"Cloud Rest"
Craig and left Thursday afternoon for some time away, out in the desert, disconnecting as much as possible, soaking in the distance and sage deeply. Our trip was full of all kinds of unstable weather conditions, rain, wind, snow, snain, sun, lighting storms on slickrock. We took the long way to Moab, Utah via Durango and Cortez, Colorado so we could ride at Phil's World on Friday which we were shut out of this past March due to snow and mud. When we got there it was raining, it didn't look good so we went to the bike shop in town and looked around a bit and decided that we would drive to the TH and at least check things out for ourselves. When we did we found what was mostly super hero dirt, Sweet!
Craig enjoying some super hero dirt. This place rides like a roller coaster of delight.
Little side canyon out in Phil's.
Water Resting upon Rock
After our fun ride in Cortez we headed north and west to Moab where we were to meet up with friends Jimijames and Sam Friday night. We drove into Moab, had dinner at Eddie McStiff's where I proceeded to have some really awful GF, DF pizza, Pizza Failure's are really difficult for me! After that we headed out to our normal camping area at Behind the Rocks and it started to rain again. Low and behold in the last year camping has been closed at Behind the Rocks two miles in all directions from the entrance. WHAT!! One of the last closer in free camping areas closed, oh Moab what's becoming of you and your free spirited Edward Abbey/Monkey Wrenching days? Wait, don't answer that. We spent the next 2 hours driving around in the rain looking for a spot to camp and meet the guys. We finally caved and drove up to Slick Rock and found a spot in the FULL and overflowing campground amongst the RV's, Rock Crawlers and Mega Family Tents, we had no choice at this point. There's something about formal campgrounds that make me itchy and nervous, I like my space I guess but in the end it worked out fine, even with the $10.00 a night fee (groan).
Enjoying some Sunshine before heading down Rockstacker!! All goofified and ready to roll and drop and skip through some chunky chunder!
Saturday morning all 4 of us got up to SUNSHINE! Stoked for a day of rowdy trail riding, we headed up Amasa Back and then down Rockstacker and Jackson, two BAMFing trails. Some of the best technical riding out there, and you lose literally 99% of the people as soon as you drop into Rockstacker. Bye, bye people, hello chunkdrophuckfest! The whole route is signed now with maps, it's not the obscure ride it once was but it's still a test piece and I felt good that day. Everyone was riding really well with big smiles the whole way. The day's theme was "Huck Your Meat", I really like hanging out with boys, they're so much fun, girls are too really and truly but my boys are fun in a nasty, gnarly and different way.
BAMF's getting ready to head down.
Colorado Riverness..
BAMF Sam! Sam is a VERY good rider, confident, smooth and unassuming. He's also young and his body doesn't hurt him after a ride. I really like riding with Sam because I feel like he pushes me to try and do more, I learn from watching him and he kindly fixes things on my bike without me having to ask. I saw Sam ride up to drops and gaps and just huck his meat with pure flow and ease, he is a creative rider, it's kinda inspiring and it's all with a smile and encouraging words.
Getting towards the bottom of Jackson, it's such a great trail and I cleared a couple of chucky things I didn't last year on my first attempt.
Saturday night was wild and distorted in many ways, we headed back to camp and stuffed our bellies. There was an amazing lighting storm without rain for like an hour, it was a masterpiece really set against slickrock, like nothing I've seen in all the years I've been going to the desert. I slept deep and hard that night.
Sunday we were scheduled to head up to Hazard and ride down UPS, LPS and RPS however due to recent snowfall noone was shuttling up that high. However due to some local magik we found a friend of a friend with a dualie who was willing to take us all the way up. We swerved around cows and hunters as we headed up into the La Sals finally deposited in fresh snow at the Hazard TH. We had the place to ourselves.
Winter is here...
Getting set to head down Hazard, laying down first tracks. It was cold and the sun wasn't creeping out behind the clouds yet.
Get on your bike BAMF!
I was moving a bit slower this day, third day of riding and 2nd big ride that feels like you're doing pushups the whole way. The thing is with Hazard, UPS, LPS and RPS is you can't hold yourself back from going as fast as you can or hucking everything in your path. By the end of the day you're wasted on so many levels and you want to do it all over again, if you could, it's that much fun and there is enough out there to test your skills. Each year I ride these trails and each year it's a little different, I always seem to progress in one area or another, my skills get better. The only thing that was off this year was my back and hips, they slowed me down on the third day but I still pushed myself. Everyone did and there are so many lines to choose from you can go as BIG as you want out there.
As you can see Jimijames made it back to town..barely..
There are many reasons why I come back to Moab over and over again even with the crowds. It's so unique and challenging and the riding there is only getting better as they open more Black Diamond style trails, there are a few of these type trails in the Moab area that are not on maps or internet forums and in many ways I hope it stays this way, keep it rough and difficult and hard to find, keep the adventure in riding. The desert is ever changing, hard to know what you're going to get but you have to bring your heart and soul a long with you, be open to the challenge and push yourself against the rock, the dirt, the sage, the sky, all of it so that you're left raw and real with who and what you are, a creature of the durt.
Image courtesy of Boulder Daily Camera
