Grand Loop

Being in Utah for some excellent miles explains the lack of posts lately. But look at the pictures and see if you can find a hotspot somewhere...

Day 1
Leaving Grand Junction at 7:30 in the morning for the 20 mile warm up to the Kokopelli trail head.
Made it throught the Loma trails in about 2.5 hours, and kept going steady to Westwater for water and some recovery, leave there at about 4 PM for a couple of more headwind hours along the Colorado river and through Yellow Jacket Canyon. Just made it out of there in time before it got dark.
Rolled out the bivy at Dewey Bridge after a solid 10 hours / 100 miles of riding.

Start of the loop:


Trails south of Loma


Singletrail trail trail trail...


Travel companion and navigator Jim


The bedroom for night 1:


Day 2
Late start, and lots of climbing right from the beginning. Was able to fix a bike rack of a rider we met on the trail. Boy, he looked surprised when I told him i have the extra bolt he needs to fix his rack (and all that just after he had commented on how light we travel).
Ran into hikers at Rosegarden who helped us out with water - must be the good charma after the bolt-incident.
Up in the mountains Jim started to get sick, the altitude got him big times... we rode down into the next valley and camped out about 30 miles West of Moab at Rock Castle. Still 7 hours of riding for today!

Find the hiker/rider/hikeabiker


View after 2 hours of sandy climbing:


Beautiful trails:


Nice view in Fisher Valley of the snowy "La Sal" Mountains - we'll be up there tomorrow


Exit of North Beaver Mesa


Selfmade and just as good as Aquafina


Bedroom night 2 in Castle Valley:


Day 3
Jim called it a day and headed back to Moab, I turned around and rode the 3000 feet back up the hill to get to the Paradox trailhead. Met a guy on top who told me "about 5 inches of new snow about 100 miles down the trail". Not good, I'm not prepared for riding in snow - started to do more thinking about my situation while riding around the La Sal's.
After 4 hours and 41 miles on the Paradox trail I ended up in Bedrock.
Decision time:
Either continue on or head back to Moab on the road. Bummer, I felt really awesome, the legs full of power, I simply was on fire. But I know the trail further on wouldn't be rideable due to the snow, and I really felt like I need to check on Jim. So this is it, good bye Grand Loop.
I put the head down and time trialed the 60 sad miles back to Moab on the road. (When I asked one of the Bedrockers how far it would be to Moab he said "lots of uphill and 62 miles" - so I knew I'd also have to go down again, and I did with a max speed of 42.8 mph.)
106 miles today in just under 9 hours of riding.

The "La Sal's" (and me) at the beginning of the Paradox Trail:


And without my stupid face!


Crossing the "Taylor Flats" at almost 9000 feet of elevation


Somewhere along Paradox trail, just after I took a dump!


"Carpenter Ridge" = ode to the inventor of disc brakes


A sad early ending in Moab...


Tan-lines + scratches = souveniers from Utah


Ride stats:
--> 3 days
--> 26 hours ride time
--> 253 miles
--> 24000 feet of climbing
--> 7.004 kg of gear (food and water not included)
--> feeling: like 100%