So it has been a few days since our last post, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been up to much. Did we mention that Idaho was great, well it’s worth mentioning again. The nights are freezing, the climbs are brutal ( “I was cat’n heavy on Bonk blvd.” was tossed out yesterday near the end of a serious lung buster at altitude), but the alpine meadows and smooth ribbons of single track keep us coming back. Over the last few days we rode at an area named Adams Gulch for a nice 17 mile spin, we rode Greenhorn Gulch (everywhere you look there seems to be a Gulch around here), and rode Baker Creek this morning. The ride today was amazing with a nice 8 mile mellow climb to more beautiful views and a 5 mile downhill that had us giggling like schools girls with wrist pain up the wazoo!
We are heading into town now to do some exploring and are all feeling a little self conscious of post ride funk, as this town in ball’n. These hills are dotted with mansions, nice cars, and fancy Shops. All a little out of our league, but the locals around here are all very nice and friendly, they also don’t mind letting us in on all the local highlights such as post ride grub spots, local hot springs, and full reign of bike shop tools. Our time is winding down in this bikers paradise and it will be bitter sweet to leave, although with Downieville on the horizon, the morel is still very high.
Just when you thought we were in Durango we switched it up and now were hanging low in Idaho. So we arrived in Durango on Wednesday afternoon to what looked like was gonna be some fairly promising riding conditions but that just wasn’t going to be the case. Once we arrive in town we visited some bike shops talked to some locals and figured out where we were gonna ride, just as we were on our way to the campsite the clouds above us began to leak and did they ever spring a large leak. We hunkered down for the night hoping it was just a passing thunderstorm but awoke the next morning to realize it was sticking around. We quickly found internet to check the forecast and long behold rain straight up till Monday. We quickly brainstormed and came up with 2 options. Number 1: wait out the storm in hopes it would subside. Number 2: head for greener pastures. After a few quick head nods I programmed Sun Valley, Idaho into Tom Tom and off we were. After traveling some 6 thousand km in the last 2 weeks, the thought of driving 1200 yesterday didn’t faze us in the least.
We arrived late last night and set up camp just off one of the roads in what we thought was a suitable location. For the most part it was besides It was located next to a skeet shooting range. Thankfully we were out of there in time before any of the shooting got underway as it might have scared us silly. Not to mention the large animal that hassled us last night. Majority of my time before I fell asleep was asking the boys if they heard that sound. They must be a little hard of hearing because I swear that beast was just outside our tent. Either way I was ready for him and if he would have poked his nose anywhere near my zone looking for food, he would have found himself dinning on a knuckle sandwich compliments of chef Steve haha. After what might have been the coldest night, their for resulting in the worst sleep of our lives(Second worst for Ben) we awoke in search of fisher creek trail. After talking to a few places and picking up some maps we were on our way to finally ride after 2 days off.
The 1200k drive, the freezing cold sleep, and the missed riding in Durango was all silenced after we rode fisher creek trail today. The ride consisted of a 8 mile climb that was gradual but with a little sting since we are wrestling with some altitude. If you haven’t already realized anything worth wile in life takes a lot of work. The downhill we encountered was worth the climb. It’s hard to even talk about it because I don’t quite know what words to use to give it the justice it deserves. I think the easiest way for you to know is by the video we are in the process of making. If you were already somewhat jealous about the trip, well this ones going to hurt. For now though we will leave you with a video Benny finished editing yesterday on the drive, from riding we did back in Fruita from a trail called the ribbon. We hope you enjoy.
Rest day number 2 is now upon us as we leave behind beautiful Moab to head for higher elevation.
Yesterday turned out to be a day of relaxation, we all had good intentions of waking up and going for a ride but our bodies had a much different plan for us. Our forearms and calves were still tweaked to the point of immediate failure as soon as they even began to feel called upon. We decided to play it by ear and see how we were feeling later on in the day. Moab is such an awesome town that really caters to travelers and those seeking outdoor fun. There are tons of bike shops, rafting places, jeep tours, and rock climbing that is based out of the town. It’s the type of place where you could take you family and it would have a bit of something for everyone, oh and have I mentioned how hot it is there.
Since it was our last day in Moab we decided to ride as we knew a rest day was waiting for us the next day. We ended up riding an out and back trail called Amosa back that was highly recommended by the locals at the bike shops. The ride was really nice and had some really good view points of the canyons around us. We stopped to take a few pics and also to see how good we could get our voices to echo. Lully and I had little trouble belting out some worthy noises that echoed around many bends making for a rally cool echo effect. Benny on the other hand struggled. Poor guy cant even whistle which I think makes him feel like he’s a bit of an outsider when Lully and I bust out a tune. Sometimes you can even hear him off by himself blowing air to no avail. (haha sorry Benny I didn’t mean to expose such a tender area for ya). I won’t even get started on him trying to snap his fingers ha. Anyways were just outside Durango Colorado which was about a 260k drive from Moab. The plan is to get our camp set up and talk to some locals about what we should be riding tmr, and boy oh boy these mountains have some size to them.
