I'm a modestly expert mountain biker, having ridden almost since there
were mountain bikes. Now I'm not going to plunge down a cliff and my
ballsyness diminishes with age, but if "lots" of others can ride
something, I can too. Despite this experience, and despite living just
200 miles north, I have only done a smattering of Moab's trails. I stick
to my favorites because they're so fun.
I took the new girlfriend down over the holiday and hoped to do some
riding of my own while breaking her in. She's one of my spinning
"students," not terribly strong but a consistent indoor rider,
determined to get in great shape. Also quite the trooper!
This was her first ride on an outdoor bike in decades.
I was looking at Sovereign, because I haven't yet done it myself and it
sounded pretty easy. But the dude at Slickrock Cycles said hmm, maybe
Klondike would be better. Okay, I'd never done that one either. The bike
he rented us was serviceable, but skipped despite her staying in the
middle ring per the shop's suggestion. The front brake also rubbed a
tiny bit.
After she almost blew her breakfast (McDonald's is good enough for an
old non-competitive hand like me, but she needed purer fare), I had her
move the chain to the granny range. She managed nicely, although once
you push against the puke threshold like she did your strength is
brittle. She got a great workout, I just enjoyed riding hard every now
and then, turning around several times to rejoin, encourage, advise,
buss, etc.
The trail is indeed a breeze, great for one's first mountain bike ride.
It has enough deep sandy sections at the bottom to give you a taste of
the "sand boat" technique: get on plane, stay on plane and you'll ride
through it. The climb is long by newbie standards but gradual, mostly on
slickrock. A couple mildly technical situations kept me interested. It's
the kind of climb that one can "spin" up, or hammer and feel like Lance
Armstrong. In the future, I'll use it as a warm-up or cool-down,
something to kill an hour or two with.
I suggest that 20 minutes is a theoretical best time to climb that
trail, but just in theory. It took us three hours out-and-back.
We reached the top, I rode up most of the short singletrack to the fence
on the border of Arches National Park, she pushed much of it. Because
I'm a nice guy, I agreed to walk into the park despite not having
comfortable shoes. It was worth it: nice view, pretty slot canyon.
Descending the singletrack, I was determined to ride the one real
technical (steep, narrow, off-camber) section. I plunged into it, parked
my front wheel on the only significant rock I could find, and endo'd.
Picked up a little trail rash from something on the rear of my bike as I
stumbled over the bars. I'm proud of myself for riding "hard" enough to
actually fall. 🙂 I don't often do that.
She LOVED the downhill, following my line most of the way. She said it
was just like skiing, flowing with gravity. I reminded her to maintain
concentration since a broken collarbone is always one mind wander away.
She handled the bouncy suspension just fine, followed my advice to NEVER
lock the front wheel, and emerged from her first mountain bike ride - in
Moab! - tired & sweaty but unscathed, and psyched.
Next time, we do Top of the World. 🙂
--
Lynn Wallace
If FDR fought fascism the way Bush fights terrorism, we'd all be
speaking German now.