Sedona Wrap up and MOAB!!

Catch-up:

Sedona:

Checked out Beaverhead Flats w/ Jason and Kenny. Pretty gnarly stunts (mainly jumps and stepdowns) w/ some steep natural lines. We only saw a glimpse of the total area b/c of time limitations (Jason had to go grab his girl). I hit the two upper jumps and the first 2 of the four pack, but the wind was pushing me around a lot and I wasn't feeling great on the big bike (weird going from xc to jumps). I guess Kranked 5 was filmed a little bit out in this zone.

Rode Highline w/ Kenny and Lily- still really windy, but a fun flowy trail that rose from the Red Agave resort. We ended up riding it both ways since you would have to climb out of the switchbacks on the side of Cathederal Peak. Finished up riding at Jason's with the foam pit.

Rode Flagstaff (Mt. Elden)- 2 laps down Wasabe, Prom Night (w/ Happy Ending), and Private Reserve w/ Kenny and Jason. Very fun place w/ some chunky rock gnar abound, as well as a cool step down on Wasabe, a really cool step down to step up on Private Reserve, and of course the 60' rock face that is Happy Ending. We got some pretty good shots too.....

The shuttle road is brutal and takes longer to ride down in the car than on the bike......

Drove from Sedona right to the Grand Canyon for a sunset hike along the N. Rim (away from all the tourists). There were a ton of wildflowers and some crazy looking trees. I snapped away to my hearts content and got some pretty cool shots. We jumped back in the car and headed for MOAB!!

Moab:

Rolled up and camped on the LaSal Mtn Loop Rd. Pulled off some random dirt road and crashed. Woke up to a truck and trailer approaching. I jumped up front and still half asleep drove into Moab. We stopped at Poison Spider Mesa and tried to pull some of the droves of people away from the pay shuttle and into our van. No luck. Then onto the Moab Cyclery. Super cool shop that has a TON of solar panels on the roof. We got some Hammer Gels, a map, and lucked out w/ Nat and Aaron (from Whistler). Aaron wanted to ride, but Nat wasn't up for Porcupine Rim. Lily and I rode 2.5 miles out and back on the Slickrock trail while they did the practice loop. Then we rallied down to 191 and dropped the car off at the bottom, and back up Sand Flats Rd to LPS. I hadn't ridden this trail and within 10 minutes Aaron and I lost Lily- we checked out The Notch (a techy section up high) while Lily plunged herself down LPS. Aaron and I waited for Lily but she never showed. By the time we realized what had happened we took off to catch her. We never caught a glimpse of her. I had a flat that took 2 tries to fix, but other than that we ripped the trail hard. And were still 1.5 hrs behind her!! We rallied back to town after Nat picked us up, and ate some yummy food at the Moab Brewery. The 3.2 beer actually got me a buzz (just add in dehydration and empty stomach). We got dropped off at LPS, hung out for a while, then they took off and we jumped in the back of the van.

Next day we went to Chile Pepper bike shop, ran into Wendy (whom I had ridden with ~8yrs ago), and met Dan and Dallas. Dan and I chatted about doing Hazard County, Kokopelli, UPS, and LPS. He was a little concerned about Dallas whom had only ridden a mountain bike a couple times in his life. Dallas decided to go for it. We dropped the bottom car on 191 again, and the two Utah boys piled into the back of the van. Hazard County took an hour to get to. We drove down Spanish Valley Hwy, watched the shuttle van behind us get pulled over for passing a slow car that we passed too, and wound our way up the LaSal mtns. There were patches of Aspen trees, wildflowers, and various plant life as we ascended away from the red sandstone cliffs of Moab.

We clamored out of the van, got on our bikes and did the initial climb up to the top of Hazard. I thought we were screwed when Dallas ate shit within a few minutes of the DH. But he kept plugging away, dirt stripes and all. Believe it or not, he smoked his MTB buddy the WHOLE DAY. I cringed as he inched his way down gnarly slickrock sections......somehow finding the correct balance of brakes and body position. Kokopelli was a wide open ripper 2 track w/ some water bar jumps and LOTS of wildflowers. UPS and LPS were just AWESOME......winding along the edge of a mesa with a very precipitous drop off.......sometimes the trail would get within a couple feet of the edge....just long enough for you to force yourself NOT to look. There was a little grinding up the ridge of Porcupine Rim and this is where Dallas showed his first weakness, but only momentarily. We ripped down Porcupine Rim....pounding through the never ending rock ledges and loose baby heads. It never seemed to end....always wrapping around another corner, exposing a ribbon of red rock and dirt that kept putting a smile on your face. We finished up and headed into town to grub at Zak's. Lily and I ate the pizza buffet and stacked a mound of pizza crusts worthy of a day of riding that we had just finished. The boys gave us a ride back to the top and we ended up crashing out high in the LaSal mtns.

