My weekend in Moab- with pics!

[Running Mommy]

Ahhh what a fun weekend it was!
Friday afternoon running hubby and I escaped the heat and bleecchh that is Las Vegas for some fun in the red rocks.
The trip up was uneventful, I was a bit leery of what we would run into with all the fires up there, but all we ran into was some smoldering ground. Thankfully smoke was not an issue.
Saturday morning we were up bright and early and ready to ride. We headed over to Moab cyclery to pick up the Nomad that Tony rented (he has a perfectly good bike, but wanted to ride a nomad) only to find that they didn't open til 8:00. Hmmpph there went our early morning ride.
Once that was all taken care of we headed for the Sovereign trail. This trail was pretty darn fun! There were some sandy bits, but overall it was fun, fun fun! There are a ton of diferent spurs that you can take, so it can be confusing at times to figure out just where you are, but also nice to have variety.
While we were out there we met up with some guys on trials motorcycles. I've never seen these type of bikes before. They have NO SEAT! Could you imagine riding standing up the whole time?? I was also taken by how they looked alot like a downhill rig with a motor. Tony commented that the front brake wasn't much bigger than the one on my bike??!!
But they were very nice and gave us some advice on what spurs to take.
The trails seemed to have something for everyone. I'm what I would call an intermediate beginner. I like to be challenged, but I stink on singletrack that has death on the right. I'm a skeerdy kat. I also am not one for steep drop offs. Oh- and my climbing skills leave something to be desired, but I am working on it.
I like to be challenged tho, and I was on this trail. Tony is in the advanced rider category, and he was still more than satisfied. There were even some trouble balls that he walked, so I didn't feel that bad.
Overall we both left more than satisified.
The beer and ice cream were WELL deserved that night!

Sunday morning was Baby steps hooking up with the back side of Klondike bluffs.
The trail starts off very tame with 2 track that winds up through a meadow towards the slick rock. Then you hit the slick rock, and you are pitched straight into the sky. It's quite a grunt climb up the slick rock. I walked it. It was just too much for me. The slick rock was very pocked so not only do you have to climb, but you have to be concentrating on picking your line to miss the holes, and it was just more than my mind could handle.
Tony rode the entire thing but acknowledged that it is "Kind of" a grunt climb... uhhh.. yeah!
Once I caught my breath we carried on over the top of the slick rock with some ups and downs. I tried to ride all of this section, but there were some trouble balls that I had to bail on. We came to a steep downhill that had a nice ledge you dropped off and it was very loose. It dumped you down onto slick rock. I thought I might be able to make it but Tony made me walk it. His exact quote was "NO! We are too far out here for me to be carrying you out". sigh....
We then hit the intersection where the singletrack started. I tried to ride it, but it's a new trail and not very pounded in yet so it's VERY loose. It had some hairy bits in the beginning so I walked most of it. It also had "death on the right" and I didn't feel like dying that day.
I finally hit a spot that I felt comfortable on so I started riding. I cleaned a pretty hairy descent and was stoked. I came around a hairpin turn, dodged some big rocks and then BIFFED on what appeared to be nothing? Just all of the sudden I was down?? Go figure??! No real damage other than a bloody knee (see pics). But of course once you fall your confidence kind of takes a hit. So when we got to the intersection where you can cut off for KLondike or do the upper loop of baby steps I decided to bail on the upper loop. I sent Tony up to do it, and told him I would meet him at the top of Klondike. A bit later Tony walks up dejected. The chain broke, and of course he had no chain tool. I always tell him to carry tools, but he doesn't listen. (MEN! sorry mr. silver) Luckily the back side of Klondike is mostly downhill, so he was able to coast a lot of it. I love the Klondike trail, so I had fun riding it back to the truck. It's a fun little trail so it was a good ending to our ride.
We spent the rest of the weekend checking out parts of the area that we had never been to. We took a drive up the Le Sal loop road which is a popular road ride. HOLY MOLY! The climbs!!!
At some point there must have been a race up there as "BASSO" and "ULRICH" were painted on the pavement in one spot. I would have loved to have seen the big boys climing up that baby!
Anyway, all in all it was a FUN trip. It was in the high 90's all weekend, and the morning were cool- so not bad at all weather wise. Of course being from Phoenix that would be considered a cold snap.

Here are some pics from the weekend:
http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e69/moab%2007/

[SadieKate]

Forgit the pics! What about the new bike???

[Running Mommy]

LOVE JULES!!! She rides like a dream!
BTW- I think I owe you some sort of commission on that one!
Thanks to you the seed was planted in Tonys brain that if the wife had a decent bike she might actually LIKE mtn. biking!! (go figure that?!)..

