Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Pics and Profiles

Due to time, I'll keep the verbiage terse. Only big issues were Scott losing his keys and mucho flat action on the Enchilada... Things rolled pretty smooth.

Ride 1 - Kokopelli's Trail - Loma -> Westwater

Overall, we tried to ride all of the trail in 2-3 days. The reality is we got in two good rides and drove into camp both days. Ahh the joys of support. :)

Chris and Bern pushing the pace.















Scott tackles the Salt Creek descent.















What 7hrs looks like.








Ride 2 - Kokopelli's Trail - Dewey -> Hideout Canyon

After driving from Westwater to camp at Dewey, it was a fun day climbing and bombing through some canyons.

Wide open views climbing the shandy Entrada section.















Bernie, Scott and Chris catch some shade before descending Rose Garden Hill.















Camping out near the Sovereign Trail.















Looking down the barrel of 6:42. These climbs always crush the crap out of me.








After departing from our Kokopelli support crew (Thanks guys!), Scott and I hightailed it to Durango and took two rest days to life stuff it up with things like laundry and bike cleaning.

View from the campground at Little Molas Lake















Ride 3 - San Juan Nat'l Forest - Colorado Trail -> Engineer Mt Trail

This was supposed to go from Molas to Durango, but once the weather moved in we cut the ride at the CT/Engineer junction and had a wicked time going downhill. It was a double dnf since we also hitched a ride about 6 miles from the campground.

Looking at Engineer Mt to the south.















Hike-a-bike was common at this altitude with the rocky terrain.















Sweet alpine singletrack.















At the base of the peak.















Valley view from the Eng. Mt. descent.















6:14 on this thin air day.








Ride 4 - Poison Spider Mesa

The day after the CT fiasco, we hightailed it back to Moab for an afternoon bakeout in the sun coupled with some interesting weather patterns, including serious lightning. Nothing like being the tallest object on a slickrock dome.

Scotty grinds up the sandy and rocky.















Vast openness of slickrock.















2:28 today.









Ride 5 - The Whole Enchilada

This was another big loop courtesy of FredW, but we ran out of daylight, cut the trip short and barreled down Sand Flats Road completing 60 of the 70-75 miles. Thanks for putting up with the seemingly incessant flats Fred!


Grinding up Flats Pass Rd.















Climb climb climb... La Sals looming in the background.















Another spectacular desert sunrise- looking west toward Moab.















Some pavement, but not much.















Still grinding.















Hike-a-bike sprinkled generously.















Looking back at the Hazard Co. TH.















Finally on the rim, Castle Valley below.















The look of 15 hrs.








Ride 6 - Eagle

We rolled out of Moab after sleeping in a bit from the mexican mambo of the day before to hit up the trails we were trying to find in Eagle on last year's trip. True to fashion, we rode up most of the downhill we were looking for, but coming back down was a blast. No pics this day.

Long time, short ride- 1:40. Eek.








Well, another good trip out west. Now to hunker down for r&r and look forward to some winter riding.

Mercury Retrograde

Marshal has a nice wrap-up of a ride from my recent road trip here.

I'll post up again with all the other stuff when I get a chance.