Attendees: · California: Beth Darrow, Mike Freeman, Bob Wills, Denny Davis, Jim Tansey · Texas: John Freeman, Don True · Alabama: Bruce Freeman, Alex, Bud · Missouri: Russ
Friday 22 April:
Left Santa Rosa @ 4 am. Picked Bob and Denny up at their houses and started the drive to Moab. New 2005 Suburban making it's first big trip. Had Greg's home made bike rack on the back with all 4 bikes. It stuck out a LOOONG way! First stop, breakfast at the Truckee Diner. We decided to take Hwy 80 across. Had Lunch in Carlin Nevada. Ate in a Chinese American restaurant. Food was Ok. The local cops ate there. Got gas in Wendover. A little rush hour traffic in Salt Lake, but then a pretty drive thru Price and on to Green River. Pretty sun set as we drove into Green River. Stayed at the Ramada Express. $47/night. Ate dinner at the Tamarisk Restaurant overlooking the Green River.
Saturday 23 April: Steve's Adventure
Got on the road by 8:30 after a continental breakfast. Pretty morning. Scattered clouds. Drove to dinosaurs tracks area for a ride. The ride is named Steve's adventure from the year before when Greg and Steve Stone went with us. This was our warm up ride. Upon getting the bikes out of the rack, we discovered that Bob's front wheel had lost the nut off of his quick release skewer. We were able to substitute a nut from the Yakima rack. Got a picture of Denny under the Dinosaur Sign!! There were lots of flowers this year due to a wet winter. The cactus were blooming and looked very pretty. Beth got lots of pictures. For a first ride it went well as no one fell! At the conclusion of the ride we got out the chairs, had a cold beer and all said it doesn't get much better than this! Packed things up and headed into town to check into our cabins. We got there about 3pm. We all got unpacked and settled into our cabins. About 3:45pm, Bruce and Bud and Alex announced their arrival by trying to run Bob and Denny down in the parking lot! We got them situated in their cabins and then as we were heading into town, John and Don pulled into the campground after having ridden Porcupine Rim Trail. We hit the bike shops for some last minute supplies and then had dinner at Zack's Pizza. John lobbied hard for an 11 start for the first ride. He was voted down. The plan was to be packed up and ready to go by 9:30am!
Sunday 24 April: Hidden Canyon
After a good night's sleep, the California gang had breakfast at Beth and Mike's cabin and got loaded up. We were actually ready to go by the agreed upon time. More grumbling from John about being on vacation and shouldn't we sleep in…. We headed over to Hidden Canyon. Weather: Windy and overcast. We had overnight rain showers. Temperature: low 50's. Hidden Canyon is a good early or late in the week ride. You can use it to get aclimated to Moab riding without being too challenging. You encounter all the types of conditions you'll see during a week of riding. Jeep trails, slickrock, loose rock, sand, and it has great vistas of both the hidden canyon and Bartlett's Wash area. While biking this area, Denny decided to go over his handlebars and landed on his head. Score: Head OK, Rock destroyed. We ambled all over the slick rock. Along the way Bruce broke his carbon fiber seat post. He swapped posts with Beth and continued on with the ride Had to bushwack to find the road to Bartletts. Found it. And then continued on to the red slickrock. Had snack's there. Alex amazed us all with his ability to deploy a truly offensive gas cloud. These events began with a deep subterranean rumbled and then continued with a gaseous emission that that could peal the paint from your bike frame it was so nasty causing everything to wilt in it's path! The ride back to the car was very fast and fun as the wind was at our back and it was downhill!! After High 5's, we loaded the bikes and proceeded directly to the Moab Brewery for a late lunch and some liquid refreshment. This was followed by a nap and then helmet cam movies in John's cabin. He had movies of the ride he and Don did on Porcupine. Truly epic!
Monday 25 April: Sovereign Trail
Under threatening skies we left camp about 11am for a ride on Sovereign Trail. The trail starts off Willow Springs Road. Bruce made final adjustments to his new seat post and we hit the trail. John brought his helmet camera and filmed the ride. Stopped for lunch at the top of the big climb. Don True met a couple on a tandem that he knew from his days in Topeka Kansas. After lunch, we hit the trail and Don hit the rocks. A slow speed fall that banged up his elbow enough that we took him to the hospital and it required 8 stitches to close the gap. Mind the Gap! Denny, Alex and Bud took him out to the Dalton Springs Parking Area and John and Jim went back to the Willow Springs Parking area to get the car and drive around to meet them. John got good video film of the entire emergency room visit, including interviews with the staff.
Tuesday April 26: Porcupine Rim
Seven of us headed up to Porcupine for ride. Hit the trail about 11:45am. Quick trip to the top. Lunch at the rim. Lots of pictures. The La Salles were magnificent all covered in snow. Beth had a little fall and got some scratches on her forearm. John had fun filming. He followed different people so we were all on film. Part way down John broke him chain, Jim broke a shift cable, and Mike had a flat tire. When we got back to camp, Bud and Alex prepared a terrific BBQ dinner of Hamburg's, Hot Dog's, Sausages, and beans. Movies in John's cabin. Denny got the award for the best recovery without crashing.
Wednesday April 27: Amasa Back
The weird weather was back. Winds, rain sprinkles and overcast skies. When we got to the parking lot we noticed some activity on the cliffs to the east. Their were climbers half way up the cliff face and people standing at the top. A few minutes later there was shouting and a base jumper flew off the top and opened their chute. Not too long later and a second base jumper made the same trip. Exciting….. Bob was full of energy and sprinted to the top of the first hill. We renamed him "Thor" for his powerful and massive thighs. Mike, Beth and Bob explored a trail to the right that ended at an overlook across from Poison Spider trail. Then they had an interesting bushwack ride back to the main trail.
Thursday April 28: Rest Day
Everyone except Bruce and Jim took a rest day on Thursday. Bruce an Jim rode Slick Rock trail in very high winds. John, Don and Beth all bought elbow pads for a little protection.
Friday April 29: Upper Porcupine Rim
Jim headed home at ~ 4am in the morning. The rest of the gang took Coyote Shuttle's Unimog transport to the top of Upper Porc for a great ride. The morning was again cold and threatening with the ride starting near the overnight snow line. With a days rest the ride was much more fun. We were treated to great views of the snow covered LaSalle mountains and Castle Valley. We were joined by Sena whose family owned a ranch in Castle Valley. She was 5th generation Moab and her family owned the newspaper. She share a lot of local history. Near the top of the last hill we encountered a brief but intense hail storm. The weather oscillated between hot and cold all the way down. There were several spectacular crashes on the way down. Everyone survived!! When biking past the Greg Stone memorial jump at the bottom we all thought of Greg who had yet to master this obstacle…..
Saturday April 30th: The Trip Home
Everyone headed home. Bruce, Alex and Bud left very early to catch an 8:30 flight in Grand Junction. John, Don, Mike, Beth, Bob and Denny met at the Moab Diner for one last breakfast prior to leaving town. The Santa Rosa Gang got home by ~10pm that evening. The truck got over 14 mpg on the trip. A big improvement over the old Suburban that got 10 mpg.
GREAT TRIP!! Hope to see you all there again next year.