Mountain Biking in Moab with Mary

Our ultimate destination was Moab, UT where we met up with Kim and Dana for some... bounce bounce -- break break -- ouch ouch... mountain biking fun. During this adventure, we experienced some scrapes and bruises, a broken deraillur, 70-mph sand storm (in our tents!), and a rollicking good time sampling beer from the local brewery (Dana and Kim kept us well supplied). Moab is a mountain bike mecca providing dozens of trails and gorgeous canyon scenery with vistas of the Colorado River and LaSal Mountains. The mountain biking was spectacular. The Slickrock trail was a must and we happen to pick a beautiful, sunny day. The trail is marked with a white dotted line painted on smooth sandstone rolling over precarious drops and steep climbs, but you could literally ride wherever you wanted... which is exactly what Scott did while waiting for the crew to catch up. One false move and over the cliff ya go. Although windy as heck, another fun day was spent biking the 14-mile Porcupine Rim Trail. This ride was incredibly rocky and technical, leaving us with vibrating arms for several days. The last 2 miles were completely ridiculous (I don't think even terb could conquer some of these obstacles) which means we also got a hike in that day :) After such a long, grueling effort, we splurged at Zax's wood fired pizza in town. A biker's dream at $10.99 for all the salad and pizza you can eat. And, Scott took that literally! We had to stick a fork in him and roll him home.

Slickrock Trail














Porcupine Rim Trail














After several days of basking in Moab's mountain biking glory and hiking in Arches National Park, we headed to Canyonlands NP for a 3-day biking/camping adventure along the White Rim Trail. To descend into the canyon, Mary, Dana, Kim, and Rachel biked 7 miles down a 2,000 ft drop to our campsite while Scott drove the sag wagon. Although the scenery was gorgeous, we had to really focus on the buummpppyyy 4-wheel drive road to keep from plunging into the depths of the canyon.










Biking down the canyon at Canyonlands NP

Monument Valley

In early April we teamed up with Mary B. ("hi mary") and set out on a tour of northern AZ and southern UT. We first stopped in Sedona for an overnight backpacking excursion. The picture at the top is outside of Flagstaff looking down the canyon toward Sedona. We next drove through N. AZ's "Monument Valley" where we came across this gorgeous monument lunch area sadly smitten with turds and broken glass.

Bicycle Training

In March, we finally got off our arses and started riding around the Phoenix area. At first, it was pretty much by braille, but we soon found some west valley clubs and group rides. Sun City actually turned out to be a great place to participate in group rides as everyone was pretty much retired and has all day to ride. We would typically ride MTW FS with a mix of people aging from 55 to 82. One might laugh, but these gma's and gpa's can hammer. The pictures above are from our "practice" tour route from Phoenix to Prescott and back. While in Prescott, we hung out with Scott's cousins - Dorothy, Jeff, and Emily - for a relaxing couple of days. The 200-mile round trip was a huge success and ramped up our anticipation of the longer trek.

Relaxing with Family in Sun City, AZ

February was largely spent relaxing with Scott's family in Arizona. Scott laid around and read while his ankle improved while Rachel relaxed and began acquiring Sun City retirement skills: playing golf and cards. We spent a few weeks in Show Low, AZ in an effort to relieve family cabin fever.

Scott's Winter NOLS Course

My instructors told me that winter camping in snow is all about "Digging And Dealing"... and after completing the course... I concur. Unlike summer camping where you can relax once camp is made and basic chores are done, winter camping involves constant work. Constant rotation of clothing (drying wet, stinky socks and gloves on your skin), constant rotation and packing of gear, constant manipulation of layers of clothing, and a constant quest to create and keep water in a liquid state.

Here is basic trip info:

GROUP DYNAMICS: 9 students (3 M, 6 F), 3 instructors (2 M, 1 F); Oldest member was 43, youngest was probably early 20s. Careers included outdoor educators, a priest, school principal, a student, consultant.
TRAINING: 5 days of telemark ski lessons and avalanche training in Driggs, ID
LONG-COLD-ASS-TRIP: 20 days of schlogging through depthless powder in WY
HIGHLIGHTS: We had a ton of food... too much food. We would fry bacon with butter, wake up in the middle of the night and eat snickers... The basic axiom was: "The more you eat the warmer you'll be/sleep". On travel days we would sleep in an excavated pit w/ a pyramid tarp above us and on stationary days, we would create digloos (right picture). Traveling included a rotation of trail breaking and route finding while pulling a heavy sled with a 50 pound backpack. We climbed a pretty high peak one day (left picture), but I wiped out pretty hard on the way down and sprained my ankle. This was really really sad :( cuz we were 18 miles from the trailhead and I had a long way to hobble at the end of our trip. This also meant that Rachel and I had to postpone our winter adventures in Yellowstone.