Next, Lily and I rode Amasa Back. We drove out Kane Creek and parked 1/2 mile from the trailhead. We rallied up the road for a second and onto the trail. It opened up with a waterfall rock section and then across a sandy wash and then gradually climbed up through sheer rock walls before topping out on the mesa. We rode along the rim for a bit, then got onto Rockstacker near the power lines. We started to ride it, realizing we were going the wrong way, but it was cool and had a number of moves that were probably better to preview. We backtracked on Rockstacker and then onto Jackson's trail (previously unnamed) which wrapped us along the edge of a cliff on flowy trail. We got some great pics. Unfortunately the creek was flooded at the bottom and we had to do a harrowing hike-a-bike to make it back to the parking lot. We finished the day off by driving down 191 to the Big Bend boulders and poking around. We were both pretty spaked and didn't really have much mojo for the rock.

We ended up eating at the pasta joint (delish) and crashing back out in the LaSals.

Lily was kind enough to allow me the honors of Hazard County solo, and I ended up rallying it HARD with only a couple of quick sops (once to help a guy out w/ his blown shock). I dropped 5k ft in just under 2 hrs. I was in the zone!!

We rallied over to the Wall St. zone on Potash Rd and met up w/ Julia and Leah. I led up the 5.8 classic "30 seconds over Potash," to start with and it definitely was a little funky with my sweaty, greasy, out-of-the-car self wigging out on my crappy gear placements. Thankfully I wasn't the only one to find it hard. Next, I led a 5.10c sport route- "Nervous in Suburbia," and walked it compared to the much "easier" 5.8 we "warmed up" on. The girls got a little worked on the long moves between holds, and I ended up cleaning it. Next I led the 5.9 Little Thailand on the road cut. It looked super easy from the ground, but all the holds were slopey, and pointed in the wrong direction. Still, you never really had to pull all that hard.

Then we caught a family with a bunch of routes on TR and I did a 5.10 slab that was pretty sparse. Lily did a 5.8 and was glad to go out on a send.

Next day we headed over to the "secret" swimming hole. Well, actually we tried to spend the night there, but that only lasted until 1 am when a sheriff clicked every light he had on our van. We tried to play dead, but he demanded someone out of the car. He let us go after running my license. We drove out and crashed past Porcupine Rim trail again. The swimming hole was PACKED (even w/ a 25 min approach and multiple stream crossings). There was a waterfall that you could jump off of, and a stream with mini waterfalls to relax in- if cold water is your thing. We lounged around for a while in the shade, then I finally convinced Lily to jump off the cliff- even if it was the small part. I went off the larger drop a couple of times- barely touching the bottom each time.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Arches National Park and climb Owl Rock (5.8). Lily had a hard time with it, and had to take off the pack with our sunset beers. I watched as the sun sunk behind the rock, spectators and all, as Lily made her way to the top. In my haste to get down I neglected to retrieve a cam that Lily couldn't get out. I remembered this when I was back in town. DOH!! I know what we're doing in the AM!! We drove out Potash Rd and camped in a legit campground (pay?!!).

Well.....we still haven't paid for housing/camping. Lily got up at 5:45 and woke me up. We quickly jumped up front and peeled out before anyone could demand our money!! Off to owl rock!! We ate granola and sipped french press coffee as the sun came up. Then onto the "juggy" and weird 5.8. I think I need to have a little "gear removal clinic" with Lily b/c the piece came out w/o a fight!! We finished it off and decided to go climb Corkscrew Summit at Fisher Towers. We met a few people from Brazil and one woman from Argentina who had just finished it up. "Classic" was all they had to offer. We hiked up and realized a couple was just starting up the climb. I chatted w/ Brian as he made his way up the first pitch. Then I met Christina at the first belay. They were from NY and were out for a few daze. They planned to climb Fine Jade the next day. We met back up at the top of the chimney pitch and I watched as they reached the summit one at a time. They were funny (Bronx humor I guess) and were comically elbowing each other as they climbed. It was fun to overhear. They offered to wait for us to summit so we could be sure to reach the ground w/ only 1 rope (no mention to the contrary in the guide book). They napped on the sunny ledge as Lily and I took turns wigging out on the sidewalk to belly flop. Basically, you walk unprotected from the belay along a narrow sidewalk until you run into the "diving board." Brian wiggled under the diving board and didn't do the belly flop, but Christina, Lily, and I did the committing flop onto the rock protrusion. After wiggling awkwardly to get on top of this rock anomaly we worked our way around the delicate rock peak, clipping a few pitons along the way. The summit is probably one of the most unique anywhere. Just enough room to stand up and maybe turn around.....with hundreds of feet of exposure on each side. Wahooooo!!!