Moab

Two days burned (driving) for two days of bliss. Moab.

We arrived to small piles of snow in the parking lot.

11/28/03 AM – A nice walk to Delicate Arch with my entire family.

PM – 20 miles of fun on the new “sovereign” singletrack north of town. I followed closely behind Ahlgren on the descent, pushing my limits and much to my surprise. But I had his line to follow–proving what speeds were possible. When I led I was without a line and found myself off the trail a few times.

11/29/03 AM – Rolled out of town with Ahlgren, heading north next to the Colorado. We climbed the Porcupine singletrack out, then turned around for slippery fun. I had no chance of staying with him this time. The snow and exposure gave caution a strong hand.

PM – Amasa Back; my favorite ride in Moab. The whole crew set off for the climb then exploration. We made slow time as we tried and retried sections. Eventually someone among us all cleaned each section. We met 2 riders from SLC, that, shock, cared about cleaning sections on uphill. They were great riders and fun to ride with. We all pushed each other, or at least, they pushed me a bit beyond my normal limits.

At the top we started exploring and things got interesting. We found some very nice spots to play and even better places to walk. I love riding in Moab because there is a large element of unknown. It’s often difficult to judge which ledges or ramps are rideable and which are not. When you’re exploring slick rock sections, or when there are 60 different lines you can take up a jeep road, doubt can set in. Even though I’ve ridden Amasa back many times, I was questioning myself constantly.

Often I surprised myself, coming through cleanly on sections of doubt. Even more often, I found myself stopped or desperately unclipping on sections I thought I could ride.

But overall my confidence level was high and grew higher as the riding continued. I rode many sections on Amasa back that I had never cleaned before. I oftentimes would ride around them (cheating on the easy lines) before.

11/30/03 – Pounded outdoor xylophones and such at the park, then
spun around the practice loop plus messing around on some of our favorite spots from yesteryear. Slickrock is not really my style these days, but I wanted to go back simply because I have so many memories of riding that place as a teenager.

It’s always amazing to see how steep a slope you can ride. At some point you forget about bailing, because there is no chance of gaining a foothold. Concentrating and pedaling as hard as possible is the only choice.

The ride was quick because we had 10 hours of car time back to Tucson ahead of us….