For my birthday weekend, I wanted to have a big adventure and make some progress on my Arizona Trail project. I also wanted to be on a mountain, but the mountain was expensive, so I settled for being near the base of it. So the plan was to do the climb up Mount Lemmon to… Continue reading The Mount Lemmon Birthday Beatdown
Author: azventurer
Confessions of a Lanterne Rouge: The Final Finisher of the 2023-2024 Southern AZ Triple 50
The lanterne rouge is the competitor in last place in the Tour de France. It’s a phrase that comes from the French for “Red Lantern” and refers to the red lantern hung on the rear vehicle of a passenger railway train or the brake van of a freight train, which signalmen would look for in… Continue reading Confessions of a Lanterne Rouge: The Final Finisher of the 2023-2024 Southern AZ Triple 50
2024 Old Pueblo 50: Closing Out the Triple 50
It was the second of March, 2024, at Old Pueblo 50, the final race of the Southern Arizona Triple 50. And it was time to bring it home. I had mixed feelings going into this race. I enjoyed it when I ran it in 2020, so I knew I was going to enjoy it more… Continue reading 2024 Old Pueblo 50: Closing Out the Triple 50
2024 Oracle Rumble 50 Mile: Dealing with Unfinished Business
I’ve DNF’d two races so far in my running career, but when you look at Ultrasignup, you only see one. The story you don’t get from Ultrasignup is that when I was out here in 2020 and had a bad time both out there on course, and with some life stuff before the race, I… Continue reading 2024 Oracle Rumble 50 Mile: Dealing with Unfinished Business
2023 Colossal Vail 50 Mile Race
At the beginning of December, I ran the Colossal/Vail 50 miler. It’s the first ultra I’ve gone back to a second time, and kicked off my second attempt at the Southern Arizona Triple 50. Even though there have been a few races that I have really loved and thought about going back to revisit, I… Continue reading 2023 Colossal Vail 50 Mile Race
The AZT Project: Seeing Arizona From Top to Bottom, One Section at a Time
At the beginning of 2020, as I was prepping for Oracle Rumble pretty much already knowing before the race that I wasn’t going to finish it, I came up with a sort of consolation project, but also a bigger one: I was going to cover the remaining miles I had left of the Arizona Trail… Continue reading The AZT Project: Seeing Arizona From Top to Bottom, One Section at a Time
Reflecting On a Global Pandemic and Its Effects
Nobody’s asking – because nobody reads this – but if they did, they might ask why I stopped posting for nearly four years. If they saw the dates of my last posts before that time and saw December 2019, they’d probably have a guess, and that guess would probably be at least partly right. Everybody… Continue reading Reflecting On a Global Pandemic and Its Effects
2021 Tusayan Tussle MTB Race: Another Unsuccessful Outing
I don’t remember if I’ve said it here before (and can’t be bothered to look back to see), but I’ve said it plenty in person to people; I don’t seem to be able to get into a thing without getting stupid about it. Coming back to biking was yet another example of this. I did… Continue reading 2021 Tusayan Tussle MTB Race: Another Unsuccessful Outing
My First Bikepacking Adventure: A Rough Ride
I did a pretty decent amount of backpacking in 2020 with my buddy Jim, and while we were hiking and camping out there, sometimes we talked about riding bikes. He was a mountain biker, and once upon a time I had been one too. The more we talked about trying out combining biking with backpacking,… Continue reading My First Bikepacking Adventure: A Rough Ride
Trail Runner Buys a Bike
Once upon a time, I was a mountain biker. It was mostly back in the mountain biking boom of the 90s, but like most things I do, I got out of it later than most. Late to the party, late to leave – that’s me, over and over again all my life. My wife started… Continue reading Trail Runner Buys a Bike