So, Dustin and I wanted to get out on Saturday but the conditions weren't
ideal so it had to be someplace short and sheltered. We settled on Toms
ridge on the way to patsy marley because its fast and because its heavy
treed. After zig zagging up the horrid skin track that i cut we were
getting stoked to descend though some steep tight trees. Dustin and I
were both rocking our GoPro HERO HD cameras on our helmets rigged to
1080p and we hoping for some good footage. Turns out the adhesive in
the kits isn't very good as one of mine fell in the cold during ski free
and the other...well the other probably should have come off. hitting
some the big tree after being thrown by a covered branch (just like
Dustin) my camera flipped off into the void. I knew it was either there
or the upper location where i tweaked it on a branch. Dustin started
looking at the lower site and i re-skinned and went back to the top. I
gave up at the top after it was clearly not there and i started to
descend thinking it had fallen and rolled I ended up back at site 2 and
started down stepping with my skiis and then in my boots. As i was down
stepping i must have churned it up with my boot as it popped right to
the surface. win! I lost the camera for exactly 26:30 and thankfully
didn't have to explain to my wife how i lost my new camera. I think
from now on its getting the epoxy treatment to the helmet...with leash.
Full carnage in video above.

Ski Brain Syndrom has arrived and its affecting me badly. I went to ski
free on Wednesday with joe (see video above) and now i can't get
enough! Who wants to ski today? Hike, ski free, both, whatever! Let
me know!

Roll call:  I need to get an idea of who is on here in the salt lake area, or would be available to play on Saturday's in the mountains.  I just realized that I don't think that I have anyone in the Salt Lake Area to ski with anymore.  If you know of people looking for good back-country riding opportunities, even beginners that would be willing to get up early some days and play on some Saturday's let hear it so we can get a solid crew together.  Leave me a comment or send me an email.  Open enrollment!  This is also for current URC members, who is available?  The mountains are a waiting for us. 

This post is a little more meat than the typical URC post because its the first time we have had a guys trip.  This was mostly Wade's doing and I blame him mostly for the good times.  5 of us met up at my place at 5 on Thursday after work and packed up two cars.  Wade's friend Steve drove the trusty outback and Wade's brother in law Mike drove down in his car because he was leaving early Saturday.  So, Me, Tom, Wade, Steve and Mike.

We got down to Moab around 1030 (we stopped to eat dinner before leaving town to let the traffic die down) and immediately sought camping advice from the philips 66.  She was very helpful in telling us to go to the campground that we were told was closed via the internet.  She assured us it wasn't closed.  When we got to the closed campground we decided to keep going up the street to check see if there was any other spots further up.  There is another campground by the same name (but very different).  If you follow the link you can see in the very bottom left picture "site 10"which is about 12x12 feet and smashed between the camp host's trailer and the cliff wall.  What is the cost of this excellent spot?  $17.50 a night.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, i forgot to tell you about the camp host.  She greeted us right away and strait away told us "give me the money and ill tell you where you can camp".  We thought this was a bit odd so we thought we would pry a little.  After a little talking, the campsites choices were:
1. site 10
2. a dry riverbed that doubles as a jeep trail.
3. "two caves somewhere up on the hill"
4. "anywhere you can find"

She told us how it works.  We pay her money, she "turns her back" and we camp "wherever we like".
We came to the conclusion that, much like shopping for cheese or falling down, we could do this without third party assistance.  So we went back down the road to the closed campground where we were able to find the spot that cars can get through (thanks for the beta strange camp host lady) and threw down the groundcloth and went to sleep....eventually. 

here is Wade.  Here I am, "washing" my hair.

It was neat and really really refreshing, but what we really wanted...was food.  Wade had planned on rib eye steaks and dutch oven potatoes.  They were great, despite taking 3 hours to make.   Thanks again for the grub Wade.  We had a fire with the wood that the previous campers had generously left in our site and promptly went to sleep.




The Next morning we lazily got up, had bacon and eggs for breakfast...cause seriously, what is camping without bacon and eggs?  Then let it sit for a few hours while we formulated a plan.  It was pretty clear to us that yesterdays ride really cleaned out the energy stores and that today we should shoot for something a little easier.  Since we still had two cars we decided to do Gemini Bridges.  Mike was hurt from yesterdays crash so he volunteered to shuttle us to the top, Thanks Mike!  Gemini Bridges is 13.7 miles 1400 feet drop and 300 feet climb.  Its basically a cat 2-3 jeep trail.  from the top to the bridges could easily be done in a regular car.  from the bridges on could be done by any competent crossover that didn't mind a scratch or two.  It wasn't a tough ride, but it was fun.

After that we went into town, got some bev and went to the site to kick it for a bit.  After about an hour we got back on the saddle to hit up the practice loop for fun.  This is where I took some pictures finally. 

Here is Tom, he is going down the fun part I skipped.
Here is the score:


You can tell people you landed it, from my perspective, you did.  Though you still get the win/fail award.


After that we went into town and had dinner at Familia Mexicana, a restaurant that serves ethnic food of some kind.  It was actually pretty good, but only one refill for 2 bucks?  come on!  Overall i give the place a 4 of 5 though.  Back to camp to finish off the wood and get to bed.  We had planned on riding bartlett wash in the morning but it didn't look like great weather so we canned it.  No worries, I think we were all pretty well knackered.  Oh, and here is a long exposure shot of the tent, in case you thought i forgot.

Here is the wrap up on the crest ride we did yesterday the 2nd of October.

It took us 3:39 total, broken down as such
Time from BCC to Milcreek 2:26
Total ride time to bottom of millcreek:
2:06 of moving time
12.4 MPH average moving speed
1:23 of stationary time (waiting or cool-down)

Total Ascent gain 991 feet.
Total Decent 5164 feet
Two flats (three is you count wades before the ride flat.
Number of flats by person:
Wade 1 pre-ride flat
Pat: 2 in ride flats.
6 very happy bikers.

here is the plot for funsies.  There is a jump in the elevation because I reset the numbers before reaching the top of Gardsmens pass.

here is our google earth track




If you want to explore it, let me know and i can give you the .kmz file for google earth.  More on this later.

So Dustin wants to slay this crest (weather permitting) this Saturday.  This is an invite to anyone with the TF* to slay and the spare tubes to make it happen.

 The F is for "fortitude"...

Wade Tom and I did the Mid Mountain trail today.  It was...um...AWESOME!  Fall colors, 72 degrees, sunny, no wind.  Yeah.  So, here are the deets.

We start at deer valley at 8600 feet, its a lot like the crest in the sense that you start high, end low and shuttle back.  They are similar because Mid mountain is essentially the lower version of the crest on the other side of the mountain.  So anyway, start at deer valley underneath the bridge and start climbing slowly.  here's Tom showin' us how its done.

There really isn't much to say other than the view rocked, the soil rocked (it rained last week) and it was super sweet.









Also, here is the google maps version and the profile.  Good ride.