# bikepacking passion - arizona trail



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

a couple of weeks ago a few of us rode the arizona trail from flagstaff back to our homes in phoenix. we had a vehicle slow up and push us out in flag so we had no way to get home but ride. last year i had done the arizona trail segment from the mexico border to superior on a solo endeavor and it was nice to have some company this time. we allotted 5 days, really more of a touring pace which gave us time to stop and smell the roses.


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

day 2. it was cold that morning but after some coffee and oatmeal we were off. we spent most of the day riding in the pines watching huge herds of elk. that night it got into the 20s. brrrrr


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

day 3 was a short one - descend off the rim and into payson were we hit a motel for the night so we could defrost a bit.


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

day 4 was a beautiful ride along the mazatals and a bit of road to the apache trail beyond roosevelt dam into the headwind from hell.


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

day 5 was the remainder of the apache trail, which had some killer climbs and descents, on our way home.


----------



## trailbrain (Feb 22, 2005)

Nice photos and very nice Yeti! A true classic.


----------



## Kanga (Sep 14, 2004)

Nice ridelog.... thanks for posting. 

Last year I did the Colorado Trail, end to end in 15 days. We posted nightly on the otbmbc.com web site (under epics). My riding buddies at the OTB club have our eyes set on the Arizona trail in the next year or two..... Do you have GPS tracks for the segments you did?


----------



## 6thElement (Jul 17, 2006)

Fantastic stuff.

_/goes off to start looking at rear racks_


----------



## Mordy (May 31, 2006)

Very awesome!


----------



## jeffscott (May 10, 2006)

Great ride, when are you going to reverse it?


----------



## LSett (Jan 9, 2004)

That is very, very cool!


----------



## scrublover (Dec 30, 2003)

Wow. This really tempts me to do a few short overnighter bikepack trips around here this summer!

Good stuff!


----------



## Redmon (Jan 12, 2004)

Great Job and thanks for posting. How much of the trail was hard to follow? In one of the pictures it looks as though the only thing indicating a trail is a sign.

Shawn


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

kanga - i do have some tracks but they truncated and the track i was using disappeared off my gps the second day so we largely used this.

jeff - n to south is the way to go for this segment for sure.

redmon - trail is relatively easy to follow tho we did get lost at one point and added some 20 extra miles.

www.aztrail.org

a few more random pics


----------



## Curious (Jan 30, 2004)

YuriB said:


> a few more random pics


Is that a penny alcohol stove on the ground? Sweet! I built a couple last summer out of Heineken keg cans. I've taken them a few times on my camping trips. It works perfect. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the write-up, btw. I wanna bikepack my area one day (SoCal).


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

Curious said:


> Is that a penny alcohol stove on the ground? Sweet! I built a couple last summer out of Heineken keg cans. I've taken them a few times on my camping trips. It works perfect. :thumbsup:
> 
> Thanks for the write-up, btw. I wanna bikepack my area one day (SoCal).


yes, the penny stove is awesome


----------



## Brutal Cycles (Feb 16, 2007)

Now that is Mountain Biking. Looks like a blast. Thx for sharing the pics!

Also, great to see that classic Yeti out living the good life.


----------



## Nocturnus (Mar 28, 2005)

Man, one of these days i'm going to do something like that. Looks so fun..


----------



## Kanga (Sep 14, 2004)

Thanks Yuri for the link to that book. Looks like that will be a big help!

Here's a link to the Colorado Trail we did last year. We had vehicle support, but are thinking about going back there unsupported. Before doing that, however, we want to do the Arizona Trail.

Thanks again


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

Kanga said:


> Thanks for the link to that book. Looks like that will be a big help!
> 
> Here's a link to the Colorado Trail we did last year. We had vehicle support, but are thinking about going back there unsupported. Before doing that, however, we want to do the Arizona Trail.
> 
> Thanks again


looks like an awesome ride.
i really enjoy the freedom of being self-supported and the ct is on my hit list for sure.


----------



## ignazjr (Dec 29, 2003)

YuriB, thanks for the great recap! I'm inspired as well. Looks like you encountered everything that makes up a great ride.


----------



## Kanga (Sep 14, 2004)

YuriB said:


> looks like an awesome ride.
> i really enjoy the freedom of being self-supported and the ct is on my hit list for sure.


That freedom is a little harder to come by when using vehicle support. There were days on the CT when we would have stopped and set up a primitive camp in an amazing area with spectacular scenery. As it was, we needed to "make camp" each night, and had some pretty grueling days. Being self-supported would have allowed us to enjoy some places more thoroghly, though it would have made it much longer than the three weeks we allowed. That's one reason we'd like to go back and do it self-supported with the Az Trail as a 'warm up'.

Thanks again... if you do decide to do the CT, we have lots of good beta to share.


----------



## seanlewisdamnit (May 5, 2007)

This looks like an, awesome enjoyable trip. It makes me so happy to see others who are as obsessed as I either am or soon intend to be, with cycling, MTB in particular. I hope to do several short multi-day or weeklong jaunts in my home area of the cascade lakes/ remainder of oregon if I'm lucky... Any tips you have as to recommended equipment to pack, food ideas, or other rips would be appreciated.... Thanks


----------



## CsHoSi (Sep 28, 2005)

Hi, enjoyed this thread, thanks for taking time to post. I like seeing how you guys packed your bikes, looks minimal. I want to do more bicycle touring or bikepacking myself. Thus far I've only packed and went out for one-nighters. I wish we had such nice trails to follow here. I bought a rear Old Man Mountain rack at first but didn't like the weight balance I was getting so I bought a front too.

