I'll start this post with a beautiful shot of the remaining fall color up on Grand Mesa. Brad had been wanting to show me a ride he knew up there for two years. The prolonged warm weather this October lured us up to 10,000 feet, to ride our bikes amongst the throngs of orange wearing hunters and their ATV's. Luckily I had brought my "huntin' bike" which sports its own safety orange paint job.
However, by the end of the day my custom paint job was nothing but brown, along with our clothes, our shoes, and my Dinka Jane dog.
We were caught off guard by the amount of snow still up there. Despite temps allowing us to ride around in only a light jacket, the snow had really hung on.
The ATV's had really made a mess, but the fact that we were riding at all was due to their tracks. The snow had melted off in their grooves enough to allow forward movement. It's time's like these that I think about just how good I have it. Riding around on a kids toy, slopping through mud; you could say it was a terrible time, or... great fun! Brad and I chose to have "great fun!"
Once we hit the south slopes it was all good. I like good double track about as much as good single track. Brad and I moto'ed down hill lofting the front wheel for every creek and puddle leaving a spray of mud for Dinka in our wake.
Well, almost every creek..
It was a good day, despite the 2 hours of work I would have ahead of me over hauling my bike. It was a good last high altitude ride of the season and I looked forward to a dry mud-less second day off down below in the desert. Down below where it NEVER rains!!!
Ah yea, the desert in October. We've had the longest stretch of blue clear weather I can remember. But the forecast showed it was coming to an end, not that we could tell as we headed out for a ride in Rabbit Valley. Sunshine and a few high clouds. Nothing to worry about.
Dry, rocky single track and golden Cottonwood trees lining the mighty Colorado River. Could it be any better?
We were just grooving along, me, my wife and my crazy little dog. Then...I clipped a branch with my handlebar while headed into a rock garden. I came to a stop on my head proving once again that helmets are a pretty good idea. I slid on my shoulder for a while too. My glasses dug into my upper eye and my helmet had a dent in it. I had seriously rung my bell judging by the way Dinka and Mary both were worrying over me. With much groaning we re-mounted and moved on. At least it wasn't raining!
CRACK!!! The lightning boomed directly over us. I've seen fast moving storms but this one really snuck up on us.
Just as the rain began to fall we found a small ledge to climb under. We were sure the storm would pass, we'd let the trail dry, and then move on. Dinka loved hanging out in the dry sand below the ledge while it rained. She dug a hole and laid down.
And here's where the attitude thing comes in. The ledge wasn't really big enough to keep us dry and once it started really raining, the water began to pool at our feet and in Dinka's little hole. But the rain would stop soon right? It's the desert, it NEVER rains!
I tell people all the time about our terrible mud. "You can't ride when its wet!" I must say this a thousand times on a rainy day when talking to folks at the shop. I also tell them if they do get caught in rain to hunker down, wait for it to stop and the trail to dry and then, and only then, head back down the trail.
As expected, the rain kind of stopped, but we could see that more was coming. We had no choice but to make a run for it. We pushed the bikes to avoid our body weight causing more mud to stick to the tires.
That didn't work at all! We also found a new more appallingly sticky type of mud that we had never experienced before. It was at a spot where the ground was black, like coal on the surface. It was maddening!!! Our shoes weighed 10lbs each as we drug the bikes back toward the truck.
Finally it ended. A leisurely 2 hour ride had stretched to 6. We were hungry and still had an epic clean up of the bikes, our dog, and our selves to do. So was it fun? Well, yea it was. Not ideal, but it's really how you look at things. My attitude wasn't perfect, especially while cleaning the bikes in the pouring rain, knowing all my work the night before was for nothing. But yea it was a pretty good time. It sure beats not riding at all, which Mary and I know quite a bit about. Any day on the bike is a good day. That's the attitude for us!
