Sat was the OTE shop ride up on Guacamole. I rode w/ Kevin who is an engineer @ Pivot bikes. I rode in the back seat of a Honda Element. Jeff from SLC area came down w/ Kevin. Beautiful day again yet still required chilly layers. G is another mesa trail where there are only sharp punches of uphills over the rocks. We rode 9.37 miles and climbed 815 feet. I was right behind Jeff when he crashed 2X. I walked those places after watching him fall. Technically difficult riding these mesas.
Drove back to OTE. Tonight Zags play MSU in the Kennel and is televised on ESPN2. I planned on driving to St George to watch it. Bill, a local who is winter wrenching @ OTE lives in Springdale, said that Jacks is a sports bar in Springdale and would play the game. He said that Brian who tends bar there met me on the 401 in Crested Butte summer of 2010. Springdale is a teeny town just outside Zion, like 20 miles from LaVerkin which is 3 miles from Hurricane. Springdale won the location decision. I arrived about an hour prior to the game to talk w/ Brian w/ no game competition. I remember talking w/ some riders. He complimented me on my climbing prowess. We talked riding until the game came on. Zags played a good game but MSU was just a tad better.
I drove down to Sheeps Bridge road for the night.
Yesterday early AM I got up to pee. I looked out the windshield full onto the moon that had a shadow across it. WTF? I should have had my senses about me to doubt that the moon was being attacked by aliens or the green cheese splungied. I learned that there was a lunar eclipse. I saw it w/o knowing what it was.
Today I finished the drive to OTE to meet for our Coyote Springs ride led by Bill who earned a bit of $ building the trails along w/ Morgan Harris a la Gooseberry fame. 90 mile drive. Bill, Quentin, James and Jeff from Springdale, and 2 guys from LV. Les, you commented that Rock creek looked desolate where the creosote bushes are taller than a rider. Here the bushes scraped our knees. Not even a Saugura cactus. What a display of work to bench cut into steep hill sides, switchbacks. All on loose round rolling rock. I wrestled w/ control. A section of the trail routed us over bassalt blocks w/ multi facets. Jeff got into trouble here and fell downhill face first into the jumble. He took a rock right into his glass eyeglass lens which shattered. Facial cuts that bled profusely and several deep gashes on his right forearm. What a blood dripping spectacle. My first aid kit was pressed into treatment. James and I bandaged him up and stopped the bleeding. He needed stitches and we needed to be getting him sewn up. We shortened our ride and headed back downhill. He was able to gingerly ride his back back to the rig. On the way back to the hospital in ST George where I stayed for 2 days back in ’09 we shopped @ a Nevada liquor store for better and cheaper beer prices. Still drinking Moose Drool from Missoula. We dropped Jeff off in the emergency room lobby. 5 scruffy guys, one wounded, perplexed the older woman on the front desk. I suggested that we gangster drop Jeff off. We would speed to the emergency room door, screech to a stop and pitch Jeff out of the rig then screech off. Jeff chose to walk in under his own steam.
Finally back out @ JEM for snack dinner.
Tomorrow I will be coaching Dan on riding skills in the local WalMart parking lot.
Crazy: Steve and Morgan of the IMBA trail care crew are here for 1 day. I am one of their groupies as I have visited w/ them 4 times since Jan of 10. They are riding the Rim and I am teaching.