St. Germain & Eerik - pont des arts (FRW Lounge Master edit 2010) by FRW (Chill Rhythms)
The drive to Moab was quick and awesome! I have never been to this part of the world. Lots of very very cool mountains, felt like I was in a Playmobil set. Quinn’s mom welcomed us into her amazing home and treated us to some very delicious meals. Of course we took advantage of our trip for a stop at the local Brewery. It’s world renown status was very accurate! The Dead Horse is a sure bet!
Hong and I ventured out the Colorado River and then flipped it in time to make it up to the plateau near the airport (couldn't sneak into the Arches National Park without paying). There were bike trails everywhere, not only that, they were brand new! It seemed like we had a tail wind all day. Amazing!
That afternoon Quinn stayed with the kids (his mom runs a pre-school and kindergarten school). They practiced their riding skills, helmet wearing and and gravel turns. The highlight was Quinn helping his cousin's daughter take her first trip down the driveway without training wheels..ie: she learned to ride on gravel! Can you say Mountain biking future!
The next day Quinn joined us for an epic ride up into the mountains to check out some real dinosaur tracks. YES! Through the canyon, past the fort and into the Castle Valley. Past the Pastor & Nuns (big rocks), we started climbing along a false flat 5% grade, then the mountain started! 45 minutes at 7.7% average gradient with a lot of 11%. Fortunately the snow at the top didn't cover all the dino tracks and we found some awesome views. The descent however was so cold that we all got brain freeze...I guess we had a pretty stiff wind pushing us up the mountain. Then we decided to complete the loop with another 2,000 foot climb to drop us into Moab from the south. All in all, 9,000 feet of climb starting from 5,200 feet over 4.5 hrs riding and 4.75 hrs total. Epic! No bears, no crazy gun-touting locals but lots of watts!
As Bubbles would say....”sleepy times”.
Videos from the Colorado River ride on Wednesday.