Moab, November 6-9th, 2013. From left to right, Brandon, Nate, Tom, Rob, Wade, Me.
I think Friday morning, as I was looking back at camp
I said to myself, and then out loud: Do you ever have one of those moments where you stop and it hits you...this is everything I wanted my life to be when I was young and could only dream of such things.
I mean, look at this picture. So that sets the stage for this writeup.
Wade, Nate, Brandon and Rob got down to this site Wednesday night and did slickrock the following Thursday - thankfully I wasn't there. Not to say I was loving being at work and not in Moab, but the slickrock trail has stopped appealing to me after the dozen times I've ridden it. There were at least 2 slickrock virgins though, so it had to be done. Thankfully (without condition) no one was injured as is typical of these type of outings with a Siddoway. Tom and I got there late Thursday night and were immediately welcomed by the fact that we had a generator and apparently that was the missing ingredient to making the heater in the tent trailer work. Thanks mom for not needed your generator.
On the issue of heat, lets just say this...for the record....it was COLD! at least at night, The low was supposedly low 30's but Im pretty sure in the sand flats area it was high 20's at best. it was puffy coats and double bags for sleeping. Which brings me to our first combined adventure.
Since no one wanted to ride a bike in the cold, we [I] decided that my new Cruiser needed a proper workout. I was a little nervous about taking it on the Fins n' Things trail because...aside from bigger tires...this was completely stock. Granted, completely stock means 11 inches of ground clearance, a 600 ramp score (about the same as a wrangler Rubicon). That and locking front, center and rear differentials meant that if i didn't break something, I wasn't likely to get stuck. Like Slickrock, we had a few rock crawling virgins with us, and to a lesser extend I would consider myself one, since it has been at least 10 years since I last owned a car with even crawling pretensions.
There is better video forthcoming about this trail and our adventures, but let me just say...IT WAS AWESOME! the excitement of being back on the trail, the amazing cruiser that just did it without complaint (only locking the rear diff once) and the energy I got from my passengers really pumped my up. We only did the campsite sections but Im confident had we more time...it would have been no problem to do the whole thing. Yes, I scraped my hitch a lot, and yes I REALLY need new springs, but for 235,000 miles on the clock, I couldn't have asked for a better performance form Bruce. Oh, Im calling my cruiser Bruce now.
Getting back to camp around 1130, it was starting to warm up and we were getting ready for a new trail. Mag[nificent]7. Mag7 actually isn't a trail, per-se, but a system of trails in the gemini bridges area.
We parked my car at the point on this map were purple meats yellow, or the bottom of goldbar, and the start of goldbar rim and then shuttled in the truck to the top of the road. Gemini bridges road, if you are curious, is a perfect place to feel all Paul Hogen in your outback, as its the perfect amount of tough for most softroader/cute utes at least from the bottom until the bridges parking lot, where its, at worst, a bad dirt road with some bumps. We took Bull Run to the bridges, where we stopped and ate (more on that later) and then...on expensive advice from the bike shop that repaired Rob's bike...decided to take great escape. Both did not disappoint. I personally liked bull run best, because it was faster and had amazing views!
Its called bull run because it skirts Bull Canyon, the wash that you can see from the top of Gemini bridges. This is the same wash wade and I did last year to christen his Tacoma.
Great escape was a ton of fun too, and most people seemed to prefer it to bull run. Maybe Im old, maybe I just don't takea beating like I used to, but as fun as it was, it was a much harsher ride and so I didn't like it quite as much. To be fair, I would rate bull run as a 9 (out of 10) and great escape as a 7.5, so its still right up there.
After we loaded up the cruiser with bikes and people (and completely bottomed out the tired old springs) we made our long drive into the sun back up the road. As a reward for our journey, this greeted us at the top
Oh and speaking of epic. It doesn't matter how many times I see them, Gemini bridges are amazing
We went back to camp and got our stuff to head out to a hostel (the lazy lizard) where we had successfully procured showers on a previous trip. What a treat. The first two grizzled old men to meet us at the door with their colorful expressions gave was to the one eyed yet watching full metal jacket [this is my gun, there are many like it, but this one is mine...] on the couch who later turned out the be the...owner? when he inquired about our intent to shower he promptly asked for the money, but didn't tell us how much. $3 for unlimited hot showers is totally worth it alone, the show was a bonus.
That night was an expensive and tasty meal at Familia Mexicana, a favorite of Wade and Mine. We had originally planned to eat at Zaks, but because of a regional highschool bike race the next morning it was a 45 minute wait. 45 doesn't sound like a lot...but this is Moab remember. I was glad to be there, as it had become something of a tradition for Wade and I.
The next morning was a lazy sleep in kind of morning as we had been up late the night before, some of us around the fire trying to stay warm
and some of us trying to figure out how to get my intervalometer to work past 126 seconds. never got it figured out.
Oh well. back to Saturday morning, we had worked out that it would be best to pack up and head out to Barlet wash on our way out of town and try out some riding on the totally unscripted slickrock out there. but before we even left site, the urge to wheel got the better of me and while the majority of the troops were taking out the trash, I was taking a heavy laden land cruiser up baby lions back with Tom.
Which feels a LOT steeper than it looks. It was my first time and so i didn't know what to expect, in fact, I thought you turned around on top and drove back down...nope. Imagine my suprise when I saw the exit; steep, and WET! good thing the cruiser was made for a little fording. Note to self: re-grease the chassis.
True to Land Cruiser form though, it took it in stride and then loaded up with jealous passengers from the other truck...and did it again.
Having added that notch to my belt we headed out to near the airport on the northside of town and went out to find bartlet wash. West on blue ridge, and follow the signs, though I will say I think I would have rather started up hidden canyon than barlet wash, as the trail to get to the good riding on barlet wash require a lot of hiking in sand and stickers in the legs.
Its a staggeringly beautiful place and I would have taken more pictures....but we were having too much fun.
So thats it, good weather (in the day) good wheelin', good riding, good food, good stories and good folk. Can it get better?
