The week after 24's...well they can be an exercise in patience, but not this one. I was trashed for 2 days then suddenly felt great. That can mean only one thing in late Feb: it's time to get on over to Moab.
There's an event coming up late March, the Moab Rimride. It hits a lot of unfamiliar terrain, and after reading the route description I figured it would make for a good ride (part of it that is...). I didn't have the recommended "classic Moab trails" map, just the Latitude 40 Moab East and West maps. Resolution and included trails were not sufficient to get the course figured out, so I ended up just picking my own route, which was Gemini Bridges, Gold Bar Rim (the blue dot trail), and Poison Spider.
I hadn't been to Gemini Bridges before, you walk right on up to it before you know you're there. Suddenly a gaping hole in the ground lets you know you've arrived. Yea, real observant harris...
From Gemini it's a short bit of backtracking to get to the Gold Bar Rim. I'll be calling this the 90 weight trail, as that's what it smells like. Jeeps hit this one hard, literally, and their transfer cases & differentials have left trails and puddles of the goo all over. I found Gold Bar to be rather hard. Very little dirt, mostly slickrock. Lot's of stuff requiring a quick dismount or a freeride bike. There's an alternate route that goes right along the rim in spots, the "blue dot trail", it's singletrack, techy and fun. The main road makes a zigzag route from 300 feet below the rim and back to the rim...repeat...over and over. Great interval work. Views from the top let you know your livin'.
For those doing the March event, this section at the end of the ride is going to be HARD. Save some juice or you'll be suckin' the grease. Literally. Stuff like this will present challenges to tired legs (it's deeper and farther across than it appears):
There were a coupla moto guys from Boulder out there. They had me in stitches at one point. "Yea, Mark here had a skiing accident last year, broke his hip, back, and got impaled in his ass by a stick. Skiing mag wrote it up in Nov '06, article title is The Tale of Two Assholes." Then they went on to hammer endurance runners..."There's no adrenaline! OK, what am I going to eat in the next 20 minutes...Ooo, I'm gotting lift my foot REALLY high on the next step!" and on and on...oh and they shared some jellybelly sports beans, haven't had those before but they are now on the shopping list, yum.
They were intrigued by my Power Tap hub; I was envious of their power!
Next up was Poison Spider. After Gold Bar, PS was a breeze. Felt so easy and all downhill...except for the sand.
And that's a wrap.