I just got back last night from Moab, Utah with the DU Alpine Club for a weekend with 44 college kids all hiking, climbing, and in my case, mountain biking in the desert oasis. It was my first couple of bike rides this season, and they definitely made me realize that mountain climbing does not get you ready for biking.
The first day I took 9 other bikers up to the Poison Spider trail. We made it up about 5 miles before turning around due to fatigue and weather. Here are some shots from the day:
After the trail we made it down to Wall Street to hang out with some of the climbers who came on the trip. I went to the campsite (up a different canyon than Wall Street) to get my climbing stuff and discovered that a massive windstorm had moved in, completely destroying the massive 6 person tent the club had just purchased. I was relieved to see most of the other tents had weathered the storm well, but when I opened up mine I discovered that, despite the fly being on and the doors zipped shut, there was still a layer of sand that had coated everything inside the tent, including my sleeping bag, pad, and completely open backpack. I decided to deal with it later because I had to get back to Wall Street. When we got back that evening from a beautiful dinner at Arches National Park, everyone’s tent had the same layer of sand so there was a long half hour of everyone cleaning everything out. The worst was for the group in the 6 person tent, not only was everything they brought covered in sand, but the tent had several broken poles and had collapsed, making the process of getting everything out extremely difficult. Luckily the night was clear and windless, so after the cleaning we had some fun around the campfire before calling it a night.
The next day I took a group of 9 up Slickrock, which is easily my favorite mountain biking trail of all time. Here are some shots:
We had a rendezvous with the hikers and climbers at the Chuckwagon and drove back to Denver, where the rain turned to snow overnight making for another interesting, wet couple of days here in D-Town. It was another fun, successful trip to Moab.
It turns out I’ll be in Washington DC from early June to late July this summer, so if you’ll be out there at all please drop me a line to come visit. Please let me know as well if you want to hire me to work in August.
The next couple of weeks will involve some skiing, biking, hiking, climbing, and, of course, school. I’ll try to get something up about something interesting soon enough, maybe even some of those pictures from the Bayou if I get around to it. Check back when you can and keep on keepin’ on.
