Day 4 Finale of Los Alfords Moab bikepacking extravaganza - "Cheeseburgers in Paradise!"

With little sleep, gritty teeth, sap-covered packs and sore bums we rolled out early for our last day of adventure, the Porcupine Rim and it's panoply of drops, rocks, ledges and slabs. Despite knocking it out of the park on a couple miles of UPS the night before we weren't 100% sure how doable the Porcupine was going to be fully loaded down with bikepacking gear, and with 60 hard miles in our legs but these last 15 miles and 3500' of awesome descending did much to make up for the hardships, slights, minor betrayals and out and out double crossing we felt the route had kicked our way to this point. What a blast and of course Trout crushed it over every conceivable obstacle while Rose and I held our own riding along the very edge of the Porcupine Rim with a precipice to one side, across Jeep blasted roads of tv size cobbles, teetering down tilted slabs and along exposed chasms down, down, blissfully down into Jackass Canyon, across mandatory hikeabikes and finally into Moab for fresh undies, gallons of cold liquids, cheeseburgers and groaningly, shakes and cones of ice cream for the drive back to CO. What a blast! We can't wait for the next one! 76 miles all told, 8600' of climbing, one splinter, no flats, one salami, a little less water than we should have consumed, plenty of food, great weather, route, views and company!

Moab bikepack fiasco Day 3 - "Potato Feet"

At 16 miles and only 2000' of climbing Day 3 of the Moab bike pack adventure was supposed to be our "easy" day but missing springs, missing pavement and a missing chocolate bar meant we still had to earn our way up from Castle Rock on the La Sal Mtn Rd. The morning started pleasantly enough with Trout diligently warding off yet another wave of invisible, radioactive zombies while a truckload of early rising hounds drove by our campsite to start a mountain lion hunt on Fisher Mesa. Note to self; Fisher Mesa is worth a return trip to check out the single track along the rim, and apparently we should be watching out for mountain lions. Day 3 started easily enough with a 5 mile paved plunge down to Castle Rock, a quick refill on the h2o (bottles only (foreshadowing)) in preparation for an easy spin up paved La Sal Mtn. Road, last encountered in reverse when Dash flatted on the descent of the La Sal Loop at Brown Phat III. Sadly easy was not to be as the road had been removed and only a bit at the bottom had received fresh asphalt, so back to the gravel road climbing, but this time with a wicked headwind to the face. Cooler cloudy weather was our savior as Spring #1 on the map was dry, as was Spring #2 and despite some cold rain showers we hit the top of the Porcupine Rim a bit parched. Fortunately we were able to bum some h20 off campers at Mason Draw, the last bit 'o salami took the sting off a misremembered, or mis-packed missing chocolate bar and we whooped it down the UPS trail for our first bit of single track on the trip en route to the Porcupine Rim campground. We inventoried water and remaining food supplies and decided we'd probably survive but Rose and I were on half water rations just to make sure we had enough for oatmeal in the a.m. In our cozy Big Agnes sleeping bags and tent we curled up early to read a bit of the ol' Jack Vance and wonder at our state of filthiness. Late arriving campers at this popular spot, and sandstorms conspired to wake us up early and often throughout the night as sprinkles of fine silt continually worked through the mesh to settle into our ears, eyes and open snoring mouths as we dreamt fitfully of the intimidating double black diamond Porcupine Rim single track descent that would be our final challenge.

Moab bike pack expedition Day 2 - "Invisible zombies"

On the second day we tackled what would turn out to be the Queen Stage of our route with over 3600' of climbing under a HOT sun as we worked our way around Cow Head Butte, across Hideout Canyon and up, up, up to a sweet campsite under the pines on Fisher Mesa at over 8400'. We'd started the day before along the Colorado River at about 4000' so the change in scenery was drastic. Now we were up on the rim, high above Fisher Valley and closing in on the skirts of the La Sals themselves, none of which helped make it any cooler. Fortunately we were able to filter some fresh water out of Fisher Creek to refill our bottles and bladders and then it was head down suffering up seemingly endless white gravel roads near Polar Mesa and Bull Canyon. At points we were riding 200-300m at a time, seeking shelter from the sun in every roadside patch of shade, counting to 10 and then leapfrogging ahead to the next shady spot. Trout was a real trooper through this section and spirits were kept relatively high by the amazing scenery but we all breathed a big sigh of relief when we finally topped out alongside some dinosaur tracks and were able to roll downhill the last mile to our secluded camp spot at Bull Draw. Trout somehow found the energy to build us a perfect "log cabin" campfire, while singlehandedly protecting our site from all sorts of marauding zombies, and he enjoyed a well-earned dehydrated chocolate cheesecake to wrap up Day 2!

Moab bikepack adventure Day 1 - aka "Flattyups"

Our 4 day Moab bikepacking expedition started early at 6:45a.m. with heavy doses of breakfast burritos and coffee from Moab's Muffintop Cafe and a smooth ride 20 miles upriver along the Colorado on Hwy 128. Blue skies, green waters and soaring red cliffs soon gave way to the vast expanses of Castle Valley and the snow covered, and very distant La Sal Mtns to our south as we first hit dirt on Onion Creek Rd. Ascending steadily into "the Narrows" under the Fisher Towers climbing area we methodically crossed Onion Creek a claimed 27 times through beautiful narrow canyons under free standing rock pillars like the "Totem Pole" eventually working up into the copper tinged foothills and steep climbs up onto the Fisher Valley. Scott Wither and Trout's buddy Owen met us at the top of the climb and enjoyed the last few miles of scenic red dirt roads with us en route to our 1st camp at Hideout campground under the watchful walls of "Cow Head Butte" or as I like to say, "Cow head-butt". The Withers brought a cooler full of beer and Cokes so we built a big campfire, de-chamoised and popped on the .98 cent flip flops before crawling in the sleeping bags and hitting the hay at 75 mph. 30 miles (20 paved/10 dirt) and about 2700' of climbing on awesome roads that Trout coined as mostly "flatty-ups".