I came back alive

Saturday and Sunday turned out to be awesome once more in Moab. This place has to be the perfect place for self torturing therapy. Saturday morning after good hard night's rest I jumped out of bed, filled myself with water and Ego waffles (mountain biking food) and headed of for Amasa Back Trail head with Gil, Gary, Doug, Reagan, Dan, Warren and Steve. I have heard about this trail for years so I was excited to take part in the torture. It lived totally up to the rumors. The trails started with about a 30 foot stair step drop off. I walked my bike down. It was too early in the morning to draw blood. Then for the next 5 miles it was up hill. Not super bad and totally worth it once you saw the views. (I included my mountain biking glamour shot for you to enjoy.) Then the downhill. 5 miles of back breaking bumps and jumps. I actually enjoyed the painful uphill more. Not sure what happened in my noggin to think that way.
Back to the hotel for a quick rest, lunch and back out to the trails. This afternoon Gil, Pat and I thought we would tink around at Bartletts Wash, a little Slickrock playground. Supposedly it was to be a 2 mile bike out to get to the playground but after 2.5 miles of sandy roads (total torture) we were no where near a slickrock area. I turned around to see about 10 bikes up on a ridge and then realized we missed something. With our heads between our legs, wondering where we missed the trail we headed back to the car. Yup, about a 150 yards from the car was a clearly marked trail. Oh well, we will come back another year to fight that one.

One of my favorite traditions of Moab is eating at the Moab Diner, hmmm. Great burgers and huge shakes and malts. I think even though I burned a bazillion calories this week I must have gained weight due to the Moab diner's food. I'll just have to leave the speedo in the drawers for another couple of weeks.

I came back to our hotel to find Curtis, Trent and Franklin resting. They ventured all day Saturday to climb a tower. Unfortunately the bad climbing book led them on a 4 hour hike to find no routes available. They were tired but had great attitudes. That led us Sunday morning to get up at 6am to get a few more climbs in. Franklin led his first route and it was a 5.10. If you don't know what that is, imagine hard. Franklin kicked butt (See the speck in the picture to the right) and Curtis then followed him up to clean the gear. Trent and I being the smart ones sat at the bottom cheering on and giving great advice.

Jumped into the car for the 6 hour ride home. It was great to see Christine and the kids. Now we're packing and getting ready. Moving Truck 2 days away.
Categories: Family