Biking the Slickrock

I finally made it down to Moab for the epic mountain biking that is world famous. Kirk and I headed down Thursday night and pulled into Moab at about 1:00 in the morning. Most of the campgrounds were full, so we headed down a dirt road just outside of town, found a relatively flat spot on the ground and rolled out the sleeping bags. I was a bit under prepared for the cold desert nights and spent the night freezing in my drafty bag. On all three nights we camped under the stars and Kirk made sure he slept about thirty yards away from where I made my bed, he said that I am loud.

That first morning we got ourselves ready and made our way to the Slickrock trail. Kirk said he has been on the trail numerous times, but with someone that has never been to Moab it is a must ride, so thats what we did. I cannot believe the riding that we were able to do on that slickrock. The tires are able to grip that rock like nothing I've seen before, which allows a mountain bike to climb, side hill and descend on terrain that is sometimes quite intimidating. We seemed to make good time on the trail, but were riding for a few hours. That was more bike riding than I have ever done at any other time in my life and it was incredible.

That afternoon we were able to ask around and find some information on some places that we could make our best efforts at catching some fish. We headed to a lake outside of town and fished it for quite some time before finally we started throwing a lure that caught some fish. Of course this is my secret lure that I barely shared with Kirk and never reveal to anyone, (especially my advanced technique). The next afternoon following our second day of riding we returned to this lake for more fishing but only after we had partaken of the waters ourselves.

Having camped out in the desert for two nights and rode our bikes hard for two days we were a bit colorful in the odor department and needed a shower. We first attempted to catch a shower at a local Hostel, but with no one around to help us and a long line of far more "colorful" people ahead of us to take a shower we opted out. Once we reached our fishing destination we realized the watery bounty before us and dared each other to bath in the freezing cold lake. After some coaxing we each stripped and dipped. It was either the great washing with soap and water or the intense cold, but I felt extremely invigorated afterwards.


Two of the three nights in Moab we ate at a local pasta joint that had some incredible food. The place was always hopping with plenty of comers and goers but all of it made for a unique atmosphere and some killer food. Our second day of riding was on the souverign trail that was also an incredible ride, and that afternoon we spent an hour or two catching some rest and even a few zzz's at the park along the river. The whole trip was outstanding and I cannot wait to get back and ride more of that rad slickrock and incredible trails that are all over this place.