Day 7- And on the seventh day she rested

It rained all night last night, I could hear it on my little tent. My back was aching after 5 days in the saddle and sleeping on a thermarest- so this morning I decided to rest up, sleep in and get refreshed for next week.

The campground is now packed as its memorial day weekend. When I say packed, I mean full for US terms and not packed like crammed in as you are in UK. No here you all have a lot of space and although I can hear my neighbours we aren't on top of one another.

1st job this morning- Shower

Showered at teh Moab Cyclery for $5 and unlimited hot water- ooh so great to feel clean again after the layers of insect repellent, sunscreen, sweat and dusty trails.

2nd job- Laundromat

The Wet spot on 100 south- the cleanest, nicest laundromat I've ever used. Just 60mins later and all my kit is clean, smells sweet and dry!

3rd job- Food

Promised myself an American breakfast so had French Toast Tower with bacon and egg (sunny side up) at the Moab diner- yummy.

4th job- Internet

Am hanging in library catching up on email and blog(!) and then gonna read a bit about Moab history

5th job- Supplies

Need petrol, firewood, fix broken glasses(damn!), odor eaters (my bike shoes stink already!), 

6th job- RELAX

Day 6- Moab- Posion Spider, Portal Trail, Bartllett Wash

Last night after a couple of beers Will decided to join me to ride Poison Spider and the Portal trail. Now that was brave given that the tales Ken and Dennis had told me. They said they had to cling to the rock wall on a narrow ledge to stop from falling off a 400ft cliff and that Marne and Marion had made them turn back and ride back down Poison Spider instead.

We rose early after an extremely quiet night and great sleep- heavenly. I was breakfasting on my bench overlooking the La Sal mountains at 06:30, its pretty cloudy today and we could be in for a storm. By 7:30 we were worrying if we had made the right decision as we headed off to the trailhead and climbed on our bikes riding up the trail at 08:20 in a light rain- yeuch!

The climb up Poison Spider was gentler gradient than I expected but the rock ledges to climb up and the sand traps to plough through were energy sapping and I was soon gasping for breath and trying to clear lactic acid from my quads! This went on for 8 miles taking about 2 hours to climb up.

We stopped and climbed down to see Little Arch (a natural rock formation in the sandstone) and realised how far we had climbed as we could see the river below us- from the river to here was around 1000m!

We had a roller coater of slickrock and then we finally reached the rim with great views as the rain had stopped and the sun was back out and baking the rock dry. This was fortunate as the trail description for the next section was full of death and fear- so many times I was told to only ride it if I dare. We soon found the sign telling us 3 mountain bikers have died falling from this narrow ledge down a 400foot cliff drop. Walk do not ride. Don't worry mate we walked that bit.

Then the trail guide said now starts the hard stuff. Well the narrow ledge had gone but now we had 1000m of descent to complete in just 1.5 miles (9 miles up 2 down!). Yes it was steep, yes it was rocky and yes it was loose. Most was rideable, but error would be nasty. So we rode all the steep slickrock but occasionally got off our bikes for the loose rock steps that were relentless one after another and as I say falling was not an option.

Nevertheless my grin factor was right back up there at an 8.5 (not as great as yesterday's stupendous ride) mainly because I was chock full of adrenalin from the trail guide description putting fear up me and now here I was managing to ride most of the descent and having not fallen 400feet of a cliff! Phew!

I feel a great sense of achievement that I have ridden the legendary Poison spider and Portal Trail.

Will headed back to Denver and I went and rode the slickrock at Bartlett Wash- a long dirt road drive with my 4WD on to get to this slickrock playground with only one other biker on it – wow! You don't have to follow the dashed lines here you can pick and ride your own line and just play and play and play, dropping ledges, riding round bowls etc etc. I even found a kinda half pipe to play in. The Sun was truly out now and the formations of the slickrock were so amazingly pictureesque- I just kept snapping! I got back just as the Thunderstorm started and got out of that dirt road double quick since the map said “impassable when wet”!

Camping in the wild again tonight- they really know how to do it well here!

Day 5- Moab- Hazzards-Porcupine Rim

Wow what a day!

After a night of listening to RV air conditioning units switching on and off then a 3am drive by my tent I decided this campground was not for me! So by 06:30am I was up and out of there, chased off by a cat trying to pinch my breakfast. At 7am, I was outside Moab Cyclery waiting for the shuttle to Hazzards County Trailhead. We left at 07:30 and by 08:30 I was at the front of 11 guys pedalling up a climb of a mile at 9500ft around 3000m altitude I guess – ow my lungs were screaming for air they felt as if someone had torn them out of my chest twisted them around a few times and stuffed them back down my throat.

