To see the video chronical of the weekend click here:
MTB Moab Fall 2014 - GoPro
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| Goofing around at the Porcupine Rim trailhead |
I love being back in Colorado. The Alps are amazing, Chamonix is spectacular, but I love being home. After 100 days abroad, by far the longest I have ever been away, coming home was oh so sweet. To top it off I made it back in time for the Mighty Mighty Skier crew's annual fall trip to Moab! This trip was going to be a little different than any other Spring or Summer trip we have done. The crew has now expanded to include four young boys and one girl, all under the age of five. Many of these spirited youths have never been camping before; most notably 7 week old Bradley! With mild trepidation we hit the road. Since my employment hasn't started yet I was one of the lucky ones who was able to head down early on Friday and get an extra ride. We started the trip with a mellow warm up on the Pipe Dream trail. Always fun, technical enough to keep your attention, and mostly downhill, the Pipe Dream trail is always fun. The rest of the crew joined us Friday night and we made our plans for the weekend. Saturday started with the Upper and Lower sections of Porcupine Rim. Unfortunately there was too much snow to undertake the Whole Enchilada, but the lower sections are a great compromise. I managed to win the Rambo Award by being the first person to draw blood on the trail. During the crash I also managed to break my (borrowed) helmet, so now I have to buy two new bike helmets. Besides my early wreckage, everything was going well, everyone was riding strong, we had a shockingly low number of mechanical issues and flats, when Hailee's
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| Hailee's gash, post cleaning |
injury curse struck again. Somehow Hailee bounced off a couple of rocks and managed to get a 5" gash right down the middle of her shin! Her current streak of six injury free days was quickly reset! I carried her on my back while Earnest and Nicole followed with the bikes until the Advil took effect. Once the pain started to subside she walked the rest of the way, slowly but surely, down to the trailhead. Since the urgent care center in town was closed, Hailee decided to go with a more rudimentary butterfly bandage and Ace wrap solution in lieu of stitches. Needless to say it took us longer than normal to gather the group at the trailhead so we skipped a second ride. On Sunday we got up early and headed for Amasa Back. The descent of Amasa Back down the Captain Ahab trail is one of our group's absolute favorites. Hailee and Melinda stayed at camp and babysat the kids while the rest of the crew had a great time overcoming challenges and riding stuff they had never ridden before. We grabbed lunch at Milt's Diner, a Sunday afternoon tradition, and headed out of town. Before making it home, however, we got one more ride in the Klondike Bluffs trail system. I can't say that Klondike Bluffs is my favorite trail system, but we had a good ride without any injuries or mechanical issues. Over the course of the weekend all of the kids did remarkably well. I, for one, did not get woken up once by a crying child in the middle of the night! With yet another fun-filled Moab weekend in the books we made the long journey home and promptly passed out.
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| Midway on the Porcupine Rim Trail |
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