paid a penny

aztr750 2018

Picket Post a week before the start

PP again

Setting the bike up in PP car park

Tiger Mine Trail Head

Signage seems to make great targets

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Shot to shit

first ride on a new rear wheel

The start or southern end of the AZT

A great view first thing in the morning

A flash spot to contemplate scratching

Try as you will but when you throw up many many times you care little about what you throw up on

Back in the race. A 2am gate on the way to Molino Hike A Bike

I threw up here.

The trail is sensational from Tiger Mine TH to Ripsey Wash but pay attention.

Heading over those hills sometime later in the day.

was not paying attention

thank you

looking back, this is a fun section 

From Montezuma Pass near the start line

going over those at some point too

The ridge line trail and a good spot to ring for pizza. Allow 45mins to get down to the bridge

Ordering pizza before a race to the bridge. We allowed 30mins. Lucky the delivery was 15mins late

ADOT spigot on the right

add your own caption

Morning view

I'd wanted to see this in daylight but next time I want to climb to PP in the dark. It gets far too hot in those canyons

Heading to Fitz

Motel 6 loved what I left them - a dirty bathtub

Ridable if you are going south bound

Along the Highline Trail (maybe) somewhere.
Edit: its on the way to Pine. My next photo was of That Brewery.

Humpheries Peak

 Dropped into the canyon at 5pm for an all night hike to pop out on the north rim around 7ish?

next morning climbing out

...slowly

painfully slowly

had a tail wind to Jacob Lake. Thankfully I was not kicked off the road by the ranger. Next year will be a different story.

nice gesture - shit bar

too much to face, we went for beer

and who else would you want to have beer with?

Brand new a couple of weeks ago. They held up for the canyon hike. Will use these (type) again.

Got extremely sick
Dehydrated,
GI issues
Could not keep food down
Quit 10 000 times but never where anyone could pick me up so I kept going
Managed a finish

Highlights:
Driving around Az with Dave H pre and post ride
Beer. Oh the beer!
North side of Humphrey's  (?spell) peak to Stateline campground in one hit
Pizza with Dan
Tomato soup at Corner Bakery - half a gallon - I shit you not!
Cowboy sleeping in the desert

Low points:
Loosing voice from throwing up
Falling off the bike due to low energy  - I popped the bead on the front tyre on a corner on day two when I tumbled into a prickly shrub. I lay there upside down in pain listening to a loud hiss thinking I had to sew that back up. It was a sensation of elation to find I only had to set the bead again.

Comical
Sitting in bar in Sonoita after the worst day ever pushing a bike. Covered in vomit, dirt, and some blood looking like a derelict trying to order a meal (they did not like the look of me at all), shaking, then having to kick the leg out due to cramps making the waitress jump back startled at this odd person

Trail magic:
The Golf club at Queens valley. Chatting with some retirees from Minnisotia then getting up to pay and someone had already paid for my meal.
Daves attempt at encouragement by leaving a choc bar on a gate just before the finish. Turns out Dave hated that bar too.

Appreciation:
Elliot Dumont - Road Runner Cycles
John Shilling - for being John
Dave H - great travelling buddy
Dan - he had a phone to order pizza
Desitin - multi purpose

The title explanation:
After days of keeping the bare minimum down going to the loo became unnecessary, but you'd go through the motions and only ever be rewarded with a fart. Wearing bib knicks is very comfy but a royal pain. It is necessary to almost get nude to go for 2s. After 4 days of this the old poem(?) popped into my head - here is sit broken hearted, paid a penny, only farted. It seemed appropriate. All that effort and to quote a mates kids - 'just farts'.