Spring Break 2014: Moab Brand Trails

After a rather predictably disappointing continental breakfast in a crowded windowless room at the hotel we headed straight for the Moab Brand Trails just north of town. We were the third, maybe fourth, group to arrive at the trailhead. It was just after 8 a.m. There was a crazy fierce wind blowing so strongly from the south we could hardly stand up, and sand picked up by the wind felt like it might remove our skin. We couldn't set our helmets down or they'd blow away. Socks, jackets, anything could fly. We considered just going into town for a cup of coffee, but decided we'd come to ride, so we might as well do it. Once we were out on the trail among the rocks the wind seemed less fierce, perhaps somewhat buffered by the surrounding hills.

We set off on Lazy EZ, then linked to Deadman's Ridge, a new and challenging one for us, then a short section of Bar B, then Rockin' A, and Circle O. Here's a link to the Garmin log.

There's a lot of wide open space out there. It's a good thing the trails are well marked.

Deadman's Ridge was really amazing -- as long as you're into big rocks, red dirt, and scrubby vegetation. Cindy and Abbey had to think at least twice before riding this freaky descent. I'm afraid that perhaps Quinn didn't think at all.

Deadman's Ridge Trail crossed a ridge of soft red and crumbly sandstone -- is that Navajo sandstone? -- whereas Rockin' A and Circle O traverse huge slabs of light-colored Entrada sandstone, which seems to be much harder, less crumbly, but still quite grippy under foot -- or tire.

With miles and miles of solid rock, staying on the trail could be a challenge, but the trail is well marked with a painted line. See the dashed yellow line in the picture below. Trail signage suggests that riders should strive to ride right on top of line for a warm fuzzy feeling. This would minimize any impact of the trail on vegetation (what there is of it) and also minimizes the likelihood that a rider would ride straight off the edge of a large unrideable obstacle or cliff. And there are plenty of those out there.

Why do they call it Circle O?

It's getting harder and harder to keep up with him.

We finished our ride ahead of noon, and set off in search of a campsite. We still had to search a little, but we found and invaded a nice spot in the Hal Canyon campground along Highway 128. 

Once we had our camp set up Quinn and I finally got his electric RC rock crawler out to give it a try on the Hal Canyon sandstone. There was a good pile of rocks where the canyon passes under the highway near the campground that seemed an ideal and harmless spot for such a thing. With incredibly low gearing, four-wheel steering, a separate motor on each fully locked axles, it's amazing capable. It's very slow, and it doesn't really matter if you roll it. Much safer than cycling.

Because we were camping, it rained all night.

Spring Break 2014: Moab Trails Getaway and Bull Run

Such a great loop! We'd just ridden this loop last fall, but we like it so well that everyone was up for doing again this year. Here's the Garmin link. Getaway and Bull Run are a couple of the newer Moab trails; singletrack trails built for bicyles -- unlike many of the traditional Moab trails which were originally jeep roads (original on a 21st Century human time-scale anyway).

As noted in the previous post, we'd gone to H&C's house in GJ to escape the weather the night of the previous night (30 April). In the morning, we packed up and headed straight to the trailhead. This was actually a mistake, as I'll described later -- we probably should have gone in search of a campsite before setting off on our ride.

As we did last fall, we came in from the west and parked in the Gemini Bridges parking area. We ate lunch on the tailgate while we got the bicycles ready. We watched a big family with noisy and smelly motocross motorcycles pull in, walk down to the bridges, and then go tearing off down the road. We had to cover our ears. I'm sure it's fun, and maybe someday if my knee becomes completely useless I might enjoy a motorcycle tour, but for now, I'm glad to be on mountain bike.

Poor Amos had to sit this one out. He had a great run with us the day before at Western Rim, and he did really well off leash, but that night we notices that we was limping and we found one of his pads had been badly skinned; torn down to the pink flesh below. It took him three days to recover. So while we rode, we left the windows open in the truck and Amos just relaxed on his blanket on the back seat.

It's just a short shot down the road from the Gemini Bridges parking area to the trailhead and the you're on Getaway. We had to take a pee break shortly after starting up the trail, and when I turned around, there on the horizon were the La Sal Mountains. I just Googled them, and learned that the tallest reaches 12,721 ft above sea level.

