Dateline: Moab, UT Sand Flats XG

Last night b4 10:00 a diesel pusher RV pulled into my safe spot. Sure call attention to me why don’t you. They were quiet.

Hot engine noise up & down Main street. But @ 10:00 a coordinated quiet descended: All loud car noise ceased! Able to sleep and no cop rousting.

Diesel fired up engine as I was getting out of bed and left shortly after. Drove up to Slick Rock TH, just a few rigs in the lot and fixed scratch pancakes.

Chilly morn but no wind or rain. Parking lot filling up.

Took off to ride the practice loop to see how new brake worked and if my cluster wasn’t worn from old chain. Practice loop had some good test climbs & drops and both worked well. The new Formula brake is white and after the pads settled in the stopping power was grand. The cluster is slightly worn but the chain never skipped under standup I gotta crank this pedal or fall over backwards.

Continued on the main trail which is a path of white dashes on the slick rock. This slick rock is exposed sandstone and there is nothing slick about it for our rubber mtn bike tires. It is called slick rock because of the early horse days with iron shoes the rock was indeed slick. There are more riders on the trail than I have ever seen, for the most part everyone was considerate. I made all but a few steep climbs, my engine is loosing performance. Trail is 10.36 miles & 1928′ vert. Grinders.

Riding Moab is like nothing else, like skiing Utah powder or riding FATS. There are many very steep sections so steep that if you were riding your home tread you would have spun out long ago. There is an amazing side hill gully where you ride your side knobs for friction. Unbelievable.

Finished ride & hung in parking lot waiting till 3:00 to find and open campsite. This AM driving in the sign said full. I needed to wait until weekenders headed home.

Picked site on first loop just past the closed campsite where I first camped back in ’92. Went for a walk on slickrock, amazing what even hiking shoes can do for traction.

Fixed dinner & cleaned up and a storm blew in. I am parked somewhat broadside to wind which is rocking the van. Wind gauge read 34mph. Hardly a drop of rain  in it. But blowing dust, real fine: it is in the air and on the keyboard.

Got some sun to add to my biker tan: my arms are brown from the edge of my gloves to my jersey hem line, everything else is blindingly white.

Living in my van is advantageous with these storms as I can shut openings and be protected and comfortable not exposed like the tent campers.

Sunday music is classical: Straus’ Blue Danube.

Plan tomorrow is to drive back down into town and then ride back out here to do Porcupine rim trail & back into town, about 33 miles. Today from up on top I looked down on the bottom parking lot which was plugged. Don’t know if they were all from the shuttle from town riders or not. Won’t have any weekenders tomorrow.

Weekenders: When i was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail we called the weekend hikers we encountered as Wally Weekenders because they hiked from Sat to Sunday and we had the trail to ourselves during the work week.

Saw maybe 6 VW campers, they are still on the road although in diminishing numbers.

Buddy Tom Zysk from Spokane is in China on a work assignment. he sent a link to a hike he just did. Impossible! Over time I had seen these same pictures showing the trail is (3) 2 x 4s together on the side of a vertical rock wall with the hand line being  a chain bolted into the rock. Pretty airy. Several pictures had him in it so i know that it is real instead of a Tom prank. Way to go Tom.

This desert riding is so familiar to me, I have almost forgotten riding in the eastern broadleaf forests w/ no vistas.

Dateline: 1 street back off main street

Had some strange dreams that I can’t remember last night and didn’t sleep well. Before getting into bed I watched a police car cruise a motel parking lot nearby and went by me several times and didn’t roust so I must have passed muster.

Got up early 7 listened to weather radio for forecast: Higher winds & chance of T-storms. I rode enough of Fruita and decided to move to Moab for several days of riding before going to NM. Windy drive down Colorado River. Surprise: the spring pouring out from the rock outside of town was capped off. this spring was a source of h2o for many people. i liked the h2o and used it. Bummer.

XGs along the river were filled. Picked a popular weekend. Heavy traffic into town. And then there is a huge car show @ the park. Loud engines, screeching tires, just uncontrolled noise.

Parked @ gearhead shop where they offer free filtered h2o. I worked on bike replacing the chain & installing the new brake. A bit of rain fell. I finished just before & covered everything. I walked across the street to City Market for groceries. I saw a video rental machine & found Burn After Reading and rented it for $1.00. I was just off main street and it’s noise. I needed someplace quieter but Moab is a big main street town w/ few places to park far off Main. I picked a spot 1 block off and fixed dinner and watched the movie. Car and motorcycle noise just rampant. The police apparently have little or no control so i believe that i am small fish to bother tonight.

The traffic w/ bikes heading out to Sand Flats was plenty. There is an entry fee and camping fee. I chose not to go up because of crowds. The camping crowd might have been quieter.

I drove that dusty road out to Road 18 @ Fruita and there is dust everywhere inside the van, including somehow the computer.

I need earplugs to sleep tonight.

I wonder if the car show is an annual thing or if this is the last of it. I don’t comprehend how the town can put up w/ noise. It might be good for city’s business but horrible for uninvolved citizens.

Stuck the wind gauge outside & caught a 40mph gust. The wind swirls in the valley. No way was I going to ride in the wind & blowing dust.

Here comes sheriff who just drove by. Didn’t stop, might be working cars.  Will I get rousted?

Watched sun rise over mtns out @ road 18. Plan is to ride these trails & then move into town to see about the festival.

Camp spots were plugged but hardly a rider was stirring when I left on my ride just after 9:00. Looking forward to my improved suspension. And it is great, Thanks PUSH!

Can’t fix what i just did w/ fonts.

