Last Saturday, Jason, Tom Goth, Jason Prigge, and I rode the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park. I was expecting dusty and boring but got mind blowing scenery and cool perfect weather.
Jason and Tom skipped town Friday evening and stayed in Moab while Prigge and I opted for the early alarm and left my house at 5 AM. By 9:15, we hopped on our bikes and rode down the Mineral Bottom road, heading in a clockwise direction.
Every few minutes we kept screaming about how beautiful and wild the landscape was and I think this fueled our early hot pace. We stopped a few times to hike over and look down from the rim and a few other times to scrap myself off the slick rock or to fix a flat (just one on the day). Otherwise, the day went off without a hitch and we returned to the car about 8 1/2 hours after starting. We even made it back to SLC that evening so as to not miss out on the mother's day celebrations the next morning.
Regarding my crash, I was so stunned by the scenery that I kept trying to take photos while riding and eventually it caught up with me. I'm lacking in bike handling skills and on a flat section of trail, somehow managed to end up slamming my shoulder and head into the slick rock. My head being hard and covered by a helmet was fine but my shoulder felt destroyed. I lay in a heap while Jason and Tom actually expressed concern instead of the typical laughter. Eventually, I wiped away waves of nausea, got back on the bike, and was happy to find that I could ride without trouble. I just couldn't lift my arm up.
Not even my stupidity could ruin the day.
My interest is now piqued to return and ride it as a TT or to take the bikes elsewhere and explore other corners of the desert. I've always thought of adventures in terms of how far I could run in a day. Now that we are on bikes, I have to readjust my scale of what is possible.
Suggestions for adventure rides are more than welcome.
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| Early in the ride near to top of the Hardscrabble climb |
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| The guys and the Green River |
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| Investigating big holes |
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| Look closely, Jason and Tom should be visible at the edge of the sage. |
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good outing. check out lockhart basin road (across the CO from the WR) as a good conduit. also the bullfrog ferry for a connection to make some big road loops. another big day on a cross bike would be hanksville/bull creek pass (6k climb) notom road back to 24. or notom road/burr trail/boulder mt. (basically a capitol reef circumnav).
ReplyDeletekokopelli trail. 140 miles. I think the FKT is 12 hours.
ReplyDeleteI think you mean you road counterclockwise based on your strava. semantics.