Ride Report

Vegas/Utah September 2002

Riders: Dave, Steve, Scott, Jeri, and John

There were some epic rides on this trip. I’ll come to that later. This trip will always be remembered for “The Fall” so I’ll get that out of the way up front. On Thursday we made the run from Vegas, through the Virgin River Gorge, and into Zion National Park. We stopped at Bike Zion to get another map and talk with them about the threat of rain. They said “go for it Dude” when we told them that we were heading high up onto Goosberry Mesa which has some of the most amazing technical singletrack and slickrock I have ever seen. Jeri was up for something milder so she and John rode separately with the intention of doing “Slickrock 101 Loop”, an introduction to slickrock riding.

Scott, Steve and I headed onto the North Rim Trail….which as the name suggests keeps you fairly close to the 5000 foot cliff most of the time. The trail would dart in and out from the edge and sometimes there would only be a few feet for the bike to pass between a tree and the edge. From time to time the trail would lead to amazing slickrock playgrounds, with white dots painted on the rock to mark the path. We were having a blast.

I was leading, followed by Scott, then Steve. We stopped briefly so that Scott could adjust his handlebars and then took of again. A short time later I realized that nobody was behind me so I stopped. I assumed that Scott was making further repairs. About 5 minutes passed before I decided to head back…just as Scott and Steve emerged from a clump of trees. Scott looked like he had just had a run-in with a mountain lion with cuts and scratches everywhere, and blood coming through his shirt.

While riding one of the narrow sections near the edge he had looked down briefly. It affected his steering and he rode his bike off the cliff. Amazingly, he landed on a rock ledge 15 feet below. The bike also caught on something 20 feet below. Scott later described the descent as a “one mile per hour” slide down the cliff. With Steve’s help, Scott was able to climb up while holding onto his bike with one hand! Fortunately we had plenty of first aid supplies and it appeared that none of the cuts needed stitches. It was a miracle there were no broken bones.

As we were only 20% into the ride, Scott said he preferred to finish the ride rather than go back to the car. We all waited a bit to calm down and then continued on one of the most fantastic rides ever. Scott rode the rest of the trail like a champion trials rider. No problem.

So back to the Ride Report……

Day 1- We flew to Vegas and visited our friend Jared at Escape Adventures. He was preparing to lead a 70 person corporate road tour where they ride down from Red Rock Canyon back to his shop. They ride 20 miles downhill and barely need to pedal. Steve rented a Santa Cruz Superlight (which he owns at home). That night we met Desert Camp friend Rick Hayes for dinner.

Day 2- Steve and I did a grand tour of Lower Cottonwood and the Mustang Trails, including the around-the-mountain ride to Blue Diamond. We started with the 3 mile climb up Hidden Valley before beginning the descent down Red Canyon and connecting with the Mustang Trails….which Steve said was “better than sex”! We stopped for refreshments at Blue Diamond before beginning a 5 mile climb back to the car. This fantastic ride ranged from about 5000 feet to about 7000 feet altitude.

Day 3- We did a shorter, somewhat easier version of the Day 2 ride with John and Jeri. At Blue Diamond, Jeri didn’t feel well so we opted for the shortest trail back to the car. The trail turned to a dirt road with some sandy and loose washes. It was a lousy way to end the ride but the earlier parts had been fun.

Day 4- We did the Gooseberry ride I described at the top. There were a few showers but we welcomed the cooling effect. Jeri and John’s ride was marred by flats due to thorns. We then made the drive through the tunnel into Checkerboard Mesa on our way up to Ruby’s Inn at Bryce Canyon. The scenery here was mind boggling . I think it was at Ruby’s that Steve set the trip eating record….as he usually does.

Day 5- Casto Canyon (in Red Canyon). We awoke to rain. They said it was the first time it had rained in 5 months! By the time we finished with the Cowboy Breakfast Buffet and took a peek at Fairyland, one of Bryce Canyon’s many overlooks, the rain had all but stopped. Jeri and John decided to head back to L.A.

One of the locals had said that Casto Canyon “might be a little muddy”. This great trail in Red Canyon follows an old cow path up into the canyon, crossing the stream bed 43 times! Often the bed is dry but not on this day. To be honest, we could have soft pedaled the rocky streams and stayed fairly clean and dry and clean but no……we charged at them as hard as we could. We climbed over 2000 feet before making a U-Turn and flying down the trail, making the same 43 stream crossings with reckless abandon.

At the end of the ride we were covered with mud, as were our bikes. But, we all agreed that you can’t have much more fun on two wheels. At the lunch stop, the owner of the restaurant let us borrow his hose to wash off.

Day 6- Scott, Steve, and I headed for the high country in Cottonwood. We climbed for over an hour but were rewarded with two spectacular views of Las Vegas and Red Rock Canyon. We climbed Satan’s Escalator and Red Rubbly Hill in succession. By the top I was leaning over my handlebars gasping for air.

The descents down 3 Mile Smile, Hidden Valley, and “Better than Sex” trails to the valley below were at least 8 miles of non-stop downhill. Towards the end of the ride we ran into Jared, just back from leading a tour in the Hood River area. This ride earned the ‘epic’ rating. It was about 25 miles in length and left us itching to do it again.

Lacking the time, we headed back to Vegas for one more buffet before breaking down the bikes and flying home.

Great trip.