I rode stuff that I was unable or willing to in past rides. Do Zippty Doo Dah steep knife edge downhills. Courage. Really enjoyable ride. Hard, hot, & sunny. Like 3 hours & about 18 miles & 1850′ @ 4600′ elevation.

Drove back into town. The road is just stutter bumper & shakes the van so badly, like I said: 1 round trip.

Into town.

Health club is offering showers for $5.00, not $10 i paid one time b4. Showered, washed off sun screen & dust. Met Chris in locker room whom is here for festival.

Stopped & visited w/Chris @ Single tracks, gave him last Snake Creek time trila poster. He said somebody years ago gave him 1.

Walked thru exhibitor area to old log house that I thought was were the registration was to be. Met pretty woman @ receptionist desk. She slyly smiled and asked me how I got the mardis gra(sp) beads like she knew about beads. Had a great conversation w/ her, she said she was looking forward to telling her husband about it.

Drove over to mexican restaurant for Thurs party for beer & food and visiting. New Belgian brewery beer. Visited w/ Chris: ski instructor @ Aspen. Saw a guy standing nearby that looked familiar but memory recall failed. I said hello to him and he remembered me and I remembered that he is B. Rose from Shokdoctor in Minneapolis who helped solve a front end problem. He is a regular here apparently.

Parked across several parking lots for night. Viet Nam memorial had a wall of names & a Huey helicopter poised overhead.

Quiet night. Drove back into Fruita to festival to a flurry of activity of vendors setting up. And there was a Turner booth staffed by lots of DW link bikes & Moe, the Turner demo guy. He offered me a Spot DW for afternoon. I turned him down, more later.

I looked for ride sign up sheets to se what exciting ride I could go on. No offerings. Temp is climbing and I wanted to get my ride in b4 it got to hot so I went on my on and drove out to ride the Colorado river trails. Riders were camped right before Trail Head (TH) ( Betty). A few rigs in parking lot. Overcast & comfortable. Forecast is for high winds maybe 40mph and I didn’t want to be riding up on exposed ridges being buffeted by gusts. Climbed rock ledges @ early Mary’s Loop. Rode Horsethief loop. Chatted w/ a couple from Prince Edwards Island enjoying their 2nd ride of the season. Moved on to Lion’s loop for more exciting technical stuff and I made almost all of it. Great suspension and skills learned from all previous rides. I rode several 2′ drop overs where just letting the front wheel roll ove and the fork compresses to keep the bike from endoing. Great!

Lots of riders out but trails never got too crowded sort of. I sat down on a trail side rock for a snack & 4 riders went by that I joked w/ as they climbed hill. Continued around Lion’s to jeep road uphill to Mack’s ridge. By now I am running bonky low. I pushed a few steep places. Strong head winds as I climbed. I met 4 guys coming down who had just ridden up Mack’s and when learned that the downhill was a jeep road they turned around to ride down what they rode up. Rode out onto mesa edge on Mack’s to full brunt of wind. I drifted off the trail in sand and had a tough time correcting back onto trail because of wind. Trail is quite technical. The wind in exposed places was really buffeting me. I stopped 2 times to walk because of the wind and the fear that it was going to blow me off a move and crash in the jagged rocks. Did some good riding for me on downhill. The 4 guys and I talked @ the lower TH and they recognized me from the picture on my van.

I hung on and slowly pedaled back along Mary’ & last big road climb out. I made it back w/o collapsing: 30 miles, 3 1/2 hours, 3650′ climbed.

On the way back I ran into quite a few riders heading out. Trail ettiquette is out the window. Rules say yield to uphill rider: Not. The thing w/ bikes is they can go up as well as down. Skiing everybody is going downhill. Not too keen on festivals. Have the socks, time to move on.

Back @ TH there are 3 VW campers in a row behind my van. It turns out these are guys I passed earlier @ snack break. They finsished way earlier than me and were enjoying beer rewards and team green. They wanted to see my van so i swapped for a buzz.

Drove back into town for a shower & visit expo. Great to wash off sweat & sunscreen.

Spoke w/ Moe @ Turner. I told him that I am impressed w/ the DW link and want one but to ride one would be putting me 1 step closer to buying one and @ this point it would be $ follish. So there, all you doubters who say i can’t curb my bike spending!

Bought a Fat Tire beer and sat @ a table sipping it just beat. There were 2 labs laying on the ground nearby that were on a stay & didn’t move even w/ other dogs around. I finished my beer and went over and petted them. Minutes later the owner, Gary, showed up. He said pet away. I enjoyed it & so did dogs. I stood up to go and my left leg cramped where it never cramped before and I didn’t know how to strech it out. I was standing among many people walking around but nobody came to my rescue. A woman working a barbeque stand a few feet away came to my rescue and asked of my well being She offered & I accepted her electrolite replacement to long term relive cramp. She said that she & her husband work the stand in hot weather w/ wood fired stove & sweat so badly, hence the cramp reliever.

The dog owner, Gary, returned & we chatted. I learned that he is a retired firefighter who moved to Bend, OR and has a toy hauler trailer that he takes on the road for 3 month stints. He passed me today on Lion’s loop but took a different route back. I shared ride ideas w/ him. He, too, agrees that traveling  by himself is more rewarding.

Don’t care for festival environment.

Parked behind grocery store for dinner & internet.

Forecast tomorrow is for possible T-storms. One of the VW guys, Danny the window guy from Sedona, AZ, said that if it rains here or is strong possibility he will head to Moab. I might do same. Fruita has 2 areas to ride & I rode them both. Not eager to ride either a second time.

Plan is to spend a few days @ Moab and then make a clockwise circle into N New Mexico stayin in upper 1/3 of state.

Bought a pint of Haagen DAzz ice cream.

I am hammered.