I realised today that it’s exactly three years since I was robbed of 20-20 vision by a stray firework. I’ve never taken time to dwell on my injury as I don’t see (excuse the pun) the point.
That being said, I remember thinking for some of the time between eye operations that I may never be able to ski or to mountain bike to any decent standard again. Since then I’ve taken part in endurance mountain bike races, I’ve ridden alpine downhill courses and cliff edge trails in Utah, I’ve run half marathons and in April qualified as a ski instructor in Canada. Never take for granted what you’re able to do, because you won’t be able to do it forever…
I think it’s significant that on this day I was out and about in the Brecons enjoying myself on my mountain bike, and it was poignant to be riding on the descent where fellow mountain biker, Russ Pinder was paralysed in 2003. I fully intend to enjoy my wellbeing for as long as possible…
Three Years of Blindness 0
Moab 0
Been meaning to write about this for ages…
Having not done much planning at all for our biking week in the States, Neil and I flew out to Denver not really knowing what to expect from riding in Moab, Utah other than what we’d heard (i.e. ‘the mecca of mountain biking’) and seen online (i.e. rocky tracks and some scary cliffs which I would not be riding next to). BA provided their usual hospitality, and we emptied the executive lounge having got in there at Heathrow.
Arriving in Denver, somehow we were last through immigration out of everyone on an entire Boing 777! I don’t think you could do that if you tried really hard. Anyway, thankfully the bikes were awaiting us and we set about hiring the biggest 4×4 pimp-mobile that we could get our hands on.
Our Chevy Suburban got us happily into the Colorado mountains and before we both fell asleep, we checked into a lodge in Aspen no less. Always wanted to go to Aspen, but more for the skiing rather than a late night stop off. The next day we pushed on through into spectacular Utah… spectacular by sheer scale and desert like appearance (probably because it is a desert!).
Turning up in Moab was a pleasant experience; spectacular red-rock scenery all around and bike shops a plenty in the first few hundred yards of the town centre. A quick chat with some of the locals soon had us pointed at a suitably cheap motel and a potential ride for the first afternoon. After checking in, we built the bikes and headed off road for 10 mins in the Burb to the Sovereign trail head. Although this is meant to be a loop, we only really had time for an out and back and were soon getting frustrated by a monotonous trek up through the hills, with only occasional moments of non-sandy excitement. However, when we turned round, we soon discovered the point of the trail and rapidly descended back to the truck with smiles on our faces. This was going to be a good week. And at that point, we had no idea what was in store.
On the Monday, we got up early and had a chat with the guys and (lovely) girls in the Chilli Pepper bike shop and had soon booked a shuttle up to the top of the Kokopelli trail from the La Sal mountains back to Moab. The guidebook profile showed that this would be an entertaining descent from 2500m to about 1100m and would allow a descent down the Porcupine Rim climb (Porcupine Rim being the ride in Moab). However, the shuttle was booked for 11am and it was still early so we set out for Slickrock and rode the practice loop for over an hour! More about Slickrock in a minute.
45 minutes into the Kokopelli shuttle ride, we realised we were heading into big country… big mountains… lots of desert. EXTREME! It turns out that you can ride on a road bike from Moab, up past the trailhead and back in a mere 60 miles. We felt like lightweights as Travis kicked us out and told us to ride for 25 miles back to Moab. Having said that, his directions were basically something like “follow the cliff all the way for 25 miles, you can’t go wrong”!!! So we set out, pretty much by ourselves although a couple of local dudes were having mechanicals and another guy would later catch us up after riding up from the trailhead for another hour, just for the fun of it!
Anyway, after a few moments of nervousness as we lost the trail momentarily and then some more amusement as I attempted to ride some of the ‘crag’ and fell foul of my entire weight squashing my leg against a tree with a bike in between (bruise has only just gone!), we hit the top of the Porcupine Rim trail. By this point we’d already been riding for 3 or more hours, however I wasn’t expecting that the advice of one of the local riders would lead us to actually ride the Porcupine Rim descent. Having seen video of this cliff-side, gnarly singletrackfest and been determined not to ride it, it actually turned out to be stunning (and very difficult and scary at the same time). When we got back to Moab, Neil was completely shot and I wasn’t far behind, and it seemed to cause amusement as we sat recouperating in front of Chilli Peppers for about three quarters of an hour.
