Moab Day 2: Mmmm Heat

My second day in Moab consisted of more quality desert fun. I woke up early again and headed to the Sovereign Singletrack Trail. Moab has been getting pressure to build more trails and in particular singletrack for mountain bikers and this was the newest trail around. I had expected it to be more like the trails near Salt Lake but it was similarly covered in slickrock like the day before... Good stuff! I rode out and eventually got to this gigantic area of just plain old open rock. A pure mountain biking playground:



Eventually I would ride down into that and play around a whole bunch... mmmm....

I had started an hour later than the day before and was starting to feel the heat. I think the desert started to get to me as I swear this really looked like mint chocolate chip ice cream:



After the ride, I took a quick drive to Dead Horse Point before driving back to Salt Lake. The view point looks into Canyonlands and is pretty darn sweet.



I've made it to RPI and classes start tomorrow... Missing Utah, but it's good to be back.

Moab Day 1! and 80 on 80

I'm back in Ohio.... woot? After three days of humming along 80 generally at 80, I'm back in Cincinnati for a couple days before returning to school.

I'm about three weekends behind... well time to start catching up!

I didn't feel like I could leave Utah without mountain biking in Moab. Known as the practical Mecca of mountain biking, Moab has some of craziest, funnest, trails around. The town is situated in a Southern Utah canyon and is about four and a half hours away from Salt Lake. I raced down Friday after work to arrive just in time to snag a motel room. I know... I know... a motel room? Not camping? What's the deal? It's freaking hot in the desert and I went in August. After riding hard in the blazing desert sun, I decided a shower and air conditioning would be better than a tent.

My heat related suspicions were confirmed when I joked with the motel owner about the heat. He said I should be used to it coming from Salt Lake. I explained that I figured we probably had more shade. He looked at me quizzically, "What's shade?"

I was up at the crack of dawn the next morning to ride the Slickrock Trail. And I mean the crack of dawn. I was at the trailhead and riding by 6 AM to try and thwart the sun. The slickrock trail is probably the reason Moab is so popular. About 99% of the trail is hard, grippy rock. The traction on the rock let's you climb and descend on stuff steeper than you ever thought possible. It's mountain biking Utopia. Until you realize that falling has equally raised stakes...



You can see the trail here... it's marked on the rock by all the little white dashes; riding is kind of like playing connect the dots. I think your rode the above section in the downhill direction.

The trail winds around a plateau above Moab which you can see down into at a couple of overlooks.



After the ride, I ate a ridiculously good lunch at a little coffee shop in town before taking off to Arches National Park for some late afternoon hiking. I hiked about 7 miles and saw a bunch of natural stone arches including the famous Delicate Arch (Utah's unofficial symbol). Of course, my battery died early in the hike so all I have pictures of are the driving views and Balancing Rock:






That sucker could go at any moment.... Feeling lucky? I wonder why the Park Service doesn't charge people to hit the rock with a bat like a pinata... Probably a bad idea....

I pushed hard and really just caught Delicate Arch at sunset. It was wicked dark and late by the time I got back into town. Only a Wendy's Baconater would fufill my recovery needs... mmmmm....

Wind River Range Day 3: Coming Down....

Ok, ok, I've finally got a minute to write about my third day in the Wind Rivers.

I woke up earlier than the previous day; I've got ten miles to get to my car and I'd prefer not to have to drive home in the dark. I quickly pack up my bags and start to look for the trail. There's supposed to be a three-way trail junction at the lake... but I'm seeing nothing.... Eventually I work my way in the direction that should be my car and find the trail. The hiking has more rolling ups and downs but with less lakes and more big open meadows.



There's a crucial intersection along the way and the first time I come to a sign it points out all the trails in question but has fallen over giving no good indication of direction (they go about the same way). I pick the one that feels right and chug along when about half an hour later I get to an intersection marked with the exact same trails..... Strange..... I fiddle around with my compass and conclude that I'm sane and not going in circles. I keep going the way I planed. Fortunately, this intersection didn't show up a third time.... It's strange how as I get closer to civilization the trail signs are getting more random... eh, no worries.

Eventually I got down into the trees which was still pretty nice:



Later in the morning I passed my first group of humans in more than 24 hours. There's 4 guys and six horses. I'm carrying all my stuff on my back. These guys have it spread over six horses. What did they BRING? There's not outlets for that big screen buddy.... My descent gets steeper and steeper and I eventually drop into the basin where I started. Another quick 2 miles along the lake brings me to my car.

This day was relatively uneventful but that's alright because my legs were tired and the easy hiking was an enjoyable break.... All in all, the Wind River Range was awesome. Big mountains, little crowds, quality trails. I dig it.