Check Hill from the start after her 5 mile hike back!
Mark C. was quickly out of sight and I settled in for a hot afternoon haul through the Canelo’s. I wasn’t sure what to expect aside from some steep loose climbs and descents.
This stream was not something I was expecting. I followed what I thought was an obvious trail along it and even went through a legit looking gate before realizing I’d missed a turn when the trail got a little too raw and narrow. The stream was nice though.
A bit of fresh trailwork lulled me into thinking maybe the riding would be easier than expected. But a couple short HABs followed shortly by a couple longer ones put that thought to rest.
Steep climb with a view
There were a few sections of jeep road mixed in, some fast some were tough climbing.
I could spot the flowers on this cactus half a mile away, the only distinct color in sight
Looking NE, there is some wide open country out there for sure
Why we’re here!
I thought I was moving fairly well through the first half to Canelo Pass Rd, but it still took me about 2 hours to cover 8 miles. The second half had some much longer HABs and I slowed on those as the temperature climbed. Lots of short breaks for snacks and hydration. It wasn’t too windy but was hot and dry, so I had a bit of cottonmouth going on. I tried to keep moving though and eventually made it to Canelo Pass Rd at mile 15 in another 2.5 hours, and was on to the easier second half of the ride to Patagonia.
A short climb up to a saddle led to some fun singletrack and then some scenic jeep road
It was getting on towards golden hour and I still had some miles to go to Patagonia
You don’t often see a functional windmill these days, but this one was spinning
There was some tough riding through here with the low sun in my eyes and plenty of sniper rocks lurking in the grass overgrowing the trail.
There was more jeep trail to come, a ton of wash crossings some requiring a downclimb to get into, and then some fun singletrack with a few short ass-kicking climbs before I hit pavement. I ran out of water 2-3 miles before the pavement, around the same time I ran out of daylight. So I pedaled the last few miles into Patagonia in the dark.
I got into town just after 8. Almost everything there closed at 8, so my only choice was Velvet Elvis pizza, which was open for another ½ hour.
All I had been craving the last couple hours was a huge fountain pepsi. I had to settle for the bottled variety, which was fine by me. I ate half my pizza and had the rest wrapped to go. They were nice enough to fill my reservoir and water bottle too. I had plenty of food, so I was good to go.
I finally got rolling just after 9pm. The highway pedal to Sonoita was uneventful, lots of semi’s but everyone was cool except for one guy in an suv who had to lay on the horn as he sped past. I rode slow but steady, only stopping once for a short break at the rest stop. Sonoita was deserted aside from the cop hidden behind a construction sign to catch speeders.
I could have gone for another pepsi but nothing was open, so I made the turn onto Hwy 83 and kept going. Temps had stayed fairly warm up until that point but I hit a cold patch of air that was frigid with the faster pace. I was happy to turn onto slower dirt road again and warm up. I kept up the slow and steady pace as I climbed.
After the route turned left onto a smaller dirt road I started noticing some chafing and discomfort. I tried a couple adjustments but it didn’t help, so I tried removing shorts in favor of just the chamois. That didn’t help either, so I changed into a dry chamois. Finally that made a bit of difference, though the damage was already done. I was concerned as the spot that was chafing isn’t a spot I’ve ever had an issue before. Alternating seat and foot positions helped just enough that I could keep moving, but all this really slowed me down.
I had been hoping to get to Box Canyon Rd that night at around mile 70 on the route, but it was past 2am and I was still about 3 miles before Kentucky Camp when I finally decided to stop and sleep. I found a good spot at the top of the “ascent of death,” really just a short but distinct HAB. Considering the late start on the day, getting close to Kentucky Camp was nothing to complain about.
Stats for Day 1 – 58mi, +6,100/-6,500, 14.5 hours
Bookmarks