Moab with Friends

October 24
First stop was in Moab for Rudy to pick up his new bike shoes! Of course the ones he likes are never in stock anywhere, so had some sent to a bike shop somewhere we knew we'd be awhile - he likes to tell the story, ask him about it! We then headed south of town, reserved a site at the Moonflower Canyon Campground, and ended up at Amasa Back trails where I ran and the guys rode. The trails in this area were relatively rugged, I don't think there was much I would have enjoyed riding, but the run was long, challenging, and beautiful!

So big and incredible

More fantastic rock

Hard to stay on the trail with the distracting scenery

An intro to slickrock

The mighty Colorado River

 More mountainy and less deserty than I was expecting. The guys were out a good hour longer than me and apparently had lots of challenging fun. There were quite a few people at the trailhead, many interested in the van, or with vans, so lots of sharing about van set up, as well as general information on Moab - like where to places to get hot water! Since it was another cloudy day, I was happy to get something warmer in the solar shower - the tough guys cleaned up in the river again. Once back at the campsite, we made fried potatoes and shells and cheese for dinner, then played teams Trivial Pursuit - Rudy and I won out as the bigger nerds.

October 25
Lots of rain overnight, and the four of us were pretty slow to get going. We got in some exploring of Moonflower Canyon and enjoyed the sunshine when it finally came in.

End of the canyon

Heading back out of the canyon

Cactus living on the edge

We made it a relatively easy day and went to the Slickrock bike trail.

My favorite description of this stuff is 'lithified cookie dough'

There is a practice loop and the main loop - I actually was not having much fun even on the practice loop, so that is all I ended up riding and spent the next few hours strolling, strength/stretching and puzzling, and a little hanging out in the sun while the guys were out on the other ten miles of slickrock route. After the boys were refueled, we stopped by the river, then needed to acquire some groceries - surprisingly crazy for a weeknight! We eventually got out of there, headed back to Moonflower, and had a late dinner of beans and rice.

October 26
An early morning as the guys had to catch a shuttle to embark on most of the 'Whole Enchilada' - normally ~33 miles with over 8,000 feet of descending mostly expert trails, but the shuttle wasn't going to the top anymore, so they missed out of the top five or so miles. We dropped off the van (and me) at a trailhead near the bottom - William Longstaff aka Negro Bill Canyon. I jogged the short hiking trail up to Morning Glory Bridge - awesome scenery, and fun plants.

Lots of fun trail

Cactus thriving near the creek

Morning Glory Bridge

Different sage brush than I've seen...

A couple hours of chilling, then a run on the flat bike path along the Colorado River, a little more chilling, then I hiked the trail in the much busier afternoon - glad I got to enjoy it during the quiet morning too! The guys had a successful descent!

They started in the mountains way back there, and ended up at the mouth of the canyon

We headed back to the river and ate lots of pasta. An attempt was made to repair a damaged bike tire, but more supplies were needed, so a bike shop trip was planned for the morning.

October 27
A nice slow, relaxed morning since bike shops don't open until 10. While Peter and Dennis worked on getting the tire repaired, Rudy and I strolled around town just a little to complete some 'errands'. When we reconvened at the bike shop, I ended up getting some knee pads in the hopes of increasing my bravery, and preventing some of the cuts and scrapes I've been piling on. We next headed out to Poison Spider trail for a little less technical going. Most of this trail was jeep road - some impassible by bike, but I could manage most of it and just did an out and back, making some stops to watch jeeps do their thing.

Looks more impressive in person...

Vehicles go up that?

Little Arch

End on the road

The guys went on some of the more advanced trails, including the Portal Trail, touting as being deadly - I guess there were some stretches even Rudy and Peter opted to walk through. After my ride, I had a look at the dinosaur tracks, right at the trailhead, then took a short hike to Longbow Arch.

For real dinosaur tracks

Trail to Longbow Arch

Longbow Arch

I returned to the trailhead close to sunset shortly after Rudy and Peter - apparently Dennis opted to skip the more rugged trails and go back the way they came - he barely made it back before dark! A quick stop at the River, then we decided to pay someone to make dinner for us. We tried a Mexican place, but that one closed at 8, so Moab Brewing. Everyone was quite satisfied with their food and drinks, and despite being very full, we all agreed to take a crack at 1.75 quarts of key lime pie ice cream, which we surprisingly took care of without too much discomfort after we got back to Moonflower. The campground was pretty busy - apparently there was a bike and film festival in town for the weekend.

October 28
We made a stop at Lions Park for water, and just a little goofing off.

Even a little bouldering area

I just like this plant...

Then on to Navajo Rocks for biking. These trails were much flatter and less technical than what we've been on in Moab so far - also great scenery!

Part of the Big Mesa Trail

Part of Big Mesa

The 'battleship' mesas, Monitor and Merrimac

I think they would be a good 'warm up' for a flatlander trip to Moab, or for more novice riders in general (I think I had more 'fun' here than the guys did). Once we were finished biking in the early afternoon, Peter and Dennis started making their way back to Denver and Rudy and I found some dispersed camping further down the road. Being Friday, there were quite a few people around, but the area didn't seem too crowded and was nice and quiet. I finally tried out the yoga board Rudy and Erik put together for me (just a piece of particle board to put the mat on for less forgiving ground) and that was just great. We sauteed some veggies and made shells and cheese for dinner and got in the next Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix - very similar plot to all the previous ones...