Moab and Fruita Mountain Biking
Six cyclists from the Shaker Cycling group (Scott Smith, Ed Fine, Irv Bergrin, Chris Bilowic, Jeff Cox, and Chris Pierce) in Shaker Heights, Ohio set out at 4:30 pm on October 13 to take on the slickrock and singletrack of Moab, Utah and Fruita, Colorado. We will fly to Salt Lake City where we will rent a van and drive over the mountains to spend the night at a hotel in Price, Utah, home of the Utah Raptor. The next morning we will push on to Moab where we will rent mountian bikes and ride for 3 to 4 days. From there, we will move on to Fruita and rent new bikes to ride the highly touted singletrack there. Assuming we are not lost in the desert, we will return home to Cleveland on October 21. This blog will document our exploits.
Friday, October 13 - Arrival
I am sorry it has taken so long to post blog entries, but getting access to the internet has been more difficult than I imagined.
We all arrived safely in Salt Lake City, five of us on the same flight and Chris B. landing within an hour on a different flight. Jeff was bumped from his original flight because it was overbooked, and not only was he moved to the same flight as the rest of us, but he got a free ticket to anywahere in the US. Seemed like an auspicious start to the trip.
After picking up bags, we headed out to get our rented van. Scott had made all the arragements so we followed his lead. After unsuccessfully trying to us an Ohio Bar Association ID to get a discount, we were given the keys and pointed in the direction of the parking lot. After a little wandering around we found our brand new, white van and pilled in. When Scott tried to start the engine, the key would not work. After some confusion, Scott realizes that we are in the wrong van. So, with much laughter and jabs at Scott, we unloaded the van and set off again in search of our van. We finally located it in a far corner of the parking lot where they clearly kept the "less desireable" vehicles. Not only was this van not brand new, or white, but it smelled like cigarette smoke and was pretty well beat up inside. Although it was a little bit of a let down from the other van, it is probably just as well given where we are headed and the abuse we will no doubt dispence.
Ensconced in our beater van we left the airport with directions to a place to get dinner off of I-215 south of Salt Lake City. We had no trouble getting on to I-215, but were not able to locate the restaurant. After driving around for a while, and, this should go without saying in a car full of men, not asking for directions, we decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant we had driven by. The restaurant was fine, and we had a cute young waitress who did a good job flirting with us to boost her tip. I think it worked.
Well fed and in a joveal mood, we again set off for our planned stop in Price, Utah, which lies about half way between Salt Lake City and Moab. The drive took us throught the mountains, but it was too dark to see anything, except when our headlights briefly illuminated the giant form of a male elk standing right next to the highway. Scott, although generally doing an excellent job driving, failed to notice this potential hazard.
We arrived in Price without incident, and proceeded to drive right past our hotel. Now Price is not a very large town (population ~9000), and the chances of it having two Holiday Inns would be slim to none, but somehow we got it into our heads that the one we just drove by could not be ours. We cruzed Price's main drag and came out on the other side of town without encountering another Holiday Inn (surprise). Eventually, we stopped and Scott called the number we had for OUR Holiday Inn. Ashley at the one Holiday Inn in Price informed us that we had driven by it, but Scott was still not convinced so he asked if she had a reservation for a Scott Smith. She verfied that in fact she had such a reservation, but he had not yet checked in. Scot informed here that that jerk had not checked in yet becasue he was looking for the other Holiday Inn in Price.
We did eventually make it back to the one Holiday Inn in Price, and checked in without further mishap. The beds were comfortable, and it did not take long for us to fall asleep given that it was about 2 am our time. This may account for some of the confusion, but that did not stop us from giving Scott a hard time.
Saturday, October 14 - Slickrock Trail
We woke to a forcast of rain and views of the mountians we had passed through the night before. We started the day with breakfast at the "Log Palace" come Texaco gas station across the street from our hotel (the only Holiday Inn in Price Utah Scott). The food was normal western breakfast fare. Chris B ordered ham steak and eggs, and was presented with two giant slices of ham that could have fed the entire table. Now Chris is not that large, but he made a valiant attempt to consume the entire pig.