I prefer primitive camping to any pay-site. I became fascinated with Ken Kifer's Bike Pages, where the idea of camping and biking was first presented to me.

I have a little open-flame alcohol stove I made with an Altoids tin, perlite and mesh screen. I have trouble with it if it's windy. I'd like to build a more advanced, jetted stove. I use Everclear too, three uses and non-toxic. If you want to find out more about DIY stoves, check out http://zenstoves.net/.

For grub, I mostly take dehydrated foods, either by me at home or there are lots of common foods that come dehydrated, like grains. For breakfast, instant grits or cream of rice with raisins or other fruits I may have, dehydrated of course. You can save money if you buy regular quick grits and put them through the food processor. I also buy the premium instant rice. Along with some dehydrated vegetables and the pouches of cooked tuna or chicken make a decent meal. I keep the dehydrated meals in separate freezer bags and add drinking water a little before ready to cook. Then I boil any water I can find and dunk the ziplock bag in, air pushed out and sealed, and put a foil lid over my canteen cup. In a few minutes it's hot and re-hydrated.

Would like to see more bikepacking threads in the future, hope to make some myself.


----------



## Evel Knievel (Mar 28, 2004)

Way cool pics and report.

The AZ trail is going to get popular with point to pointers for sure. Some beautiful Az off highway to be found.

Used the beer can alcohol stoves before. Many different versions and trips. Practice has found that DIY feels good , but when hungry and cold a more sure fire system has been my goto. This stove is $9.99 , qualiies as ultra light, and best of all the fuel is solid and measured well enough to boil 16oz H2O with one cube. http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?cPath=42_43&products_id=112. Solid fuel is lighter and easier to pack, no spills (or swigs).


----------



## Hollywood (Dec 30, 2003)

no jump pics? Not even a wheelie. weak.


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

seanlewisdamnit said:


> This looks like an, awesome enjoyable trip. It makes me so happy to see others who are as obsessed as I either am or soon intend to be, with cycling, MTB in particular. I hope to do several short multi-day or weeklong jaunts in my home area of the cascade lakes/ remainder of oregon if I'm lucky... Any tips you have as to recommended equipment to pack, food ideas, or other rips would be appreciated.... Thanks


the lighter the better is the best advice i can give you. do a few single overnighters and get rid of stuff you don't use and experiment with placement. I prefer to spread out the weight on the bike and use the bar bag and frame bag for things i'll be getting at often (food, maps).


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

Hollywood said:


> no jump pics? Not even a wheelie. weak.


----------



## stubecontinued (Mar 14, 2007)

That looks like a stunning trip! I would love to bikepack, unfortunately none of my friends currently own mountain bikes, so I'm stuck with hoofing it. Too much fun...


----------



## brettf (Jun 28, 2005)

Yes! Awesome trip! Thanks for the stoke!


----------



## Jessep (Dec 1, 2004)

Great post Yuri! Like everyone else who has replied, I'm also putting together an ultralight camping setup. Have you ever posted yours?


----------



## YuriB (Jan 12, 2004)

Jessep said:


> Great post Yuri! Like everyone else who has replied, I'm also putting together an ultralight camping setup. Have you ever posted yours?


Within our group we passed around this list so we knew what everyone else was up to. Not everyone took all this but among the tree of us most of this was taken. Tho not a complete list

<table x:str="" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 336pt;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="448"> [TR] [TD]2 large cycling water bottles[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]3 tubes[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]bike tools / zip ties / duct tape wrapped around seatpost[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]bike with slimed tubes[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]bivi[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Chamois Butter[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]cherry picked first aid kit[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Cleat, cleat screw, brake pads, ebb screws, extra dur hanger[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]cooking pot[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]cycling shoes[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]cycling short sleeve jersey[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]EB Bag w/ 100oz water[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]flask[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]fuel canister w/everclear[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]gloves (regular & windproof)[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]GPS[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]head head light / extra batteries[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]headsweat[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]headwarmer[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]helmet[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]hobo stove / pot holder / wind screen / extra pennies[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]ID/cash[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]leg warmers[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]lighter[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]long wool socks[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]longsleeve micro tee[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Loose allen wrenches[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]lycra cylcling shorts[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]map[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]matches[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]packable hiking shorts[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]packable pearl izumi wind jacket[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]packable toothbrush[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]pearl izumi cycling jacket[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]pearl izumi ultra sensor cycling shorts[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]phone[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]penny stove
[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]pump[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]seat bag[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]shock pump if with marz fork[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]sleeping bag w/ tie down straps[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]sleeping pad w/ tie down straps[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]small towell[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]SOG multi-tool[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]spork[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]ss cup[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]sunglasses w/case & lenses[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]thermarest[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]TP[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Water filter[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]


----------



## yetisurly (Aug 13, 2004)

joltz said:


> Nice photos and very nice Yeti! A true classic.


I like me some Yeti on the trail..


----------