Having started not so gently, we decided that we’d have a semi-rest day on Tuesday and headed into the nearby Arches National Park for a bit of sight seeing. The scenery was truly spectacular but we put this to one side by mid afternoon as we headed for Slickrock. Now Slickrock is basically just a giant block of smooth red-rock with a dotted white line painted on it. If you’ve ever been to the states and seen a 4×4 advertised on TV, it was almost certainly being filmed driving on Slickrock in Moab. Anyway, the smoothness means that the grip you get is incredible. We lowered our tyre pressures (using the valves unlike on Monday when Neil had used 7 needles from a local cactus!) and headed off into the still searingly hot evening sun.
After about an hour of riding on this stuff, we were both pretty knackered and to be honest bored. It seems that the novelty of riding up and down near vertical bits of rock is not as much fun as you’d think and combine this in my case with horrendous gear change problems induced by missing many teeth on my gears and actually I was pretty pleased when we finally got back to the truck. Having said that, the sunset over the mountains was spectacular, and the brief segue taken for me to end-o into the sand was amusing. I should say that whenever Neil and I had mishaps during the week (which was only once or twice each actually), neither of us took photos or video. Very impressed was I at our advanced-biking ethics.
On Wednesday we took another shuttle ride to the trailhead of the Porcupine Rim climb and found that climbing over 1000m in the stinking hot sun is not easy. Having said that, we took great delight in absolutely thrashing a large group of mouthy Canadians from a bike club in British Columbia. We even caught a couple of S-Works riding XC weenies and I was highly amused to see Neil overtake them by letting them take a chicken run whilst he went off the biggest ledge known to man (I duly followed but was hanging on for dear life on my not-so-big country Tomac). The descent was once again spectacular and the scenery and riding that day will live long in my memory. Awesome.
After riding Porcupine Rim, I checked my bike in with the Chilli Pepper bike doctors for some new chainrings etc. They did a spectacularly good job; I don’t know any bike shop in the UK that would change two chainrings, a cassette, a chain, a gear cable, and two jockey wheels in less than an hour with no warning and without having to order in the parts. No offence to my local bike shop (who are fantastic) but this is like a different world. Anyway, I was happy until on closer examination, the mechanic and I spotted a crack in my new Tomac Eli frame. I say new because having cracked the frame in June, I’d got a new one on the warranty in time to take it to Chatel. Anyway, the mechanic said I’d be fine riding it for another few days and as it turned out, Wednesday was our last ‘extreme’ day.
One of the things we noticed throughout the week was just how much attention Neil’s brand new Santa Cruz Nomad was getting. Not a day went by without 1 or 10 enthusiastic Yanks asking about it… “Hey, is that the new Santa Cruz Nomad?”. I felt pretty left out despite having an adorable and pretty Gucci Tomac. Anyway, this was to plant the seeds for my new bike when I returned.
After 4 days of riding in Moab, we headed to Fruita, which was about a third of the way back to Denver, and just over the Colorado border. We stayed in a standard motel and were even able to put our bikes in our rooms, although dismantling them on the beds might have been a step too far in hindsight.
The trails in Fruita were fun but not world class. The first day of riding there was washed out by a late afternoon thunderstorm and the second day we got a bit lost and ended up doing a lot of climbing! Anyway, by this point in the week we were pretty tired and I think by the time we got back to dismantle the bikes, we were both ready for a rest. It turns out that riding hard for 6 days with no breaks, no lifts and no oxygen (due to the altitude) is pretty gruelling!
The last highlight of the week was actually a trip to the supermarket where we bought some beer and I (the mere 27 year old) promptly got ID-ed. Handing over my driving licence, the guy behind the till looked and stared at it for about 30 seconds before looking up and asking “Are you guys from the Ukraine?”. Attempting not to fall about laughing, we said “no we’re from the UK” at which point he asked “erm where is that?” and Neil offered up the explanation “you know, England, apples and pears and all that” in his best Austin Powers accent. I’d always wondered before then if it could really be true that so many US citizens don’t have a passport!
The drive back to Denver was uneventful, although a blast of Porcupine Tree at full volume on the pimpmobile’s mega stereo was nearly enough to start an earthquake.
I’ve been day-dreaming about the biking out there ever since returning, and I’d like to say how chuffed I was to go out there with Neil. He was great company for a week and I haven’t laughed so much for ages. All in all, a pretty special holiday.
As usual you can see all the photos on my lovely flickr photo site.
