Our Aspen friends Lee & Julie Miller expertly and with minimum fuss , but colossal skill , put this trip together and provided their truck as our support vehicle .
A 4 hour drive to Moab, UT stopping for picnic in Grand Junction, we met Lee & Julie at the Moab motel before hiring our mountain bikes for 4 days . Just time that evening for L & J to show us the Slick Rock trail . We had time only to do a tiny section of the practice trail , but what a place. Mountain bike trail on rock stretching some 20 plus miles in the desert signed only by white paint marks on the rock.
Met by our 2 other trip members Susan Cross ( Mary's ski Co boss ) and Mark Batmale at 9 am following morning and after leaving 2 vehicles at the pick up point , drove to visiotrs center , Canyonlands National Park and set off on the White Rim Trail ( an old uranium ming road ) in mid morning. We took it in turns to follow a a couple of miles or so behind in the truck with all our gear. How delightful to be biking without loaded panniers ! Julie , bless her, did the treacherous drive down into the Colorado River canyon. Lee did the steep uphill sections. 4 days of simply staggeringly beautiful and wild country and 3 nights out . Relatively easy biking with only limited technical skills required - thankfully. Lee and Julie did a marvellous job of guiding, and overseeing the catering arrangements . We each were responsible for providing an evening meal for all of us plus our own breakfast and picnic lunches individually.
Pics . Presently trying to get Meghan's help in Asheville to write a negative beside or underneath each pic and also to get to grips with updating blog on new Ipad 2, but no success yet.
Therefore pics from foot
1. Lee and Mary on Slick Rock " practice trail ".
2. Not required fortunately !
3. Packing at Moab motel for White Rim trail .
4. Just before the, "off". Lee,, Mary, Mark, Susan and Julie.
5&6. Our trail down the the canyon floor and where it led !
7. A typical view of the Colorado river and what seemed a precarious boulder. Probably been like that for a thousand years.
8. If you look carefully here , you'll see this is a stone bridge with a drop of about 500 feet beneath . Suggestions that we should cycle the
4 feet or so width span bridge were quickly suppressed.
9,10 &11. First night's campsite. Note the loo. Heat operated ventilation system meant no smell at all. Remarkable.
12. The candlestick.
13. First view of the mighty Green River.
14. You wanted to be sure here of your taking off and landing spots!
15. Mary testing likely "depth " by dropping small stone.
16. Thoughts of " A 127 hours " here !
17&18. The trail up to the 3rd night's campsite.
19&20. Setting off on 4th morning ( George driving and therefore responsible for ensuring clean campsite ).
21. Mary going strong ( and still pedaling ) nearing top of the " climb out " to complete the 100 odd mile trip.
22. By coincidence we were stopped on the drive back through Utah to Snowmass by this daily Amtrak west bound train - Denver to Sacramento - on which we will be boarded on June 22nd at start of our great adventure to cycle west - eastt across USA. Please note I'll be changing website for that trip - see
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/georgeandmary
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