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....