But from then on it was downhill pretty much all day- for 30 miles! And the first bit of singletrack was sweet flowy dirt through woods and over rocks stunts that had been built up. It was fast as we dropped 500m altitude over 5km, twisting and turning. This riding is more like the North Downs when its dry- but longer and more downhill gradient- we're talking golden birdies for 5km, and dropping twice the height of Leith Hill!

I'd decided to try and start ahead of the other 10 riders so there was someone to find me and pick me up on the trail if I had a problem (especially as 4 of them were from the Seattle Fire Dept)- and being the only girl I feared being at the back and being left behind- sureley they will all catch me up eventually, but I was wrong- I was the one doing the catching up. I guess groups do too many chat, faff and photo stops.

I crossed over the road from Hazzards into Kokopelli double track, fast and very rutted by 4WD to be taken with caution, fantastic views open up over the valley below and the incredible rock formations- as seen in all those spaghetti western movies!

We skirted the rim for another 10km of singletrack on the UPS and then LPS trails- sometimes flowy but often times bouncing up and over rock slabs or down rock ledges, avoiding the rim edge where a fall means sudden death. This was tough as the view kept calling your eyes away from the trail and we all know that where you look you ride!

An hour or so of grin factor later I reached the top of Porcupine Rim where a Squirrel was about to rummage through a camelbak lying there. Turned out the Camelbak belonged to a guy from Denver named Will and for the rest of the day we rode together trying to contain our grins as our facial muscles started to hurt.

Porcupine skirts along the rim over rock drops and sandy singletrack mainly downhill but a couple of sharp ups. Eventually it turns away from the main rim to skirt the Colorado River some 100m or so above it I guess and here its narrow singletrack over rocky ledges, sometimes fast lulling you into speed then sharp edges where you could easily mess up and be over the edge. Keep eyes on trail- do not look at river view!

Miles and miles, 4 hours and smiles and smiles later we emerged down by the Colorado river through a tunnel and hit the tarmac for a 5 mile roll back to Moab. I had such a great ride and my legs and shoulders and hands are all aching with pleasure from it. I am shattered!

I highly recommend the $20 shuttle up to Hazzards County trailhead – the singletrack down for 30 miles and 4 hrs is worth every cent.

I've joined Will at a wild campsite up on Sand Flats road- not an RV in sight but just views of mountains and rock formations- its beyond awesome- I cannot believe my luck! (There are no facilities just a Pit toilet and a bench and fire pit by my tent),  I'll stay there for 2 nights before I head to St.George for the Grand Canyon tour. (Don't worry I'll grab a shower in the bike shop in town- yes they do that here).

So we're off to enjoy a beer by the campfire as reward for our tough day!

Day 4- Moab Slickrock

Slickrock city- up early and up Sand Flats Rd to slickrock trailhead. What an awesome moonscape that is. Terrain like you've never experienced- the first few miles I had huge grin factor as I rolled down the rolling rock and then managed to climb gradients in my granny ring out of the saddle and leaning right over the front of the bars- anywhere else and my back wheel would lose traction but here it just dug in and got me up stuff I never thought I'd make.

Now don't get me wrong I had not turned into super climber- there were still quite a few steeps I could not make it up- but they were super dooper steep! And there were techy descents to be had too, bouncing down rock faces into sand traps that were so loose and deep they stopped your front wheel dead and I almost went OTB in the first sand trap! That is some of the finest sand I've ever seen.

To top off all that fun the views were incredible- I could see for miles and miles and no civilisations to be seen anywhere just moonscape and weird towers of sandstone. What a great day! But by 7 miles into it my legs were growing weary of the tough out of saddle climbs and the grin was more of a grimace. By the turn back towards the trailhead at mile 10 I met a Puerto rican guy from California and some guys from Texas and we all had a great chat and rode back the last few climbs and swoopy downs together- great fun.

I was pretty exhausted but after a Turkey wrap and a berry banana smoothie (yum) at the Peace Tree juice bar, I decided to drive into Arches National Park and be a tourist. Wow the scenery here is just incredulous- how on earth has all that sandstone been laid down for millions of years and now eroded away to form arches and pillars and balancing rocks at the top of pillars. Every where you looked was a wonder to behold. I drove to the end of the parkway and hiked out to Double O arch- just a 2.5 mile hike which started really easily on almost disabled accessible trail for 1 mile then climbed up some narrow sandstone and became more of a scramble- what fun!

At the double O I climbed up for a photo then heading back got chatting to some nice guys from San Fran and then some Calgarians at the Partition Arch who took my photo and I returned the favour. Canadians are so friendly and so love the outdoors.

It was 6:30 when I got back to the car so I zoomed back to town and had a meal at Eddie McStiffs, joining the club so I could buy liquor cost me $4 but I also got a $4 voucher for my meal- what odd liquor laws they have in Utah- all this paperwork for nothing!

A storm is brewing as I prepare to retire to my tent. Tomorrow early start for a huge ride!