Saturday, May 20, 2006

Moab/Fruita and back again

Once again i drove(alone) 1000 miles to Moab for the 3rd Bomb gathering. The drive's tough but so am i, so i kept on drinking coffee and moving forward. I rolled into town about noon thirty and hung out with a couple of cali guys for a bit and then finally talked them into checking out Amassa Back. Kind of a warm up for the week. A few miles of goofing around, and it showed them what was to come. The next day we went to Fruita and ride Joes ridge,The Kessel run and Zippety Do Da. Boy was that fun. Those Cali guys had kessel run on the brain and i think they did it like 6 times in a row. We also hooked up with Rollo-matic in the afternoon before we did zippety so that was cool. Great to see him again and what a great rider. Drove back to Moab to eat and sleep my 2nd night on the gravel.(5 more to go) The next day we (Cali guys,rollo and i) did most of a new-ish trail in Moab called "baby steps" near the klondike bluffs area. Single track in Moab? cool. Fun trail what we could follow. Pac man and pac man jr. turned back for more water and Rollo and i trudged on. We rode about a mile down a dry creek bed trying to find the trail but no luck. We finally found more trail but finally gave up when we saw black clouds and lightning. When we arrived back at the truck(after riding into the wind for a few miles) it was raining pretty good. Back to Moab and found out it hadn't rained. But my Stinky deelux blew over. Strong wind. Wed we (rollo,me,pac man, pac man jr and new arival Chip Chiperton) cruised back to Fruita and hit up Zippety again. The mighty Pac man and buddy opted to do the Kessel run again. And Again. Chip almost pile drived himself but other than that it was uneventful. You know...riding 12" wide trails on skinny ridges ,going down REALLY steepsections and back up the other side( if you stay off the brakes). The typical stuff. After that we headed over to the Mary's loop area to try to meet up with Mike Goertz and some Denver people. We were late and they were gone. So we took off on the trail. Awesome trail right above the Colorado river. Very rocky and lot's o' ledges. Just what i like. All the way i'm thinking " I'm gonna ride the Horse theif bench entrance this year".I had been thinking that ever since last year and i was prepared to do it. I failed again. I did ok but that matters not. Rollo came close but had a massive dab so, no can count. The Horse theif bench trail was great. Last year Jeep led the wrong way so this year we went the way the book says and boy was that fun. Rollo was tearing it up and puting me to shame. Anyway...we rode and rode and rode and rode. and it was hot. After that we headed back to Moab for the lightly attended meet and greet. I was to dehydrated to do much greeting. Thursday i hooked up with John W and ayhooch...they missed out on the Wed Fruita ride so guess where i went......again.....Fruita. Maybe i should have camped there instead of the tent of much snoreing. We pretty much did the same trails that i did the day before and i tried the Horse theif entrance 2 more times. The 2nd time i made it the farthest yet. but i still failed. I was having shifting problems all day from trying to ride through too many landslides. So i limped back to the car and called it a day. Back to Moab AGAIN for more sleep in the gravel.Next day off to the big downhill. Porcipine rim from way up. 8000 ft to be exact(kinda) Big bike comes out.
We were stoked for the 27 mile (mostly) dh ride. My goal was to ride and not walk any difficult sections. Well...i did all right but a couple were trying to kill me so i walked. It was fun trying to go as fast as i could and still keep it together. Saw a guy crash on a jump and break his helmet. Saw a lot of good riders and basicly had a great day. Can't wait to go back next year.