ANYWAY.... We all met at like 6:00 AM to load up. Ian of course was up all night getting bikes ready for everyone else and then BUILDING his own bike! He got the frame the day before! He's crazy!
Amazingly enough we managed to get on the road by 7, but we had to meat Andy Kerlin in Spanish Fork Canyon. He joined us after camping up there with friends. So really we were REALLY on the road by like 8:00. I had Tyler Newton, Andy and Majid Abbasi (from Iraq!!!!) in my car with me. Majid immediately conked out pretty good on the way there. Come to think of it... everyone did for a while! But we got a really good picture of Majid:
We rolled into Moab sometime around 11:00 and stopped at a bike shop to get a few last parts for Ian's new bike. (I can't believe he put a whole bike together in one night!)
The first trail of the day was Slick Rock. Somehow I managed to get put into the advanced group of riders! It was nice of them to let me come with them. :-) I hope I didn't slow them down too much. About 1/2 mile into the ride Tyler's deruailler snapped off. Total bummer, but at least we weren't super far away from the car. He took my keys and headed back to town to get it fixed while the rest of us rode the trail. About a mile late Josh's chain broke, but one of the bikers passing by had a tool and we got it fixed. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. For those of you who don't know much about Moab; its in the middle of red rock country. Absolutely beautiful. Slick Rock trail is just rolling hills of solid sandstone. It's a pretty unique ride because you get the steep descents and hills of mountain biking combined with the kind of traction you can get on sold concrete! That means you can have a pretty controlled ride which = SUPER fun!
Breaking for lunch. Me on the left, Josh in the back and Majid in the white. I should've taken a picture but from where we were sitting we could see people going up and over this crazy steep / tall ridge in their jeeps and hummers etc. It was pretty cool. I wouldn't be caught dead taking my own car over stuff like that. We were pretty sure they were all rental cars though because they all looked brand new!
Me on the left, Josh in the middle and Majid on the right.
Me on the left, Andy in the middle and Josh on the right. That's Moab down in the valley behind us. Check the great yellow fall leaves!
PS - I bought a new bike! A few months ago my mountain bike frame snapped in half. Booo! So I got it welded back together. Yay!!! Then, 2 days before this trip I took it out for a test drive and it broke in a different spot - where it really can't be welded so it was totalled! BOOOO / PANIC! I was supposed to go to Moab in less than 2 days. So what did I do? I jumped on KSL.com and found this steal of a deal. A 2 year old K2 that runs for $900 new. I think the guy only used it like 3 times EVER! It looks like it's right out of the box. AND I talked the guy down to $400! YAY! I was shocked at how much better the ride feels on a higher end bike. It is great! And to make the story better, I got clipless pedals and shoes for 60% off! WOW those make a huge difference. I love 'em!
Just a little way further along the loop was this great view up the canyon. Left to Right: me, Josh, Majid, Andi. You can see the road way down there on the right of the river. The resort Dad and Deb and the other adult Viehwegs were staying at was up this canyon.
One more for good measure.At the end of this 12-ish mile loop I was totally beat! But the other guys - and Tyler with his fixed bike wanted to ride Porcupine Rim (the trail we did last year - see that post here). I would've loved to do it again, but I knew I would get about 1/2 way down and just die of fatigue. So I played shuttle / taxi and even managed to meet up with the parents etc. up at their resort to chat for a bit b/c their resort was just up the road from where Porcupine Rim ends. PERF! Anyway, that place is BEAUTIFUL! See Deb's pics here.
I couldn't stay for long, and once I was headed back to the end of the trail I got real nervous that they'd be waiting for me for a real long time. It was DARK by the time I got to the parking lot. I pulled up and sure enough they were all there - and they were all giving me this weird look! I thought it meant, "where the heck have you been - we've been here forever already!" But once I got out and appologized they just started laughing. I guess they had JUST pulled up, hopped off their bikes, saw a car coming and said, "that would be cool if that's Macsen." The timing couldn't have been better.
Needless to say they were all beat! I'm glad I didn't go. I would've died. We were all starving so off we went to Wendy's and then we headed for home. Majid immediately fell asleep across the back bench. He didn't flinch until we got to Spanish Fork. I thought I'd be super tired for the drive home but it really wasn't that bad. Tyler was great company and kept me talking the whole way.
What a fun trip! Next time I go I want to actually stay for a few days and get a few more trails in. I think 1 trail a day is enough. I guess their's a HUGE trail called "The Whole Enchilada" where you pay a shuttle to take you to the peak of the mountain - which is like 9000 feet and you ride the WHOLE way down. Apparently it takes ALL DAY LONG. Sounds super fun! Maybe next year....
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