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.
We got up early and first thing headed to sand flats rec area where we were delighted to find a spot on our first try. It was a prime spot too.
Away from the road, but just up the hill from slickrock. We seriously lucked out. Slickrock trail is hard. Not so technically challanging, or outright long...but more a deceptive slow drain kind of hard that non of us were expecting. Mike was new to the MTB game and was showing serious signs of being a (somewhat older) savant. But like most superheros mikes fatal flaw was his unhinging. Note: 2 egg omelets and fruitloops dont make for good riding fuel, as he discovered about 2 miles in. After a good puking, followed by a sizable crash, Mike took it easy the rest of the ride. The rest of us weren't exempt from suffering either. Tom ate it with a few scrapes, I had one fall with scrapes, Wade had a little fall, Steve endod hard on the back loop and then almost fell over backwards after nutting himself. That was pretty funny. All of us though were supremely dead after the ride and barely made it up the hill to camp, where we collapsed and snacked for about 2 hours before making our next move.
Our next move.
We thought it would be fun to go play in the river to cool off, but i couldn't remember how to get to "put in beach" up the river so i stopped and asked the visitors center blokes who gave me the terror look and told me i would die if i tried. I couldn't decipher from their faces if that meant i would drown in the river or if they had Cliff-dwelling sharp shooter poised to protect the riders natural muddiness so i dropped it and asked if there was a good alternative...which they were happy to provide.
This is a waterfall, it was about 15 miles south of town and about a 200 yard walk from a softroad.
I can't recall what it was called because it was so cold that going in it caused my brain to freeze anything just before or after. Seriously it was like 35.
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.
And here is Steve, doing the same.
Sick moves steve!
We came to a sandpit obstacle that is impassable. Not that its impossible, its just that you don't try because walking it is imensly easier and more satisfying. Getting into the sadpit is great fun though. Its about 2 feet of soft fine sand so you dont have to worry too much about getting hurt. As tom demonstrates.
Check out Toms success and Steves Hillarious Fail above in the videos.
This is the last obstacle that we came across.
Here is the score:
Me going up. Rock 4 pat 0
Me going down. Rock 0 Pat 2
Tom going down. Rock 0 Tom 2
Wade going down. Rock 1
Wade 0
It was a pretty amazing crash i hear. All i got was this.
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.
good times, great oldies.
Oh, i almost forgot. Today (Monday night) as I was putting things away I found this guy in my shoe.
I think he snuck into my gear and went for the shoe cause it was warm. We put him outside. I hope he makes it.