Well fed, we loaded up the van and began the drive to Moab. Not long out of Price we hit light rain which turned harder the nearer we got to Green River, the only town between Price and Moab. Shortly after passing through Green River, we turned south on Hwy 191 to Moab. At the same time that landscape began to change from rolling shale badlands to dramatic sandstone outcrops, the rain slacked off and we began see mountain bikers at traiheads along the highway. Our thoughts turned to a day of riding in this gorgeous country. By the time we arrived in Moab, the rain was back and the town was filled with a combination of mountain bikers, dirt motorcyclists, and jeep drivers, an odd mix to be sure.
We proceeded directly to our hotel in the hope that we might be able to check in, or at least drop off our bags before picking up our rental bikes. We were informed that check-in time was 3:30 pm, and we could not have our rooms before then, nor could we leave our bags at the hotel. So, with the van still loaded and the rain alternating between drizzel and downpore, we set off for the Chille Pepper bike shop. When we arrived, the shop was full of people renting and returning bikes some of whom had been out riding in the rain and were soaked and cold (the temperature was in the low 50s). After milling about for a while, talking to the folks in the shop, and checking the weather report on Weather.com, we decieded to walk around town a little before picking up our bikes.
We visited several bike shops located along Moab's main street while we discussed what we should do. Some of us were ready to ride regardless of the weather while others were more circumspect. While eating lunch at a wrap and smoothie place called Peace .. something, we decided to go for it and ride. The plan was to pick up our bikes, change into our riding clothes at the bike shop, and ride over to the famous Slickrock Trial located just east of town. The riding is described as advanced, which provokes some apprehension in our group of mixed level riders. However, Slickrock is one of the few trails you can get to without driving, and it promised to be less sloppy than some of the other less technical trails becasue it is entirely restricted to exposed sandstone with no muddy areas.
It took about an hour to get everyone ready to ride and we set off into a light rain with high spirits. It is about a three mile ride on paved roads from the bike shop to the Slickrock trailhead. The first part took us back through town, and then we turned east and UP. To get to the Slickrock trailhead you have to ascend the cliffs that define the east side of the valley in which Moab is nestled. The road is steep and we were quite warm by the time we crested the summit despite a steady cold rain.
The riding was incredible, challenging, scary, fun, and wet. The rain grew heavier while we road the trail producing small streams and pools were once had been dry sandstone washes and basins. The trail, marked by white painted dashes, dips, dives and climbs over sandstone slopes and small ledges. It starts off with a short run through loose sand, up a short steep sandstone bump and then traverses across moderate sandstone slopes to the head of the two loops that make up the Slickrock Trail. We chose to ride the "practice loop" first which is shorter, but no easier than the main loop. It took some of us a while to get our balance and gear selection right for these conditions of fast, hair-raising followed immediately by steep climbs (often with a sharp turn in betweeen), but we all attacked the trail with equal vigor. After completing the practice loop, Ed and Chris P. headed back to the trailhead while the rest of the group road some of the main loop before heading back. It was a great first day of riding despite the rain, and we were all happily in one piece when we made it back to the bike shop. We decided to leave our bikes there for the night because our hotel does not allow us to bring the bikes into the rooms. Sorry that I have no pictures to post because it was pretty wet while we were riding, and I was more concerned about staying alive than taking pictures. I will try to take pictures tomorrow.
Sunday, October 15 - Procupine Rim
We got a bit of a late start today because of the lines for breakfast. They stopped the 24 hors of Moab ride last night because conditions were to bad to ride and people were having to be taken out by ambulance -- wimps. So there were thousands of people crawling all over Moab this morning who would have been out at the race. After breakfast we drove over to pick up our bikes from the shop again and decided to ride the Porcupine Rim trail. We hired a shuttle to take us up to the trailhead, and got started riding at about 11:00 am.
When we arrived at the trailhead it was still a little cold, but the first 3 miles of the ride are up hill so we warmed up quickly. The trail follows a 4wd road for most of it 14.4 miles, but ends with a highly technical singletrack descent to the Colorado River. This is not to say that the road portion of the ride was not highly technical. There were plenty of hike-a-bike sections for us and the altitude (we climbed up to about 7300 feet) made us stop from time to time. However, these stops were welcome because the view from the trail was outstanding as the clouds broke. Chris B. rode on ahead of us because he is more skilled on the technical sections and wanted to ride Slickrock again when he finished with Porcupine. We did not see hime again until he returned to the hotel at the end of the day.
When we reached to summit, we were all ready for a break from the climbing. Unfortunately, the Castle Valley overlook was completely obscured by dense fog. We will have to ride this trail again someday to see that view. We rested there for a few minutes, and got another rider to take a picture of us before starting out again.
