But to dwell on that adventure would take us off the central theme of this blog. Now, the Friday before the trip to NJ, I had traveled across the mountains to Grand Junction for some more of the usual two-wheeled, non-motorized adventuring.
The first notable event of my weekend adventure was the snow storm and closure of Interstate 70 just to the east of Vail Pass. Presumably as a result of the snow storm, an accident in the vicinity of Vail Pass forced the closure of the highway for at least an hour. I sat in my truck in one spot for about 45 minutes while I waited for the road to clear. The line of cars must have been miles long.
The next morning after a delicious breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs at C&H's kitchen, we packed up the bikes and headed to Fruita, CO. Cailan sat this one out, so H&C were able to get out on their big red tandem. We got a great start on Mary's Loop, just outside of Fruita. I say a great start because we'd had a great breakfast, the sun was shining, the scenery was spectaculous, and we were out riding on a dusty rocky desert trail. It was, as usual, exceptional. We made it around the south and west side of Mary's and turned off on Steve's Trail when the rear tire on the big red tandem started going thump, thump, thump. It looked like this:
That big bubble showed up on the rear tire, and that ended the ride for the tandem. Chris tossed me his keys and sent me after his truck.
So I headed off alone on my bicycle in the desert with only a vague idea of where I was going. Actually, I wasn't the least bit worried, because I knew the river was generally to my southwest and the highway was roughly parallel to the river to my northeast (although at the time I would have said west and east, respectively). Regardless, there was no way I could get lost, even if I made a wrong turn or two.
I made no wrong turns as such, but the most painful event of the weekend did occur only a few minutes after leaving H&C with their bulging tire. I attempted to ride down a challenging trail feature without adequately slowing down to prepare. The feature is simply a series of maybe five or six large squarish rocks that have been lined up to make a smooth (almost) ramp down what would otherwise be about a three-foot drop. I'd ridden down it once before quite easily. I'd even considered trying to ride up it (but decided against it) on our way in that morning. Several other riders traveling in the opposite direction were carrying their bikes up the steep ledge when I reached it. I had already decided I would ride down the rocks, but I did not slow down as I approached the line, and much to my surprise, something went awry. I had not even reached the series of rocks that comprise the ramp when my front tire unexpectedly came to an abrupt halt and I found myself tumbling and rolling down the steep drop. I distinctly remember seeing my feet and my wheels above me with sky in the background, before I came bouncing to a halt among the rocks. After a few seconds, I stood. The other riders seemed genuinely concerned that I might have been broken. I had landed on my Camelbak, which cushioned my fall (how many times has that water pillow on my back been there to catch me?). I was mostly uninjured, and my bike was mostly undamaged, but we did leave some skin and paint on the trail. Payment in flesh for our passage. A little shaken, and very dusty, I continued down the trail to the white Nissan, which I drove to another trailhead to find H&C. My worst injury was a significant bruising of my arm. A photo from the following day.
Since the bulging tire had put an early end to our ride, and my crash had left me dazed, we decided to stop for pizza at the Hot Tomato in Fruita. It's wonderful pizza, made for mountain bikers by mountain bikers. I don't think that's their slogan, but it could be. And a pint of beer to go with it.
After getting home a while later, and spending a little time recovering, Chris and I made the short trek down the street in Grand Junction to the Lunch Loops. Heather's hand was still sore from a crash a couple weeks before, so she graciously sent us off. But the sun was hot and the air was warm, and pizza and beer were not the ideal fuel. I felt like a slug trying to pedal a bike uphill on hot day. We climbed a great piece of trail that I would love to do again on a cool morning with a belly full of granola and coffee. It was sort of like riding up a creek bed. Loose rock, and rock ledges, continuous with no breaks, a long slow challenging climb, but we made it to the mushroom:
The view from the mushroom was quite nice.
After a little snack and a rest at the mushroom, we started heading down. Whether it was the speed, the wind chill effect, the rest, the snack, or the mushroom, I don't know, but I began to feel better. Among others, we took the Holy Cross Trail down, which I'd ridden before with Chris. It's a tricky, techy, trail with lots of challenging rock obstacles. In the photo below, Chris is going down an obstacle that actually isn't all that hard, but when you approach it, the rock appears to disappear as though you were facing a 10-foot fall, and it is very important to pick the right path to avoid the steeper slopes to either side.
Chris caught this video of me riding down another tricky spot. Chris and I worked this obstacle out together last time we'd ridden this trail, so it didn't seem quite so scary this time.
Sunday morning we got out for one more round of rides before I had to get on the road to get back to Denver. We went to the 18-Road trails near Fruita and rode Prime Cut, Joe's, Kessel's Run, and the new PBR. Chris and Cailan rode the big yellow tandem, although not on PBR, which rather like a downhill roller coaster. We had other riders with us, including another couple on a tandem, in the background of the picture below.
Joe's is a little spooky as it runs along the tops of a few tall steep ridges. Running off the trail would result in a long slide down through the desert scrub. If you look really hard in the photo below, you can see the big yellow tandem team part way through Joe's Trail. Cailan seemed to enjoy the adventure, and even got his push bike out for a little bit of trail riding.
And that was it. Back to Denver I went.
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