As you all saw from an earlier post, I started to mountain bike, my first trip being down by Bryce Canyon. So I told Jim, my sister Jan's husband, that if he is interested in doing any more I'm game. So he suggests that we go as soon as he's out of teaching school for the year. The only problem being that that weekend was when Heidi was coming home from the Philippines. Fortunately Shari was visiting making it a bit easier to bug out on Mom for three days. (disclaimer, these are not my photos, they are from the Internet).
So Jim and I head down on the 14th of June. I have my VW camper and bikes on a tail rack. Jim has our itinerary mapped out and we head straight through Moab to the Slickrock trail getting there about 1:00 p.m. (Oh, we decided to go to Moab since it had been quite cold and rainy in Utah and we figured, rightly, that it would be cooler and dry).
So we arrive at the slickrock trail and I'll have to confess I was initially terrified by it. Not knowing the technique, my new bike or my capabilities it was a bit intimidating. But after getting into it and the hang of things, I did just fine and we had a great 2 1/2 hour ride through gorgeous rolling slickrock (see pic). I unfortunately forgot my bike gloves and paid a price with a bad blister.
After a nice Mexican dinner in town we headed to our camp site which was primitive camping on the Dominion trail north of Moab and directly west of Arches. We had it all to ourselves. The next morning we started from camp on the dominion trail. It was very technical and a little hairy has we came off the ridge, and below us arose this fantastic white slickrock stretching to the horizon. It looked like some kind of glacier. When we got off the ridge we headed up this "glacier" of slickrock, which was quite different than the slickrock trail (it been very smooth). This slickrock was river bed or sea bed rock and
had allot of undulations, large indentation, etc which make it interesting. We rode and rode up this gradual climb and then had to park the bikes as we hit the Park boundary, and walked a while enjoying the scenery. But as they say, what goes up, must come down and the ride down was a blast. My rear shock proved its worth (it is adjustable and I put it on what I refer to as Cadillac mode). It really made the whole ride a super fun experience. At the bottom was a wonderful pool which had tad poles and other creatures and allot of birds. Due to the rains they had received the whole desert was quite beautiful, we even say an evening Lilly. A lot of cactus in bloom.
We continued on the ride which was a big loop and about 200 yard from camp Jim suggested we take a little side trail. Well, about 5 minutes into it I was initiated into Mounting biking with an official endo...which is to say my front wheel went off a ledge and my rear wheel decided to go over my head. If landed on my right elbow, then arm, then right knee/leg. Lying there amidst the initial pain I slowing assessed the damage and determined I was quite lucky to have nothing broken. I washed off the blood which was now forming with my water bottle and we continued on the ride for another 15 minutes or so. As I was quite close to camp I used the solar shower to wash the wounds thoroughly and then did the iodine treatment and rested.
After resting and a great lunch, we put the top down and headed to another trail called the Monitor and Merrimack (after the two Civil War ironclad ships). It was a great mix of road, slickrock and varying conditions. Unfortunately we had a good 1/2 to 3/4 miles of sand road which we ended up walking, but the scenery and ride were really great. Needless to say, by the time we were through I was bushed. After two Gatorade I finally felt human again.
So Jim and I head down on the 14th of June. I have my VW camper and bikes on a tail rack. Jim has our itinerary mapped out and we head straight through Moab to the Slickrock trail getting there about 1:00 p.m. (Oh, we decided to go to Moab since it had been quite cold and rainy in Utah and we figured, rightly, that it would be cooler and dry).
So we arrive at the slickrock trail and I'll have to confess I was initially terrified by it. Not knowing the technique, my new bike or my capabilities it was a bit intimidating. But after getting into it and the hang of things, I did just fine and we had a great 2 1/2 hour ride through gorgeous rolling slickrock (see pic). I unfortunately forgot my bike gloves and paid a price with a bad blister.
After a nice Mexican dinner in town we headed to our camp site which was primitive camping on the Dominion trail north of Moab and directly west of Arches. We had it all to ourselves. The next morning we started from camp on the dominion trail. It was very technical and a little hairy has we came off the ridge, and below us arose this fantastic white slickrock stretching to the horizon. It looked like some kind of glacier. When we got off the ridge we headed up this "glacier" of slickrock, which was quite different than the slickrock trail (it been very smooth). This slickrock was river bed or sea bed rock and
had allot of undulations, large indentation, etc which make it interesting. We rode and rode up this gradual climb and then had to park the bikes as we hit the Park boundary, and walked a while enjoying the scenery. But as they say, what goes up, must come down and the ride down was a blast. My rear shock proved its worth (it is adjustable and I put it on what I refer to as Cadillac mode). It really made the whole ride a super fun experience. At the bottom was a wonderful pool which had tad poles and other creatures and allot of birds. Due to the rains they had received the whole desert was quite beautiful, we even say an evening Lilly. A lot of cactus in bloom.We continued on the ride which was a big loop and about 200 yard from camp Jim suggested we take a little side trail. Well, about 5 minutes into it I was initiated into Mounting biking with an official endo...which is to say my front wheel went off a ledge and my rear wheel decided to go over my head. If landed on my right elbow, then arm, then right knee/leg. Lying there amidst the initial pain I slowing assessed the damage and determined I was quite lucky to have nothing broken. I washed off the blood which was now forming with my water bottle and we continued on the ride for another 15 minutes or so. As I was quite close to camp I used the solar shower to wash the wounds thoroughly and then did the iodine treatment and rested.
After resting and a great lunch, we put the top down and headed to another trail called the Monitor and Merrimack (after the two Civil War ironclad ships). It was a great mix of road, slickrock and varying conditions. Unfortunately we had a good 1/2 to 3/4 miles of sand road which we ended up walking, but the scenery and ride were really great. Needless to say, by the time we were through I was bushed. After two Gatorade I finally felt human again.
That evening we had a nice steak dinner with tortellini and Alfredo sauce. Jim and I had several games of backgammon on top of the rocks above camp with a 180 degree view of superb country. The next morning we broke camp and headed up to the Klondike bluffs trail. Again, this was a bit different than the others with a gradual climb over streams and slickrock (undulating) which had really good dinosaur tracks. This trail terminates at Arches and we walked the rest
of the way to an overlook near Tower Arch (Shari and John, we hiked there and were below this outlook where we found that helmet). After a good rest we headed back down and again, nothing like going down on slickrock with great shocks. It is fun, but you need to really keep awake. This wrapped up our rides and we headed back to SLC. 
I'll have to confess, mountain biking is extremely stressful on the body. Very anaerobic and the 2 solid days of riding really was felt the rest of the week. I felt like I had hit a wall or something. But it was very memorable and I hope to do it again soon.
Dad, I think it is awesome that you're into mountain biking now. I would love to go with you to slickrock someday. I need to upgrade my equipment. I don't know when this will happen, but we must do this someday.
ReplyDeleteI was hooked into mountain biking when we went on that ride near Litchfield conneticut when I was 12 or so. After that I saved up to buy a mountain bike in Fl. Unfortunately I had a hard time finding good trails to ride in Fl, but longed to mountain bike in the future. I got a subscription to Mtn. Bike magazine and looked at all the bikes.
Keep up the good posts.