The next few miles of the trail are some of the most exhilarating mountain biking I have ever done. The trail swoops along the Porcupine Rim over sandstone outcrops and patches of sandy soil. It is mostly downhill interspersed with short, steep climbs. This part of the ride is all about momentum and trusting your suspension. We had a few crashes along the way, but no broken bones that were are aware of. The most scary and, once we determined he was OK, comical crash was Irv slow motion endo. It occurred at a point in the trail where you had to make a sharp right hand turn and then drop down a couple of rock ledges followed by another sharp left turn. We all stopped to assess the situation and Irv decided to ride it. He feeling his mojo big time and nothing was going to stop him. He dropped down the first ledge and stopped completely rising up on his front wheel where he paused for what seemed like an eternity before continuing over his handle bars. He ended up spralled on the out crop between the two ledges with the bike on top of him. Scott ran over to help and asked Irv if he was allright, which elicited a mumbled response to the effect that he had felt better. After taking a moment to regroup, we continued on down the trail.
The last portion of the Porcupine Rim trail is singletrack that drops down the side of a canyon from the mesa top to the Colorado River. The first part is a fun ride interspersed with short technical sections that, if you make a mistake, would send you plummeting over the edge. We chose to walk these sections. As you drop farther down the canyon, the technical sections become more common, and we ended up walking about as much as we rode. Of course, all of it was rideable, just not by us.
We all made it through in about 4 hours and felt proud of our accomplishments on the trail. Chris B. rode the entire trail in less than 2 hours and then went on to ride the Slickrock trail again. He is either a total stud or totally crazy. We have not yet decided. Perhaps it is both. We are accumulating scars at a rapid rate as momentos of our time in Moab. The image below shows the momentos acquired on the legs of Irv, Jeff and Ed from or day on the Porcupine Rim trail.
Monday, October 16 - Klondike Bluffs and The Sovereign Singletrack
We decided the night before that we would remove the two back bench seats from the van and load the bikes in to drive out to trails north of town. This worked quite well and we were pleased that we did not need to pay for a shuttle. The day broke cool, but promised to be a gorgeous fall day in Moab.
The Klondike Bluffs trail started for us from a parking area just off Hwy 191 a few miles north of Moab. We rode along a dirt road before heading up a sandy wash to the trail. The ride is almost entirely up hill to the bluffs, and alternates between slickrock and four wheel drive road. The riding was relatively easy in comparison to what we had riden the last couple of days, but it was still very nice. The trails ends at the boudary of Arches National Park where you leave your bike to hike a short distance to overlooks into the park.
The hiking took us over slickrock covered with shallow pools of water colelcted from rain and runoff. These pools attracted indians in the past as indicated by a scatter of late Archaic chipped stone tools and tool making debris. We walked past these pools and out onto narrow sandstone ridges, which afforded spectacular views of the Park and the La Sal mountains in the background. We rested here for a while enjoying the views. After we made it back to the van we drove into town for lunch before heading back out to ride the Sovereign Trail.
The ride back down from Klondike Bluffs we a blast and took only about a third of the time it took to make the climb up. We stopped briefly to look at some dinosaur tracks in the sandstone where a group of kids from a private school in Colorado had gathered.
After lunch we drove north of town again to ride the Sovereign Singletrack , which is variously described as an intermediate or advanced trail. Irv decided to take the afternoon off from riding and see if he could get a massage. The rest of us drove out to the Dalton Wells road and parked in a parking area near the highway. We had a little adventure before starting our ride. While trying to decide where to park, Scott drove the van into an area where recent flooding had deposited a layer of mud on top the sandy soil. The van got stuck, and it took a lot of pushing and swearing at Scott to get the van out of the mud.
The road up to the Sovereign trailhead crosses a wide sandy wash with a short, steep climb out of the wash on the oposite side. From there the road is dirt and today was interspersed with frequent detours around large mud puddles. After a short distance we reached an intersection with a trail map. There was some confusion about which direction to go to reach the singletrack. We chose to go left and stay on the main dirt road, which climbs up the mesa with green shale slopes. A short while later re reached another intersection with a trail, and a couple of riders were there looking at a map. We chatted with them briefly about which way to go to reach the singletrack, and after some indecision and discussion decided to continue on up the road. We did eventually reach a trailhead that took us over to the Sovereign Singletrack trail at a point where it drops down off of the mesa we just climbed up. This descent is very technical and most of us walked a good deal of it. The trail then wides across a little bit of slickrock and through a valley, dropping into and back out of washes before coming to another mesa with a very steep climb t the top. Again most of us walked the lower portions of this climb. The view from the top of the mesa was adequate reward for the difficult climb, and the ride across the mesa top was a blast. Of course we had to drop down off of the mesa again, and this descent was just as technical and challenging as the earlier ones.
