Moab, UT White Rim Weekend!

This is the Delicate Arch in Moab, UT. Kris Lathrop, Chris and I went on a hike on Sunday to see some of the arches in Moab. I hardly ever get the chance to go on a hike, so it was really fun to do the 'tourist' thing and see the sights instead of riding. The plan for the day was to go sky diving, but the weather was not the best.. and riding was out of the picture since there was no way I could sit on a saddle after riding White Rim the day before.

Kris, Chris and I had joined another group of people from Aspen who were planning to ride White Rim in a day, May 1st. We camped on Friday night at the top of Shafer trail (which is a long climb, especially at the end of the day) and began riding Saturday morning at 6:30am. The plan was to be riding by 6am, but hey, I am NOT a morning person. I thought 6:30am was pretty good... so we watched the sun rise on our bikes as we made our way towards the white rim trail, prepared with camelbaks, lots of granola bars and some sour patch kids. yep, i have decided that gummie candy is way better to eat for this type of riding than anything resembling a healthy bar or Gu. We started 20 miles further away from everyone else and our support vehicle (which contained our food, extra clothes and water) who stayed at hotels and began riding from the visitors center. I suppose we just like the challenge- so for the first 4 hours of our ride, we had to make up 20 miles on our group to catch up before we ran out of water- this meant going harder than I would have liked at that time of the morning but we did catch them- and it was glorious!

Now that the stressful part was over (not knowing if we would ever catch them and get more food and water) we could ride and enjoy ourselves. The views were amazing! I think thats what I like best about mountain biking- it brings you to far away places and you get to see things many people might never see-
We stopped for lunch around mile 65-70 which was cold pizza- sooo delicious! again, health bars just don't cut it when it comes to riding for that many hours- real food is essential! I was craving something real, and Nick Armano had turned us on to the idea of cold pizza last year while riding the colorado trail- pulling out a pizza from the back pocket on the top of a mountain pass in the middle of no where is the best!

After lunch we had a few set backs (Nick flatted 3 times! poor guy! sucky!) but the 3rd one held and we were off to finish our last stretch of our 100 mile ride. I have to admit, at mile 85, i was pretty much ready to be off my bike. I was riding my trusty Spot, which was great for the climbs, but when it came to the rocky sections my butt was killing me! A full suspension would be a much better bike for that length of ride- I am hoping to have my ASR-5 built up for this weekend at Mesa Verde. Chris was having an awesome day and he ended up pulling us on the long stretches of flatness on the trail- which was sweet since the wind was picking up and we were all getting tired. Finally the last climb was upon us, and we all knew once we got to the top the ride was done! our new Outside Van Sprinter was waiting at the top filled with chips and beer! oh yeah!

The group made it back safe and we all celebrated and rejoiced after getting out of our chamois and into some dry clothes while sipping some nicely chilled Tecate and BLL. White Rim in a day successfully accomplished :) This weekend is 12 hours of Mesa Verde- Cortez here we come!