Mountain Biking Is Hard

Slickrock Trail, Moab.  

Last week I spent four kind of epic days in Moab for my Spring Break.  Okay, they were very epic.  Brent, Karina, and I spent Tuesday night under the stars (due to our 2:30 a.m. arrival time and some confusion about how one should indicate they're in a camp site, anyways), set up camp Wednesday morning and set off to get some miscellaneous gear for our mountain biking day.  In the weeks preceding our trip, Karina and I discussed several trail options, trying to figure out which would be most awesome and still do-able for a beginner.  Then Brent decided we could do the Slickrock Trail, so we did.  

Karina, Me, Brent.  They always do this to me, letting me cheese it while they goof off.  

According to a number of sources, the Slickrock Bike Trail is the 'ultimate' and 'highly technical' and 'steep' and 'scenic'.  I can vouch for most of these descriptors.  The trail rides up and down across petrified sand dunes that now form Navajo sandstone domes, bowls and fins.  Early white settlers named it 'slickrock' because metal-shod horses can't get any traction on it, but rubber tires do quite nicely.  It's pretty dang scary going down the first few hills (and the last few) (and the one's in the middle), however, it's about 'as slick as sand paper'.  The trail was originally developed for motorcycles, but now is primarily ridden by mountain bikers, who follow a white-painted path up and down and up and down and around and around and up.  Following the lines exactly won't do you much good, but staying near them is important because there are lots of plants that don't like being ridden over, and the crust of black and green lichen across the rocks is important for holding things in place.  Each website I looked at had a different estimate on trail distance (9, 10.5 and 12 miles), but it took us around four hours, leaving our butts sore, or skin scorched, and thigh muscles tired.

Brent looking pretty epic, with the LaSal Mountains in the background.  

The views are freaking sweet!  You get to see the LaSals, the Colorado River, and Arches, as well as vast expanses of awesome.  According to my standards, the trail was pretty technical, but there were a lot of people walking their bikes up the hills, so I felt like I was in good company.  The two wonderful folks I was with were also great company (and many props to Brent for letting me borrow his bike, it would have been awful without such a nice suspension system).  Here are some sweet shots of our day.

The Colorado River

Brent is pretty cool, I could never turn my bike up like this.  

Some sandstone is nice for headstands.  

Arches National Park.  

Me, trying to look tough.  

Karina succeeded in toughness.  

I could never catch a picture in front of Brent, our fearless leader, but I don't mind admiring from behind.  

*Note: please disregard all the times I may have put 'trial' instead of 'trail'.  It wasn't really a trial, but it was hot and sweaty.