"h rode it"

First I was traveling for a week, then H was traveling for a week - so when everyone was finally altogether again, we decided a quick Moab weekend was in order to reground ourselves.  We didn't take much, just the dog and our MTBs.  And the southern Utah weather looked pretty reasonable for mid-June as a slight cold front moving through - and, as we drove through Green River, dumping a ton of rain in a fifteen minute period - kept the temperatures low (70s through high 80s).

Slight lean in on the corner

Saturday morning we got up to Dead Horse Point State Park around 8:30 a.m.  When we ride there in May and October, we usually try to start 7:30ish to stay ahead of the crowds so I did a double-take when we pulled in to a nearly empty parking lot.  There was a small tour group going through their preliminaries - we got out ahead of them and then saw only seven other riders until the very end of our ride.  The trails were dry and it was a gorgeous morning to be out there.  We rode the trails on both side of the park road and even though I walked down a couple of roll-overs I suspect I had ridden before, I wasn't sure enough of myself to attempt them that morning.  Better safe than sorry.

Working through the Twisted Tree trail

My favorite part of the ride happened as we were nearing the outermost bit of the Big Chief loop, H ahead of me per usual.  As I rode up to this one small, rocky climb, there was a group of two adults and three or four little kids coming the other way.  The kids were taking this obstacle one at a time, with the dad off his MTB to spot each of them and cheer them on: "Let's go, Anna! Let's go, Anna!" Since I had stopped for them, I just pushed my MTB up the obstacle.  As I went by, the dad grinned and teased, "H rode it!"  H was waiting for me just a little further on and when I asked what had happened, he said that they had moved aside for him to come up.  The dad asked him his name and then chanted, "Let's go, H! Let's go, H!"  How nice to have cheerleaders on the trail!

High water

On our way back to town, we stopped to check out the Colorado River.  The river is higher than we have ever seen it: bankfull, but not fully flooding.  The current was cranking along too.  We walked across the footbridge to the boat put-in to take the above picture, with the river up to the bottom of the sign.  We'll keep checking through the year to see how the water goes down.

Ride stats:  16.27 miles, 1:55 hours