Moab Madness

(steve)

 Moab seems like the center of the outdoor universe in May and October. Not to be left out, we joined the mountain biking masses for a fun-filled long weekend playing in red dirt. We rented half a duplex on the south side of town and convinced our good friends the Allens and Delneros (including munchkins) to come keep us company (it wasn't hard).

To begin, the ride out went extremely well given that Holly hadn't done a car ride (5.5 hrs) that long before. Once we got there, Karen and I had to decide who was going to go biking and who would play with the kids. After I lost, Matt and I decided to go ride Slickrock with one of his college buddies who happened to be in town.



Although this one photo shows an example of the stuff one rides one, the pictures I took of the ride do not generally do it justice. It's absolutely amazing what you can ride up and down without losing traction. If you want to see what is possible, just search "Slickrock" on YouTube and be amazed. It was a great afternoon and I would absolutely do it again.

The second day there, we decided to do a family trip into Arches National Park. The photo montage tells it all. Late in the afternoon, Karen, Chris and Matt went back out to Slickrock so she could experience it too.












The third day was the big boys ride day. We tackled the Porcupine Ridge trial. Unfortunately, I was too stupid to realize my memory card was full so NONE of my pictures and cool videos snips of us going up and down crazy stuff is available. Guess we'll have to go back. During the 14 miles we also had one casualty. Chris took a spill and ended up with a broken finger for his trouble.

While the boys were not having fun, the girls had the kids and went to see Slickrock for themselves.














Holly seemed to like the rocks so Karen and I are thinking we'll get some company out there riding someday. While Chris went to urgent care for an x-ray, the rest of us went for a hike out to Corona arch.









Our last day out in Moab, Karen got to decide what she wanted to do. After careful consideration, we went out to Barlett Wash for a final biking experience. While similar to Slickrock, Barlett Wash was a slightly less sticky, but super fun playground with lots of interesting features to ride and no real trail to follow. Matt and Karen went out for a nice ride and found it to be very entertaining.














All in all, it was a great weekend and we all really look forward to going out again. Moab truly is a great place to have fun outside and everyone who says "I like to mountain bike" ought to give it a try.