Cycling the Arizona Trail: Carolyn Mason - Cycle Shorts

Have you ever been so exhausted during a bike tour that the thought of going just one mile further seems impossible?

Well in this episode of Cycle Shorts I feature the story of Carolyn Mason who shares what it was like during one day of her trip, traversing a section of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona Trail.

Carolyn is currently on an open ended bikepacking tour with her partner Jacob in Central Asia.  I'm excited to say I will be interviewing both of them for a future episode of the show.

Want to be featured on Cycle Shorts? Send me a Direct Message on Instagram - @SeekTravelRide and find out more about how you can be featured.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hello everyone, it's Bella Molloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, welcoming you to another midweek mini episode in our Cycle Shorts series. This week we are featuring listener Carolyn Mason, who is going to take us to one day of her trip on the Arizona Trail. Before we get into that story, I wanted to take a quick few seconds to welcome all the new listeners to Seek Travel Ride. The last few weeks we have had a big bump in followers. So welcome to the show. I hope you are enjoying the episodes. These midweek episodes are short and sharp and they highlight a listener's adventures just on one day of their trip. So midweek on Tuesdays, you get to hear short episodes like this, and then each and every Saturday I release our long form episodes and go on a deep dive with our guest interviews. If you're new to the show, make sure you crawl through the back catalogue because chances are there are many, many episodes in there which you would probably quite enjoy. Okay, now let's listen to Carolyn talk about one day on her trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Hello, my name is Carolyn Mason. I'm currently on an open-ended tour in Kyrgyzstan with my partner Jacob, but I wanted to recount a solo bike adventure that meant a lot to me. I woke up in the Grand Canyon, it was an amazing feeling. Canyons are my favorite type of landscape, and the Grand Canyon was a place that I'd always wanted to explore. But waking up here hadn't been my plan. It was a place I never thought that I actually could spend the night outside of a guided trip, and especially never figured I'd be there with my bike. Even the day before, I thought I could cross it in a day. Twenty-one miles. I'd hiked nearly double that distance in the past, but this was different. I had to carry my mid-range aluminum hardtail mountain bike, water, and three days of food. I had managed to take three weeks off of work and sort out the logistics of leaving my van, which is my home, near the terminus of the trail in Page, Arizona. This was my first multi-week solo bikepacking trip, and it had been going really well. I was ahead of schedule, had been able to deal with all my own mechanicals, and was loving all of the outside time. But I was in the Grand Canyon, and I couldn't stay there. I cowboy camped at an overflow spot in the Cottonwood campground with two other through hikers. The through hikers had previously brought or arranged a permit to stay, but I naively thought that I could make the crossing. Other people do. A lot of people race the Arizona Trail, but the day before, as I was first starting my descent into the canyon, some park rangers stopped to let me know that I could camp at the park too, if I needed. Another note bicycles are not allowed to be ridden in U.S. wilderness areas, but they are allowed to be carried if the wheels never touch the ground. So this is what the Arizona Trail does. After meeting with the rangers, their kind words might have unmotivated me, but in the end I really did need it. After a day of carrying my bike two-thirds of the way across the canyon, the rest was really good. That morning, I got up and awkwardly fixed my bike frame, some bags, and both wheels to my camelback with volley straps and shoelaces. I picked up my load and slowly made my way up the last seven miles, eleven kilometer stretch of trail to the north rim. Soon, a through hiker I'd camped with passed me, excited to get out of the canyon. We took some photos, and then she continued on at a much faster pace. I tried to keep focus, but inevitably had to stop and unload the weight from my back in short intervals. I saw trail runners who were running rim to rim to rim. It's forty-two miles and about ten thousand feet of climbing, or seventy kilometers and three thousand meters of climbing. They were really funny, but really quite kind, and slowed down to say that they could never do what I was doing. Good job. In my head, their task was much, much harder, and they actually had to make it back out the canyon. I had friendly rangers and camping equipment, but seeing other people do things that I really couldn't do was very motivating. After lots more struggling, I continued on and ran into some park rangers and asked how much further it was. One mile. I had a passing thought. I'm actually stuck here. One mile seemed so incredibly out of reach with how heavy my load was. It was really the first physical wall I'll truly ever hit. Most times, mind over body can help you push through, and you find reserves somewhere. But this really hurt. But still, on the other hand, I wasn't allowed to be stuck here. So I'd better keep going, and I continued to make slow progress. Finally, a runner let me know that I'd made it to the last bend. It still felt unimaginably far. My load was so awkward and so heavy. I got there and started crying a little bit. I'd gotten out and done the silly thing that I most wanted to do. And I did it without mailing myself any special equipment. Just the little hardy camelback and straps that I started the trail with. I then started putting my bike back together, and was even more relieved that it still worked. I was really excited to get to ride it again. I ate a bunch of food, hung out with some other through hikers, and then continued to climb. I found snow, which required more walking, but my bike could be on the ground this time. It really didn't matter. I'd be at the terminus in the next day and was so excited to ride again and complete the trail. I found a nice place to camp that night and I slept really well. I rode the Arizona Trail in April 2021 as my first solo multi-week bikepacking trip. For a long time after that, I resolved to never complain about another hike a bike. That I could do anything for one mile. And most of the time you can use what you have, even if it's just ski straps and shoelaces.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Thank you so much, Carolyn, for sharing that day of your journey. Wow. Listening to you recount that story, I could physically feel the buildup of the fatigue as your day went on, and I could only imagine that exhaustion at one point just hearing one mile further, and it may as well have been the moon, no doubt, in your mind. But your grit and determination got you there, as did your trusty camelback and vole straps. I love those two bits of equipment, and especially the vole straps, because I just find them so versatile, and they've come in handy on my own bikepacking trips for a myriad of reasons. Well done for gritting it through, and what a memorable day of that journey. Listeners, Carolyn is actually the partner of a very recent guest, Jacob Ashton, and so we are going to be able to enjoy catching up with both of them and learning more about their current journey that they are on. As Carolyn mentioned at the start, they are currently in Central Asia on a mega journey, and I cannot wait to dig more into their experiences on this trip. So keep your eyes and ears peeled for an episode with both of them in the future. Now, for those of you awesome fans who have been showing me some love and throwing a few donations my way on Buy Me a Coffee, a big heartfelt, massive thank you. I really, really appreciate all of your support and your beautiful messages. And funnily enough, I've actually had a few previous guests donate on Buy Me a Coffee as well. So I thought it only fitting that I give them a shout out here as well. First one is Robert Reynolds, who simply says, To Oz. Robert, I hope that's a sign that you are planning a bike tour to Australia soon. I'll definitely keep my eyes and ears open for any news on that front. Russell Nan Curvis, he says, keep up the great work, Bella. Thank you so much, Russell. I really appreciate your support. And listeners, in less than two weeks' time, you're going to be listening to the bike adventure story that Russell took as well. Art Zemin. He says, Hi Bella, keep up the great work. You're inspiring me as I prep for my next tour. Thanks so much, Art. I'm really looking forward and intrigued to find out where you're planning on going next. And then lastly, I have Ali Dastagazata who says, Thanks for sharing all these stories. I love staying in touch and all the content that you are sharing. I can't wait to visit the Pyrenees in the future. Well, thanks so much, Ali. I look forward to showing you the amazing writing that can be found in this beautiful part of the world along this mountain range. Now, listeners, if you too want to support the show, it's really easy to do so. Just click the link for buy me a coffee in the show notes and you too can help keep my microphone turned on and interviews rolling with new guests each and every week. Until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening to the