I had last week off work and we were due for a family vacation. I looked
into endless options including Bahamas, Mexico, and many places in
between. Since we're building a house (and still spending money on bikes
as usual) we decided to be cheap and just stick to our general area.
The first weekend we went to Colorado City (Co) to pay a visit to my
in laws and take advantage of some free babysitting. We brought road
bikes and I got dropped off for my favorite stretch of road biking, Hwy
165 from the junction with Hwy 360 to Colorado City. It's ~35 Miles of
roller coaster style hills with a couple of monster climbs. It's a lot
like mountain biking in that I'm either busting a gut climbing (often
out of the saddle) or getting a huge rush descending at high speed (I
bet I exceeded 50 Mph a few times). It also goes by Bishop Castle,
which is a trip and a good spot to eat a bar and read the guy's
anti-government rants (hand-painted on big signs). We also did a ride on
that road together from San Isabel to the castle, and then back to Co
City. The worrisome father-in-law even came out looking for us in his
car when he figured we must have been murdered or run off the road (we
actually just rode a little extra).
Climbing a big hill (warning: roadie (Fred) content!)
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02909.JPG
Then we returned home for a night to swap out some gear, change bikes,
and head to a friend's parent's house in Castle Valley near Moab. Our
friends have a daughter who is a year younger than our boy so that part
of the trip was going to be swapping kid-watching duty and getting out
on rides as we can. MrsB and I haven't been to the Moab area in more
than a decade so we decided we'd just ride a couple of classics to get
re-acquainted. On our first full day there (Wednesday) we got the
afternoon slot after hanging out with the kids all morning (my three
year old loved the red dirt and spent the morning in it).
The kids:
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02923.JPG
We parked at the Negro Bill Canyon parking lot and rode Porcupine rim as
an out and back from the bottom. Being a week day it wasn't particularly
crowded, and that trail actually makes a pretty fun climb. There were of
course some portages required, but we decided later it's probably
"easier" to climb because you don't see the exposure like you do on the
way down. About 7 or eight times we were asked if we knew where we were
going by riders coming the other way. A couple were impressed when we
told them but most seemed puzzled by us riding up the trail. The Mrs and
I took a break at the top, took some photos and then headed back down.
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02933.JPG
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I forgot how big some of those drops are! What a rush, I ended riding
some lines I had thought I'd better not ride when looking at them on the
way up, but on the descent I wouldn't realize it until I was rolling
past the point of no return. Some great adrenaline rushes on some big
(for me - maybe 3-4'😉 drops that almost made me want to get some kind of
"Freeride" bike after I move on from the Epic (which did fine). We were
having too much fun to take many photos on the way down.
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02942.JPG
The following day, we went up to Sand Flats to ride the most famous
(over done?) of all the Moab rides, Slickrock. My buddy Keith and I hung
out with the kids while the wives went out or the first shift. That
wasn't great mostly because of all the activity I had to really watch my
boy closely to be sure he wasn't wandering into traffic of some sort,
and there really is a lot of [censored] (literally - probably dog and human as
well as figuratively - like broken glass) around there for him to find,
which kept me on my toes. There were lots of Hummers and ATVs that
weren't there last time:
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02967.JPG
But despite all that, it is still a beautiful area, and the Slickrock
trail is still fun. I wondered if it would seem easy after all the
riding I've done since I last rode it, but I still found some challenges
out there. Keith and I rode a spur trail that was particularly
challenging and I actually got a clean a climb right after a motorcycle
couldn't (while they watched: that hurt and felt great at the same time).
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02971.JPG
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http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02982.JPG
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My son really liked the park in town near the Sand Flats area:
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02985.JPG
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02989.JPG
Then we drove home and rode Hartman's over the weekend to top it all
off. All in all a great week!
http://tinyurl.com/znahe/DSC02996.JPG
Matt (back to the grind of working and riding the high desert)