desert wheels

We got away to Moab for the long July 4th holiday weekend, lucking out on the weather a bit as the last of the cold front lingered, providing lower-than-normal temperatures for Thursday and Friday morning.  The fact that it is normally so hot down there right now (plus the pandemic) means that it's not super-crowded: there were some Utah and Colorado vacationers looking for an easy getaway, but not a ton because local folks know how hot it can be; what's really noticeable is that there are no European tourists these days.

To take advantage of the more temperate temperatures, we went up to Dead Horse Point State Park to ride Thursday morning.  It was gorgeous and clear, with the higher elevation keeping it cool first thing in the morning.  We managed to get out onto the trails just before a MTB tour group, doing the older east-side trails first and then going across via Crossroads to do the newer Whiptail/Twisted Tree loop.  We didn't see anybody on the first part of the ride and only started coming across other riders on our way back from the second part.  Trail etiquette was pretty good too, which tells you that there weren't that many newbie tourists out there.

That sky!

It definitely got hot again, starting mid-morning on Friday.  So when Saturday morning rolled around, we got out to the MOAB Brand Trails early-ish for our ride.  There were more vehicles there than we expected at 7:30 a.m., with four (!!) tour groups.  We started on the front side of Lazy-EZ, then managed to pass one of the tours just after the first cattle guard on Rusty Spur before returning to Lazy-EZ for the nice climb and swoopy downhill of its back half.

After that, I wanted to do the front side again to see if I could improve on my riding (I could).  Then we segued to Bar M, intending to do Circle O next.  I don't know if it was the heat or if I was unknowingly dehydrated, but I started cramping up just as we got out onto the slickrock.  When H waited for me, I decided to bail out and ride back to the truck - it was just going to take me too long to get around that loop.  I ended up hike-a-biking all the way back to the Bar M double-track - where I saw H, who had speedily finished the Circle O loop and was on his way back to Lazy-EZ.  I was riding okay but so v e r y  s l o w l y so that even though I took the cut-off back to the parking lot, I only finished five minutes before H got there.  After pounding a Gatorade (and, let's be honest, a hard seltzer), I was feeling better.  Some days are just shorter than others, I guess.

On Whiptail at DHPSP

DHPSP ride stats: 17.4 miles; 1:54 hours; 9.1 m.p.h. average speed

MOAB Brand Trails ride stats for H: 17.04 miles; 2:00 hours; 8.5 m.p.h.