I ran out of water at the Juniper site, which I used as an excuse to meet some folks. A few sites over there was a group of young people...the exact age I'm not sure. There were five people total, and they looked like high school age to out of college age, but I could be wrong. The filled my growler jug for me, and we chatted for a bit around their fire. They were all from the Fruita/Grand Junction area, camping out somewhere new for the extended holiday weekend. We talked about riding, I told some stories from the past few days (I thought I told them okay, too, I was pleased), and they agreed that I should come to Fruita to ride. I'm in Fruita now, but haven't been able to get in touch with Matt, who gave me his number. I'm mad sore from the past few days, so maybe no riding is ok.
Yesterday I rode the famous Porcupine Rim route. I've been waiting for the trails to dry before I fork over the 20 bucks for the shuttle ride. They drive you up to the top, which yesterday was truly the highest drop off point, and you ride down. This means 27 miles of 95% downhill. It was great, and exhausting, and beat the crap out of me and my bike. It's not a thing to do on a hardtail, but hey...
Hazard was as close as you can get here to high alpine singletrack. It's been a little wet so Hazard was a little rutted and had a lot of brake bumps. I thought it was ok, but not as good as many had told me. There were some sketchy rock gap jumps that I avoided...maybe on a big bike.
Then the trail opened up into fast fast doubletrack. Flowy and fun, much better on my bike and body. Then, for the next 20 miles, I rode primarily rocky, technical downhill trail. I walked maybe three sections, dabbed only a couple of times. The best section was the last--a singletrack bicycle section with great flow and technical difficulty. The middle portion of the ride had some great exposed sections with awesome views. All in all, a great ride, but I am really sore now.
The very top, near La Plata mountains:
Views from the middle section:
Ha I impressed some folks by riding some super techy rock lines that they called unrideable (and I'm on a hardtail, which is considered quite a feat out here, especially on porcupine). I dabbed, though. (dabbing is when you put a foot down to prevent a fall).
So I cleaned up from the ride, ate at the brewery, packed up my bikes, and headed for Fruita. I parked at a scenic trailhead, read some Dune, and went to sleep at like 9:30. I awoke at 7, found a little coffee place, and that's where I am now. I'll go talk to the folks at the bike shop next door, but I think I may just jet for Wyoming, crash at a friend's place in Jackson tonight, and find a good campsite tomorrow/get in touch with my boss, Andy. I wish I had more time in the desert. It was an incredible, incredible place with amazing scenery, great terrain, and more riding than you can shake a spoke at. I would really like to do some backpacking in the desert, find some places off the beaten path. Fortunately the Juniper site was pretty far out there. I like the desert around here, it's awesome.
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