Once off of the mesa the last five miles or so heading south on the Sovereign Singletrack trail is incredible riding with lots of short climbs and steep short drops separated by fast curving sections. If you are looking for less technical, but still challenging and fun riding, I suggest that you start from the southern trailhead, ride north to the first big mesa top climb, and then turn around and go back south. This would be a great half-day ride, and still has great views to the south. Chris B. missed this last section because we links the highly technical riding, and chose to go back up and down the mesa rather than ride south with us.
Once we made it to the southern trailhead, we decided to ride the dirt road back out to the highway, and then ride along the highway to where we had parked. There were some sections of deep sand along the road to the highway, and Jeff did one of those slow motion falls in the sand when he could not keep his tires turning. When we made it back to the car, Chris B. was there, and talked briefly about our different experiences before heading back to Moab.
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 18 - Kokopelli / Mary's Loop Trails
It is now 8:30 and I am in a coffee shop on that same corner (Mulberry and Aspen) in Fruita. I got here at 7:00 am, had a great cup of hot chocolate, and have been working on this blog since then. We are takin a late morning today because it is cold (low 30s) and we are giving the trails a chance to dry out a little after the rain yesterday. While I have been here all of the gang has come in to get coffee and some have gone on to eat breakast at a place called Judy's.
We picked up our bikes, and drove out to the Mary's Loop and Kokopeli Trail area located about four miles west of Fruita. In the parking lot we met a 71 year old French man named Jaques who decided, without any input from us, to be our guide. We started riding Mary's Loop at the eastern end of the trail complex. Our "guide" was quite fit for a 70 year-old, but was still a lot slower than the rest of us. This led to some frustration on our part as he insisted on leading our group. We took the first turn off of Mary's loop to ride the Rustler's Loop. This is a fun ride along the canyon rim above the Colorado River, which returns to Mary's Loop, and provided a good warm-up for the day's riding.
After finishing Rustler's Loop, we continued along Mary's Loop until we reached the portage down to Horsethief Loop. The ride along May's Loop to this poit is great fun with some technical stuff, but mostly fast single track over sandy soil and rock outcrops. We decided to carry our bikes down the trail to ride Horsethief Loop. At the bottom of the trail, Jeff accidentally road off of the path to avoid crashing and Jaques yelled at him about staying on the trail. Jeff told him not to yell at him, that he knew singletrack etiquette, and did not need him to tell him. Although jaques meant well, he was really starting to get on our nerves. At this point he decided to wait for some other folks to ride with and we continued on along Horsethief Loop without our "guide."
The ride along Horsethief is also great fun with some steep descents and climbs, but mostly very rideable. This is a loop one a lower sandstone bench above the Colorado River, and the trail pretty much sticks to the edge. The riding here was definitley worth the portage down from and then back up to Mary's Loop.
Our only problems up to this point were with the bikes we had rented from Over the Edge Sports in Fruita. None of the bikes was in good condition. The shifting was poorly adjusted, leading to fantom shifting, dropped shains, and an assortment of other issues. In addition, the seat of my bike would stay at my height, and would drop down to the point that it felt like I was riding a childs bike. Every time we stopped, I would raise the seat again, and a short time later it would be right back down. It is very hard to generate enough power to climb well when your seat is too low, so I did most of my riding while standing. Chirs B.'s seatpost was also loose. It was not dropping, but would turn from side to side as he road. We were all a little frustrated by the poor condition of the bikes, and the fact that no flat fixing materials or water bottles were supplied witht the rentals. This was in stark contrast to the fine condition of the bikes and friendly service we received from the Chille Pepper bike shop in Moab.
We continued riding along Mary's Loop until we reached an intersection of trails at the top of a steep climb. Irv fell while climbing the steep hill, and was feeling like he had done enough riding for the day. Ed was also eager to talk to the folks at the bike shop about the problems we were having with the bikes. So Irv and Ed headed back to the van, while the rest of us decided to ride up the Mack Ridge Trail and loop back to the parking lot, an approximately 10 mile loop.