Near the upper end of Getaway, we took a lengthy snack break and made time for a little silliness. We knew we would soon have a good mile of climbing on a gravel road to get to the top of Bull Run. We were all looking forward to riding down Bull Run along the edge of Bull Canyon, but none of us was really looking forward the next mile.

Bull Run is really fun. It's mostly downhill, and is very rocky, with quite a few challenging sections. Lot's of drops, and shelves, and slabs, but all of it -- well, nearly all of it -- quite rideable. There are just a few places where the trail gets frighteningly close to the edge of cliff. Fortunately, the cliffs in this area are not usually straight vertical edges, but have slopes and shelves that would served to slow one's fall. Of course, you can't always tell what's below them as you approach them. In the photo below, Abbey has made the wise choice to walk her bike down a ledge, around a tree, next to the cliff, and up a slab. It's good to see that someone has some sense. I think she's getting tired, too.

We saw quite a few small lizards on this ride, but none of other herpetofauna known to be common in and around Moab seemed to be out. We saw a few other cyclists on the ride, but probably not more than eight or ten.

After the ride, we started the long process of looking for a campground. After at least two hours of driving around looking at full campgrounds, we decided it was a futile search so we found a hotel. I guess we weren't the only ones who decided to go to Moab for spring break. And since we couldn't cook our planned campsite meal, we ended the day with a short walk down the road to Paradox Pizza... so good after such a long day.

Spring Break 2014: Western Rim

On a scale relevant to the 21st century human, time is precious. It's hard to find time to break out of the daily, time to get outside, time to think, time to get away, time to see time on a different scale. So, having met up with our GJ relatives for the first weekend of spring break, we traveled out to the Western Rim where it seemed that we could see the expanse of time.

The weather was a little sketchy. Cool and cloudy with a suggestion of rain. We were expecting high winds, but they held off until after the ride.

This piece of geologic history is just south of I-70 about a mile this side of the Utah border. It's an incredible place and an incredible ride. Here's the link to the Garmin log. I'd been afraid the full length of the lariat loop would be too much for us since we hadn't ridden much yet this spring, but having a pair of four-wheel drives, we drove in to the McDonald Creek Trailhead to cut off a few miles of dusty four-wheel-drive road. The trail winds through the desert scrub for a couple of miles, crossing into Utah before reaching the West Rim where it skirts along, usually not too close to the top of the rim overlooking the Colorado River.

The four of us comprising scaq took our single bikes -- our Santa Cruz fleet -- while Heather rode her Trek, and Chris and Cailan rode the Ventana tandem. The dogs, Utah and Amos, came along, too. It was a good ride, but we were feeling pretty beat by the time we hit the road for those return miles to the truck.

Later that day, the wind really picked up. We had planned to head on over to Moab and find a campsite, but the wind from the west was so strong that our poor Nissan could hardly get us down the highway. Then we heard from Heather that the power was out in at least some portion of Moab, and it was raining heavily, so we turned around headed back to GJ for the night. It's good to have options!

North Table Mountain in the Wind

With the recent pattern of frequent snow falls and freezing and thawing -- at lower elevations anyway -- it's probably been a better winter for skiing than for mountain biking. But last weekend was preceded by enough of a warm spell to dry a few of the rockier foothills trails. We hadn't previously been on Golden's North Table Mountain, but with the thermometer expected to read into the 50's, we decided to give it try. We drove to and parked at the very civilized trail head just north of Golden, where a rather smooth but loose gravel road climbs steeply to the mountain's flat top: 450 feet up in not much over half a mile. 

Click here to check out the Garmin log.

Driving towards Golden with the bikes on the truck, we had noted that the wind was really picking up. At the trail head, the wind was strong enough that we donned our extra layers, rain and wind jackets that we keep in our Camelbaks just for such unexpecteds. As we pedaled up the very steep grade toward the top, the wind was mostly behind us, giving us a helpful boost up what would have been short but tough climb. At least, I found it to be a helpful boost; the rest of the crew found it so strong it was hard to stay on their bikes, and ended up pushing them to the top where we huddled in a depression behind a small bluff to get a break from the wind before continuing our ride on the top.  

This picture was taken from the top of North Table Mountain looking back down the gravel road toward the parking area.

So we pedaled around the trails and gravel roads on top of the mountain, but didn't cover near as much ground as we'd hoped, given the brutal wind. From the top, Denver's downtown was visible in the distance.