[SadieKate]

I think yellow and I can manage to collect somehow.

But then there's just the reward of getting somebody on a bike that makes them happy.

Hubby and I had dinner last night with a co-worker out here from Wisconsin. He and his wife have been bitten by the cycling bug so I've been advising from a distance. They both finally upgraded to Trek 7.5s about a month ago. Not only are they thrilled with the better bikes I kinda pushed them into, the wife who said she really didn't care what bike she had just got clipless pedals and a coach this week. They're planning a B&B tour later this summer.

Good bikes can make it sooooo fun.

[Trekhawk]

LOVE JULES!!! She rides like a dream!

Welcome to the Juliana Clan.

Nice pics.

[GLC1968]

Wow, great pics! I would love to try moutain biking out west!

Looks like you had a lot of fun!

[tprevost]

What fun!!!! Okay, I guess I haven't been reading enough... when did you get a juliana and where are the pics???? That is WAY cool... I'm glad you love her, I love mine too!!!

Love the pictures... can't wait to read about your next adventure

[tprevost]

What fun!!!! Okay, I guess I haven't been reading enough... when did you get a juliana and where are the pics???? That is WAY cool... I'm glad you love her, I love mine too!!!

Love the pictures... can't wait to read about your next adventure

okay, I just realized that there is one measly shot in the moab pics!!! More please

[Running Mommy]

Hey Trac!
So when did you and da family move to the foothills? Big move! WOW!

Anyway, Jules is a shy girl. I would send you to my snapfish site where there are a couple of more pics, but there is also a pic on there with Tony "watering the cacti" in the background- And he would KILL me!!!!

But really, not many pics yet. She needs some cosmetic surgery before the big reveal. I want to put different bars, stem, possibly cranks on her..
A girl needs bling ya know!

I think you are riding in my old neck of the woods this weekend right?? I wanted to go up there SOO bad! But I've just been travelling way too much lately.

[tprevost]

Hey Trac!
So when did you and da family move to the foothills? Big move! WOW!

Anyway, Jules is a shy girl. I would send you to my snapfish site where there are a couple of more pics, but there is also a pic on there with Tony "watering the cacti" in the background- And he would KILL me!!!!

But really, not many pics yet. She needs some cosmetic surgery before the big reveal. I want to put different bars, stem, possibly cranks on her..
A girl needs bling ya know!

I think you are riding in my old neck of the woods this weekend right?? I wanted to go up there SOO bad! But I've just been travelling way too much lately.

Well, I will be anxiously awaiting the pics after her 'makeover' I had to have a little bling on my Juliana too... much be a girl thing

The boys and I moved up here at the end of March... I love it! I went to high school in Sonora so its all familiar territory, plus my dad lives here too. I can't explain it but was like coming home

I didn't get to ride Healdsburg today too much going on and too much to juggle to get there... I was bummed, its one of my favorite rides and I'd been looking forward to it for months. Oh well, maybe I'll just go up on another weekend and ride around to make up for it

Well, now that you have Jules, I'm guessing we'll see more mtn biking stuff huh? You ought to head up to Sedona.... I need to live vicariously through you and I wanna check those trails out real bad

[yellow]

She needs some cosmetic surgery before the big reveal. I want to put different bars, stem, possibly cranks on her..
A girl needs bling ya know!

Hey, SadieKate and Yellow's New Bike Consulting Services can help you with all that bling. Our motto is "We love to help others spend their money!" Just give us a jingle!

I knew you'd like Sovereign. I can't wait to go back and ride it again (this fall maybe??)

[han-grrl]

We took a drive up when we were up in May, but had turn back due to snow...the signs for avalanche warnings were still up which i thought was pretty funny...

I saw the paint too, that would be one heck of a climb! I still want to do the Mt Washington race one day....

quote:
We spent the rest of the weekend checking out parts of the area that we had never been to. We took a drive up the Le Sal loop road which is a popular road ride. HOLY MOLY! The climbs!!!
At some point there must have been a race up there as "BASSO" and "ULRICH" were painted on the pavement in one spot. I would have loved to have seen the big boys climing up that baby!

[Running Mommy]

Yeah Han- It is one BRUTAL climb for this flat land desert dwelling weenie!

But if my hubby gets his way we may be living out that way some day, so I guess I'd have to "adapt"...

Yellow- We will be up there for a week in October (spencers school break) it's right in between the 24 hours of moab and some jeep thingy. Should be an interesting mix of people that week.