Tuesday, October 17 - Rain, Rest and Travel

Thunderstorms began during the evening, and we awoke to forcasts of extreme weather and snow at higher elevations. All of us but Chris B. decided that, given the weather, we would take this day as a rest and recovery day. We drove over to the Chille Pepper bike shop, and Chris B. decided to ride the Amosaback trail southwest of town. He and Ed drove off to the trailhead while the rest of us returned our bikes. Within minutes of their leaving the shop, a strong storm hit with high wide driving a cold rain. A short time later, Ed adn Chris returned without even having made it to the trailhead. It turned into a rest day for all of us.

With no riding happening, we drove out along the Colorado River to the Poisen Spider trailhead. We stopped along the way to look at petroglyphs pecked into the shear sandstone cliffs rising along the north side of the river. When we reached the trailhead parking area, we stopped and hiked up to a large sandstone slab perched on the cliffside, which has two large dinosaur foot prints in it. The sun poked out, and the illuminated the eroded sandstone cliffs across the river making the numerous waterfalls sparkel like streams of diamonds.

Dinosaur foot prints

We drove back to Moab, checked out of the hotel, and left Moab for two days of riding in Fruita, Colorado. We drove on hwy 128 along the Colorado River, with a short detour up the Castle Valley. When we reached Fruita, we went directly to Over the Edge Sports where we will rent our bikes. We made our arrangements for getting the bikes the next morning, looked around the shop, and spoke with the guys working there about local riding. By this point, it was about 4:00 pm and we had some time to kill before dinner. So we headed across the street to the Fruita Brew Co. to drink some beer, shoot some pool and hang out. The microbrewed beer here is very good, and we tried all of their varieties.

After checking in to our hotel, a non-chain place called the Balanced Rock Hotel, we headed back to the corner where the bike shop and brew pub are located to eat dinner at a pizza place called the Hot Tomato Cafe. We had an outstanding dinner. The ladies who run this place make some of the best pizza I have ever had, and their homemade cookies are to die for. If you are ever in Fruita looking for a good meal, check out the Hot Tomato, and you will not be dissappointed.