 

When riding across the wind, it was hard to stay upright and hard to stay on the trail.

I thought this might make a nice picture, but I didn't realize the phone tower was hiding behind the tree.

Along the edges, the mountain's volcanic history is evident. I am looking forward to spending a little more time on the mountain, so we can explore those rocky edges.

Given that none of us were finding it very enjoyable, and in fact at times some of us were downright miserable, we decided to cut the ride short, get off the mountain, and head home for some lunch. So we'll have to go back again someday when the weather is a little more favorable.

Another Talent Show

Abbey did it again, silly girl. The talent show was part of a week long fund-raiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation at her high school. She performed Honey Come Home by The Head and The Heart, which ranks high on the scaq list of favorite bands. We went to see them at the Ogden here in Denver just a few weeks ago.

I did a little better with the video this time than the last, but I was just using our ancient camera, so the video quality isn't the best.

Miscellaneous

How about some miscellaneous pictures? 

We rode up the Waterton Canyon Road in November 2013. We hoped we'd see some of those bighorn sheep up on the steep slopes surrounding the canyon, but we didn't. 

The weekend before the really big floods that nearly washed away the town of Lyons, we were there. We pedaled up Apple Valley Road beside North Saint Vrain Creek from the town of Lyons to Hall Ranch Open Space to access the Antelope Trail (below), and it was totally washed away less than a week later. Abbey wasn't feeling well that day.

Remember July 2012 when Quinn's Santa Cruz was almost too big for him? This is October 2013. I hope he doesn't grow too much this summer!

Centennial Cone Park in early October 2013. A beautiful, mountainous, 13-mile loop; definitely one of our Front Range favorites. Not sure why I look fat. I'm not really, very much, fat. But I am rather old and gray.

And then it turned cold and snowy. Ski helmets and goggles are great for a ride on the local park trails.

The green Chameleon used to be Abbey's bike, but she outgrew it. Now's it's Quinn's school, neighborhood, and park bike. And snow bike.

From August through October, our lives pretty much revolved around the Cherry Creek Marching Band. Here's our awesome Abbey and her mellophone. Abbey loved it and is already excited to do it again this fall.

Brainless hound, Amos, doesn't often get to go with us to the mountains because he can't be unleashed on most mountain bike trails, and it's rather difficult to ride while leashed to a wild beast, so once in a while we leave the bikes home and bring the mutt. This was Deer Creek Canyon. Notice Abbey's swollen cheek from a little bit of oral surgery. 

Skiing

We've been skiing. We live in Colorado now, after all. As a 5th grader in a Colorado public school, Quinn gets a ski pass for three free lift tickets at each of 20 ski resorts. So we thought we should give it a try. Not that we can go to each of 20 resorts three times, but we can at least take advantage of his pass and ski a few times. To get started, a couple of weeks ago we took a round of full-day lessons at Loveland Ski Resort. That went really well, so today we went back on our own to see what we could remember. We're still slow, but I think we're doing pretty well.

Loveland is nice because for beginners there's a whole section of the resort -- the ski school in the valley -- that's set aside for beginners -- that's where we skied the first time. Today we went on up to the easiest runs in the main part of the ski area -- called "the basin." Since the Broncos were playing afternoon, we practically had the resort to ourselves. And since they won, we can count on another uncrowded day of skiing on Superbowl Sunday.

I've dropped in a map of the portion of Loveland Ski Area on the south side of I-70. The first time we went to the valley on the left, this time to the basin on the right. Today we kept it simple and just worked from Lift 2. We rode it up and got off at the mid-point four times in the morning, each time going down Turtle Creek to Tango Road -- a super-easy run that still gave us a challenge this morning. After a little lunch break, feeling a little more confident, we took Lift 2 all the way to the top and followed Fire Bowl around to Turtle Creek and then Tango Road again. We did that a few times and by about 3 p.m. we were pretty tired, so we headed home. It was really fun.

Up on top, with Fire Bowl in the near background, and the more distant ridge on the north side of I-70 in the far background.

Cindy took this picture of Abbey and me in the chair lift ahead of her and Quinn.

Another picture from top of Lift 2, looking east across the valley towards I-70.

Loveland is just a little over an hour from our house -- plenty of time for a short nap on the way home.