The climb up Mack Ridge from the east side is very hard. The trial wides steeply up over outcrops of sedimentary quartzite, which is a very hard silica-cemented sandstone that breaks into sharp, angular chunks, and was strewn across the trail both as loose chunks and large stones projecting out of the ground. Chris B. and Jeff did an incredible job of riding this climb while Scott and I ended up walking several of the steeper sections.
The climb was worth it though because Mack Ridge is the highest part of the Mary's Loop area, and the views are outstanding. The ride along the top of the ridge follows a double track road and is quite fast. After a short ride across the top of the ridge, the road drops steeply down the back (northwest) side of Mack Ridge. At first, the road runs over shale outcrops that were mostly dry, but had some wet, slippery spots from the rain the day before. The road then becomes steeper and the surface changes from clay to loose rock. Descending this portion of the trail is a little scarry beacuse you are going fast over loose rock that would hurt big time if you lost control.
We reached the bottom without incident and continued east along the main dirt road that accesses the parking lots for this trail area. It was a four mile ride back to the parking lot where we started where Ed was to meet us. Ed and Irv arrived just as we were about reachthe parking lot, and, exhausted yet thrilled with our day's riding, we returned to town. We dropped off the bikes at the shop with instructions on what needed to be fixed, and spoke briefly to the owner. His excuse for the poor condition of the bikes is that it is the end of the season, and we get what we get when we rent bikes at this time of year. We let him know that this was not our expirence in Moab, and that the level of service provided by his shop left a lot to be desired. He did not seem to care. Very disappointing.
We had to drive to Grand Junction so that Jeff could pick up a rental car for his drive to Denver in t he morning for a job interview. We ate diner there at an Italian restaurant called Mancusos or something like that. It was good food at a reasonable price. While out driving around we decided that we would check out the other bike shop in Fruita as a source of rental bikes in the morning as an alternative to Over the Edge.
Thutrsday, October 19 - 18 Road
Jeff and Irv left early this morning, and will be gone all day. Jeff has a potential job interview in Denver, and Irv decided to take the day off from riding. Before rding, the rest of us visited the other bike shop in Fruita, Singletracks, and talked with Chris, one of the owners. He was very nice and had Marin bikes for us to rent, so we made arrangements to use them on Friday. We went over to picked up our bikes from Over the Edge, which we hoped would work better than the previous day, and informed them that we would not be renting them for another day as we had planned. They seemed nonplused by this. So be it. We then drove out to the trail system called 18 Road. It is located at the base of the Book Cliffs north of Fruita, and is supposed to offer less rocky trails than in than what we have been riding. We arrived in the parking area a little before 11:00. There were already a few cars there including one of the ladies from the Hot Tomato pizza parlor.
We jumped on Prime Cut trail, which goes up from the parking lot to the base of the cliffs. When I say up I mean it. There is very little down hill going north on Prime Cut. It is not steep for the most part, but it was a hard way to start riding especially after working so hard yesterday. We reached an intersection of three trails, Prime Cut, Cutes and Ladders, and Frontside. We decided to give Chutes and Ladders a try, which involved ascending a very steep hill followed by an abrupt drop into a valley. Chris B. rode ahead while Ed, Scott and I tried to negotiate these hills. A little while later, Chris came back reporting that the trail continued the same with steep climbs and descents. Some of us were not feeling particularly strong today, so we headed back to the intersection to take the Frontside trail instead.
Frontside is easier, but still no piece of cake. There are some challenging climbs and descents as you cut across the ravines that flow off of the base of the Book Cliffs. We rode Frontside to its western terminus at a dirt road, which makes up part of the Edge Loop. We headed northeast on this road to access an old doubletrack trail that wides up to the top of the ridge with a view over the valley. The old doubletrack trailhead lies about 2 miles up the Edge Loop road and is marked by rock cairns. Chris B. is the only one of us who felt strong enough to tackle the climb to the ridge top. He reported that it is not technically difficult, but is unrelenting in its steepness. He enjoyed the view while we enjoyed a leasurely ride back down the road and over the western part of the Frontside trail to the Western Zippity trail.
