thar she blows

 Since it was only a matter of time (days, really) before winter arrived in northern Utah, we wanted to get our MTBs down to Moab.  We were on the road well before rush hour on Friday, allowing us to miss the big traffic on I-15 in Utah County, but getting us to Moab just in time for the crush of cars navigating the road work.  That tangle gave us an extra half-hour in the car but there was cold beer waiting for us in the fridge, so it all worked out.

Simply gorgeous day

Saturday looked to be the better of the two weekend days: cool and clear and sunny.  When we got out to the Moab Brand Trails for a late morning ride, we found that it was windy as well.  VERY windy, as the cold front started pushing into the state.  The wind was out of the south, meaning that it was a brutal headwind for the outbound legs on Rusty Spur and Bar M; amazingly, the wind stayed consistent so that we got an awesome push from the tailwind whenever we were heading north.  Love me a tailwind!  Later, we looked it up: it was literally blowing a gale out there.  Well, gusting to it, anyway.

We did our new regular loop: front side of Lazy EZ to Rusty Spur and back to the back side of Lazy EZ, then the front side again, to Bar M out to the Rockin' A/Bar B intersection, then north on Bar M to Circle O (I didn't ride Circle O that well as the wind gusts were making me extra wobbly).  At the north end of Circle O, I went left, to the parking lot cut-off, and H went right, continuing north on Bar M to the North 40 intersection and then back on the sandy jeep road behind the old chuckwagon.  That last bit was both wicked sandy and completely into the wind, so he had to work for it - and I was glad to have bailed out on that part.