Really from yesterday, June 23 way too tired to post this last night.
Wow what a day. We put in a very large day to say the least, a day I think that is safe to call epic. Now you first must realize I’m not one to throw around the word epic so easily, the word epic must be backed up. No your walk to the grocery store is not epic nor would your 4 egg omelet that you cooked for breakfast. The epic I’m talking about involves descending 7000 feet over 50 km. Still not epic enough for ya. How about the fact that we hoped on a shuttle at 7 am where we were driven up to 10,000 ft and dropped off on the side of a mountain, still not enough? Ok how about we climb for 1,500 ft at altitude so high you would be gasping for air just brushing your teeth. Now you must be convinced. For those few skeptics though we were so high that I was making snow balls and throwing them at the boys while they rode by. Ya we were that high. So I meow must have you convinced that the day was one of epic proportions.
We reached burrow pass at about the point I was ready to lay down and wait for the rescue services to come, because altitude really puts the hurt on, If I was a crying man I would have been able to start my own river it hurt that much. Thankfully though we reached the summit and it was a long way down, with minimal ascending to be done. We started our decent in high alpine, just above the tree line. The descent was fast and technical and of course I went down only minute’s in. luckily I had roots and soil to cushion my fall and was no worse for the wear. We bombed and we bombed and we bombed down some more. We rode along streams and crossed them and even stopped to take a few pics. I swear at times Benny and Lully traversed log jumps and rock drops with the grace on an elk and the nimbleness of a mountain goat. As the Germans would say Benny was looking very Leuchtbau ( ya I can rock the German language). As we descended the air got warmer and the sun got hotter. We started our day with chattering teeth and ended it in pools of our own sweat.
The day was nothing short of amazing as was the terrain. We got a little taste of it all. We rode though alpine meadows and old growth tress, along cliff edges that were so high you would think you found the end of the earth. We were so high it took us 6 hours to fully ride out the trail. We got to see tons of wildlife from elk to lizards and even seen a sign that said you are now in bear country. You will be thankful to know though that me and Ben made a deal in the case we encounter a bear. He would take one for the team as long as I told Charlot that he fought the bear with a brave face and did it in the name of love haha.
Leuchtbau – Is the way the Germans describe something that’s lightweight and sleek
Trail we rode today ( the Whole Enchalada ) Yes it was large, look it up if your ever in moab
A well deserved rest day was in order for today after a hard 3 days of riding. We were pretty cooked after yesterdays ride and didn’t have the energy to bust out a post and most of the afternoon was spent laying under the truck to try and escape the sun. Yesterday we rode at a place called Lunch Loops that was about a 20 min drive from our campsite. We hit our first sizable climb of the trip yesterday but luckily it was on a paved road that climbed up to the top of the trail. After the climb our quads were screaming to the tune of a heavy metal band. To me we had climbed up high enough to touch the clouds but the boys quickly reminded me that I haven’t seen nothing yet as they giggled at the thought of the altitude to come. We took a quick pause to eat and let our legs flush out some of the acid acquired over the last hour.
The descent was long and fast and covered some really fun slick rock as we weaved our way down into the canyon. We got a few good pics and more footage but it was just hard to stop when you were having so much fun bombing down. We were on the breaks so hard at some points you would swear they were about to fail. After one especially steep and long downhill benny touched his rotar only to yelp with pain from how scolding hot it was. Some kids just have to learn the hard way I guess haha.
After about 3 hours Lully got a flat that sent him back on a fire road because we foolishly left spare tubes back at the camp site and were unable to buy any from other riders before we set off. We knew the gamble and of course the house always wins. Since he would be walking back we decided to hit one last single track trail that I now wish I would have skipped. Don’t get me wrong it was super fun for the first half, or at least until I managed to flip over my handle bars on some slick rock and punish the left side of my body. Like any mountain biker would I got right up and checked to see if anything was broken, on both me and the bike. After a couple tense seconds I realized we were both ok and just a little scraped and bruised up, nothing a rest day won’t cure.
Were in Fruita now just about to take off to Moab Utah where we will start a new adventure in a new town. I’m gonna miss Fruita, its such a layed back one street town that caters to mountain bikers but the journey must move on. Oh and we really enjoy hearing from all of you in the guestbook section it gives us something to look forward to and makes home seem to so far away, so please feel free to sign the guest book as much as possible.
