CHARLIE THE BIKEMONGER
This spring, I got back from a few days bikepacking on the Arizona Trail. It’s an 800-mile off-road trail that runs the length of the state from Utah in the north, heads over the Grand Canyon and winds its way down to Mexico. In a single day you can encounter several seriously different environments, from that low desert to craggy snow-topped mountains. It’s one hell of a trail.
Ian (my Dorset local riding buddy), Gil (singlespeeding’s premier sticker printer), and I jumped onto the trail for three days. Well, I say jumped; we fell out of Dirty’s Industry Nine van with colds and hangovers, but also with coffees and super-welcome egg butties. We rode from near Phoenix, Arizona, heading south towards the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo race – a three-day mountain biking Glastonbury of about 3,000 folk – and a Friday 5pm cocktail party at the whisky tree (yes, more on this later), loaded with minimal kit and around eight litres of water each.