Scott, Ed, and I had a great time riding the fast and easy Western Zippity trail south away from the cliffs. If you ride this trail, be careful of the barbed wire fence/gate that stretches across the trail. It can catch you be surprise. The Western Zippity trail ends at a dirt roa, which you follow tot he east to return to the main access road and the parking lot. Chris B. took the Zippity Do Da trail south, which is more challenging because it is perched on the top of narrow ridges and has some very steep descents. Chris enjoyed it very much. We ended the day by dropping off our bikes, getting beer and appetizers at the brew pub, and then a soak in the hot tub at the hotel.
Friday, October 20 - Back to Kokopelli Trail
Most of us rented bikes from Single Tracks in Fruita, and were very pleased with the service and condition of the bikes. Jeff still had a day of rental already payed for at Over the Edge, so he had a bike from them. Irv decided to do some road riding today and rented a Jamis from single tracks, which he enjoyed very much. He road up into Colorado National Monument.
The rest of us returned to the Kokopelli Trail area witht he idea of getting a half day of riding in before driving back to Salt Lake City in the late afternoon or early evening. We parked in the first main parking area and headed over tot he eastern trailhead of More Fun. It started off fun, but turned nasty in short order as we tried to ride up a steep, rocky slope. As usual, Chris B. road ahead of the rest of us. From the top of a ridge, he called down saying it appeared to be more of the same for quite a while. Scott and I decided t turn back because we would probably end up walking more than riding, and we wanted to ride on our last day. Jeff and Ed continued with Chris B., and we did not see them again until we returned to the bike shop in Fruita later in the day.
While the rest of the crew made their way up More Fun, Scott and I road back to the main frontage road, and headed west. We hoped to meetup with the More Fun group at the intersection of the More Fun, Mary's Loop, and Mack Ridge trails. When we arrived at this point, Scott called Ed on his cell phone to find out how far along they were. Ed said that they were still climbing, and mostly walking. It turns out that the east to west ride on More Fun is much more difficult than the opposite direction because their is a lot more climbing. We waited for a little while, but decided to ride a part of Mary's Loop while they made their way to the intersection. After riding along Mary's Loop for a little while we saw the singletrack trail called Handcuffs that follows along the cliff-edge of one of the lower sandstone benches above the Colorado River. This trail loops back to the intersection so we decided to ride it back to that area, and hopefully meetup with the rest of the group at the intersection or along this trail coming in the opposite direction. We tried to call them and inform them of our plan, but cell phone service was spotty, so we were not sure of they got our message or not.
The ride on Handcuffs was great with mostly easy cliff-edge trails. Where the trail dipped back into canyon heads, it became more technical and difficult with some hike-a-bike sections. The views are glorious and we encountered some fossils (probably dinosour) along the trail as we were climbing back up to Mary's Loop. When we reached mary's Loop there was no sign of the gang. It was now about 2:00 pm so we decided to take Mary's Loop back to the parking lot and the van. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and followed a steep jeep road up the side of the mesa thinking it was part of Mary's Loop. We road all the way up this road until it stopped at a cliff edge well above Mary's Loop, which we could see running along the bench below us. A little dishartened and knowing we were running short of time, we road back down the dirt track to Mary's Loop.
Once on Mary's Loop, we road all out to get back to the van where we expected the rest of our group was already or would soon be waiting. This was great fun as the trail is fast and, for the most part, not very technical. Shortly after passing the portage down to Horsethief Scott got a pinch flat in his front tire. I had a tube, but no pump (I gave it to Chris B. yesterday when he road up to the ridge view point along. He gave it back to me this morning,but i apparently did not put it back in my pack.). We stopped a rider going by who had a pump, but it took us quite a while to figure out how to get a good enough seal to fiil the tube. While Scott worked on this, I called the rest of the group who were now waiting at the van. I informed them of our situation, and returned to help Scott.
A strong wide was blowing out of the SW, so rathe than wait for us, Chris, Ed, and Jeff road their bikes back into town along Hyw 6. Once we fixed the flat, it took Scott and I about 10 minutes to ride the rest of the way to the van. Scott and I made it to the bike shop shortly after the rest of the group who road back. We all turned in our bikes and headed across the street (more-or-less) to the Hot Tomato pizza parlor for some snacks before returning to our hotel to cleanup, pack, and drive to Salt Lake.
The drive to SLC was beautiful until the sun set completely, and we faced two-lane traffic on Hyw 6 between Green River and Provo in the dark. There were some hair-raising momnets, but Scott did a fine job driving, and we made it to the hotel near the airport by about 10:00 pm. We all had early flights the next morning so there wasno socializing before heading off to bed.
Postscript
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