Ps. Charlot you have made Bennys day, he was secretly hoping you would stumble upon the new blog haha
Sign the petition to keep this place open. Great pizza and beer and ran by bikers.
It is now day 6 of our adventure and day 2 of actual riding. We loaded up around 8 and headed a short distance outside Fruita to ride in a place called Kokappelli. I started off the day in a terrible mood due to a malfunctioning rear shock that was messing with my entire universe. The technical climb at the beginning of the trail only heightened my level of crankiness and resulted in a rather quiet and frustrating climb. It wasn’t until the top that we figured out, it just needed some air in the sag valve. Once that took place my day took a massive turn for the better. We spent about 4 hours in the saddle today and were able to snap some pretty good pics.
Then out of nowhere catastrophe struck, a lizard decided to play Russian roulette with his life and dart across the trail that we were bombing down. I was middle in the pack and Lully was bringing up the rear woo. I noticed him dart out of the corner of my eye and he just wasn’t fast enough and my back tire caught him. We turned back to investigate. Upon first glance he seemed to be alright maybe just a little shook. After a close inspection he wasn’t doing so well. I’m no doctor but his leg defiantly looked broken. We stood for a minute and weighed our options. Option 1: take him with us. Option 2: lets not talk about option 2. Just when I thought there was no hope Lully chimes in rather convinced that lizards were able to grow back limbs. Im no kinesiology grad (lully) but I didn’t think that was a possibility. It must have been that one glass of wine last night because he somehow convinced me that he would be fine and have a new limb in no time. This Lully character seems a bit sinister to me but ill let you be the judge. Also Alice if you could shed some light on this situation that would be greatly appreciated.
Back to riding though, like i had mentioned we put in a good size ride today on some very interesting trails. At one point we were cruising along a rock ledge with about a foot to spare before a few hundred foot drop down into the Colorado River. This is a pretty big step for me as I don’t even enjoy being on the crazy bus (don't act like you have never been on it...) when old home week drops by town. We snapped a few good pics to kind of give you an idea of what our ride was like today. We also have footage of a downhill section that one of us may or may not have made. The picture helps to give you a good idea of just how nuts it was. (Footage will be up loaded in the next couple days). Just how impressive it was to make this section you may ask? People had gathered around to witness it as they told stories of how they have never seen anyone actually make it all the way down. Ill give you a hint who it was( He weighs 145 pounds and im sure about 10 of those pounds could be lost from cutting his hair and shaving his beard haha) none the less everyone was extremely impressed, including me and Lully…oooops.
Finally we get to ride and ride we did. We arrived in Fruita Colorado at about 2 in the morning mountain time which I think we are all still trying to get used to, that’s 5 in the morning Atlantic time. Oh and did I mention WE GOT LULLY. We found him loitering around the east terminal at a rather large and intimidating Denver airport. He looked happy and had a nice bronze color to his skin so we figured he would be a good addition to our rather pale twosome. After grabbing Lully we still had a 400km drive to Fruita that took us directly through the Colorado Mountains which were quite tricky in the rain. A few red bulls or 10 later we finally arrived at our destination, quickly set up camp and fell asleep. Only to realize we were completely underdressed and were awoken by how cold it got, oh and howling coyotes were not helping our cause.
After a somewhat unpleasant night’s sleep, we arose to a beautiful sunrise that was quickly heating us up. Since we arrived in the dark I had no idea of what our surroundings looked like and was to say the least was pleasantly surprised when I got out of the tent. The pictures will help explain.
We had a short ride to the trail head and were quickly on our way to some very exquisite riding. We had Bennys helmet cam mounted to his helmet, (he felt it made him look somewhat toolish, we agreed) none the less it was totally worth it because of the awesome footage we were able to get. Since we have a fair amount of down time and limited internet access we edited a movie of our ride today so you can get a better understanding of why we drove 4500km to ride our mountain bikes.
I won’t talk too much about the trails today because the movie gives a pretty good view of what it was like. The climbing was not bad at all which made for a good introductory day for the three of us. Anyways we hope you enjoy. Ps I sat in a thorn bush today, it was one of the worst experiences of my life and probably lullys too because he had to help me out and no, pictures will not be coming.
Today was a long day on the road. We left Michigan this morning and covered about 2000 km as we are now sitting at rest stop just outside of Denver. Although nothing out of the ordinary occurred today, a few lessons were learned:
Although Iowa has terrible free internet, it somewhat redeemed itself with hundreds of wind turbines dotting it rolling country side.
I never knew critty had set up shop in Nebraska!
Dallas Green was right about Nebraska, but their speed limits are fine with us.
Lastly, Beans truly are a magical fruit...
Here's to hoping the next post involves some biking.
