Trans Utah 2009 event start time: September 26, 4AM, in front of the Mormon Temple in downtown St George. We’ll ride a no-drop all-together pace on pavement across town (south) until we hit dirt. The early start combined with the shortened desert section should have everyone reasonably high before the heat of the day sets in.
The route has gotten a facelift. It’s not complete yet, but to help with your planning here is the part that is: Trans Utah: St George to Powell Point. Compared to the 2008 route, the changes are:
– initial desert section shortened. New singletrack added, Coyote spring still in. This will help us get to higher elevations before the mid-day heat sets in.
– Goulds loop removed
– Brianhead loop, Marathon trail removed. That climb sucked and was all private land until very close to BH. We’ll still go to Cedar City, but will come up Cedar Canyon (pavement) to Woods Ranch where we’ll climb up a jeep trail to the beginning of the Virgin River Rim trail.
– Added singletrack from Teha CG to Navajo Lake lodge. A great trail segment and potential resupply.
– routed course to hit the junction of UT 14 and US 89. Great little gas station there at Long’s Junction. Hot food, tables, friendly. My bailout point in ’08. This traded in a few miles of jeep roads for pavement.
– reroute on the Grandview trail on the southern traverse of the Paunsaugunt: we’ll head N (up) Mill creek to join some jeep track and hook back into the Grandview from the top of the plateau. The trail conditions of the Grandview between these points are horrific, parts of it wiped out wholesale by mudslides – I suffered through it on the Paunsaugunt Enduro so you don’t have to.
– reroute E of Tropic to include the Henderson Canyon singletrack.
These changes make the route significantly kinder in terms of resupply points. The big picture:
Time-wise Long Valley to Tropic is the longest between points up to Powell point. Plan on 2 more days from Tropic to Boulder and that should do it for planning purposes.
How could it be that I’m getting excited for this already? So much for CTR fatigue…
Holy Crap, Dave – I can’t believe you’re already thinking, planning and psyching up for this monster!!! All I can think about is Mountain Dew, Ho-Ho’s, sleeping in, and a bit of rock climbing thrown in the mix. I wish I cold make this (and the Coconino loop) this year, but I just don’t think it’s gonna happen. Time-off and mental state are allowing me about two shots per year, and between the AZT and CTR I blew my wad… Hopefully I can count on Jefe to show up and suffer for me. Good luck with it, and seriously, I’m blown away my your energy level so soon after the CTR.
Oh yeah, and looking at the elevation profile, it sort of seems like you oughtta go the other direction… :-)
Linky no worky.
And yes, I’ve considered doing it as a ‘shuttle’ and finishing in St. G…
Ha ha Stefan – I never said I was getting excited to race it. No sir, not me. If Jefe races this beast he’s a sick man indeed. I’m pretty sure putting a multi-day self-support event at the end of the season calendar spells doom for any sort of aspirations to get a race going. All mojo has been expended by this time of year. I’m pretty sure even Jefe is fried to the bone right now.
Try the link again. There is some bizarre wordpress stuff going on but I think it’s working now.
Doing the route in reverse could be a super ride. The major difference would be the segment between tropic and powell point – much easier in reverse! Other parts would be total ass kickers in reverse. I’ll leave those details as an exercise in discovery for the initiated.
Yowza Dave!
I’ve got the dates inked in. Nice profile. Looks like a sweet way to end the season.
Dave K