I’ve been meaning to write something up about our road trip, and I finally got around to it today.
I have new-found respect for my planning skills.
We left work at about 12:30pm and hit the road. Casey drove the first leg, which would be to Paducah, KY, then I’d take over. We split the driving into 6 to 7 hour shifts until we hit Goodland, and I took over and drove all the way across the Rockies to Rifle, CO. I was so wasted then that I thought Casey could finish off the 2 hour drive to Fruita.
By the time we got there, we did the math and it took us 22 hours total to make the trip. That was amazing. It used to take 24 hours for me and the family to go from Longmont to Georgia, and that’s 250 miles less!
Once we got to Fruita, we tried to check in at the hotel but they wouldn’t let us because it was still before check-out time and they said the room was not ready yet. So we went into town, visited the bike shops, ate lunch, and farted around for a few hours. A little later we went out to Rd 18, broke out the bikes and gear, and rode Prime Cut up and Kessell Run down.
We were pretty stoked that we could do this after driving all night to get there. See? My drive/sleep schedule worked great!
Still, by the time we checked into the room and settled in, we were both pretty wiped out.
We decided the next day that we would go to Moab. We really hadn’t planned on it at the start, but figured we didn’t want to blow the opportunity. We got up early and hit the road for the 2 hr drive to Slickrock country. We went into town and hit a few bike shops then went out to the Monitor-Merrimac trail north of town. We spent a good three hours out on the slickrock, messing around and having a great time. Slickrock trails are like a big giant playground. You can pretty much go where you want and try anything that comes to mind.
We took a break and ate some lunch afterward, then headed over to the Klondike Bluffs trail. This was a cool trail, but you had to bounce over about 3 miles of washed out dirt road to get to the trailhead. It wasn’t bad, and the Hyundai did a great job.
This trail was nothing but climbing. I guess we climbed for a solid hour and a half before we reached the “end” of the trail. From there, you are supposed to get off and hike another mile to the Delicate Arch, but we only had bike shoes, and Casey was squirrelly about leaving his bike there without a lock. I don’t blame him. I didn’t want to walk the rest of the way either because the climb there was pretty friggin’ brutal.
The ride back was fun though, but we were both so wasted that it was difficult to enjoy it, and by the time we got to the bottom of the steep slickrock mountain, we were just happy it was over.
We drove back to Fruita, saw some antelope on the way, and called it a day.
The next day, we went out to the Kokopelli area and rode Rustlers and Marys’ Loop. The scenery was gorgeous and the weather was pretty decent. The trail had some mud on it, and the bikes got covered. At the end of Mary’s you have to hook back on this dirt road to get back to the trail head, and the road was so muddy and sloppy that it killed all the fun.
Mary’s was a really cool trail, because your ass is hanging off the side of 300 foot cliffs most of the time. The Colorado River has ripped canyons and gulleys all through this land and created some awesome scenery. The trail worked us over though, and by the time we were near where the singletrack ended and the dirtroad began, we were done and ready to be out of there.
We had lunch, changed clothes and then headed over to Rd 18 for one more go-around. We rode Prime Cut up and decided to stop being Nancys and ride Chutes and Ladders.
That was a HUGE mistake. That trail was WAY more advanced than I was led to believe and so far above my skill level that it wasn’t even funny. Me and Casey both hike-a-biked about 3/4’s of the trail. I think that if we had ridden more over the summer (riding time was way down because I had broken my thumb), Casey could have ridden about half the stuff we walked. I wasn’t even going to try. A broken neck wouldn’t have been a fun thing to have on my vacation.
The rain came in and caught us about 3 miles from the trailhead. We decided to take a little-used bail-out trail (not even mapped, but there was an old dirt road that headed back in the right direction) and get the hell out of there. We got pretty wet and the temperature dropped and we were miserable by the time we got back to the car.
We got our gear broken down in record time, loaded the car and headed over to the big rest stop in Fruita. We changed into driving clothes, unloaded and reloaded everything in the car so it fit right, and hit the road to Boulder County. We made it to Longmont around 11:00, I think, and checked into the hotel. We were planning on hitting Hall Ranch early, doing 2 loops of Nelson, and then heading out. When we got to the trailhead, we looked at all the bike stuff packed in the car, all the gear packed in there, and the thought of unpacking all that stuff, setting up the bikes, and then repacking it again was too much to deal with.
So we skipped out on Hall Ranch. I still regret that decision but it was the best one. Looking back, our heads really weren’t into it. We’d logged a buttload of saddle time and miles over the previous 3 days and When you ride Hall Ranch, you need your wits about you and your head has to be in the game 100%.
We screwed around Boulder for a few hours then went over and had lunch with my old McKesson buddies. That was cool to see them. I miss those people alot even though I really hated that job.
After lunch we drove to Colorado Springs and went to Colorado Cyclist. We drooled over the Santa Cruz bikes and Casey rode a Blur LT and declared that it wasn’t much different from his Specialized Stumpy Expert.
We left CO Springs at about 2:30 and hit the road. It seemed like the trip back took almost no time, or maybe we were so blitzed that it was just a blur. We split the driving time based on what we could take, no set schedule, and we made it back pretty quick.
All in all, it was a very good trip, and we really didn’t spend a lot of money either. I think I am over the “Fruita is the best” thing, because the trails weren’t as WOW as the first time we rode them. This time I didn’t think they were as good as advertised. Prime Cut is just another climb with some rocks, Chutes and Ladders almost killed us. We enjoyed the Kokopelli trails alot, but mostly because of the scenery. The trail itself didn’t leave me as awestruck as the first time I was there. I still love Rustlers though.
I had more fun in Moab. Riding slickrock is an experience unto itself. If I ever do a roadtrip like this again, I’d like it to be focused in Moab instead of Fruita. There wasn’t a lot to do in Fruita once the rains came and after the riding day was over. Grand Junction was pretty blah too. We discussed what we’d do next, and decided that we are going to try to do a Front Range road trip either this coming fall or spring 2008.
I love the Rockies and always will. I will always value the time I lived out there and what I saw and did in that beautiful state. I look forward to my vacation this year as I plan on traveling west, maybe to Arizona or Colorado. Maybe next fall we can do another road trip, me and Casey. If his new wife lets him, that is.
This trip was planned so well, it was a piece of cake. Most people said, “You’re driving 3200 miles, out and back, just to ride bikes?” Hell yeah. The way we worked it, neither of us was totalled like I used to get driving that route. I used to be wrecked for a week after making that journey, but I was fine after it was all said and done. We spent a minimum of $$$ too, since we took our food and didn’t stop on the road for meals. It all worked out like a charm.
Shimano XTR M960 front Derailleur – top of the line when it comes to front derailleurs, at least until they re-designed them for this year. This is last year’s model but is still a slick piece of equipment.
Manitou Minute 3:00 – this fork is a 2005 model that I found on the extreme cheap. It’s loaded with 100 – 130 mm of on-the-fly adjustable travel, SPV damping, rebound control, and integrated graphics. Plus it’s a damn good looking fork.
