It Never Rains in New Mexico

June 2013: 24hrs of Enchanted Forest, Gallup, NM. 24hr USA championships
Team "I closed Wolski's" ventured down to NM after competing in the 24Hr championships the year before in Colorado Springs. We got physically beat up in CoS on the 1 square mile, 13 mile course at Palmer Park. We literally got assaulted. It was cold, we drank too many Lime A Ritas and the course was super technical, so we were out for some revenge. WB (a NM native) assured us that it would be good times and great weather high up in the mountains of NM. What we didnt expect was the first drop of rain to hit NM in the last 10 years was to hit us during our race. And by a drop i mean about 6 inches of rain in 8 hours. The race was postponed due to conditions that were unridable. We almost lost tom out in the wilderness to a landslide. Tinker Juarez went on to win that year with 12 laps to our 5 person team of 8 laps. We said we would be back NM, and hopefully with drier weather.
During that season we would go on to compete at several more 24 hours races and the idea of doing Duo races had come up. Since i had been starting to feel out the waters in the solo category, Tom and WB agreed to do a duo. Over the next 2 years races went by with no duo entry for Tom and WB...until i caught wind of the Albuquerque mountain bike festival and the 12hrs of ABQ.
Without hesitation i immediately signed Tom and WB up for the duo. Zia Rides is the organization that puts on the incredible line up of races down there in NM including Enchanted Forest, home to the latest 24hr national championships. They are by far the best organization to put on races of these caliber. In general they are just super nice people, get just the right amount of sponsorship to provide good local craft beer, decent swag, and they know the importance of having a great local coffee truck onsite at all hours of the race. No one needs showers anyways, we are mountain bikers after all!
So, after signing those two up i was on the hunt to find my own Duo team otherwise i would have to do this sucker solo. I signed Toms wife up with me so there we had it. 2 duo teams but more importantly, Tom and WB could check this off their bucket list after 3 years of "talking" about it. Unfortunately, Teresa wasnt super thrilled with this idea of her racing but  once she got the confirmation in her email inbox there was no time for sulking, she threw together a training plan and kept to it for the last 6 weeks. She hit North Table mountain routinely crushing it up Mesa top trail, which is by far one of the most grueling climbs on the front range. Come race day she would be ready to slay-it!
WB was still certain that come race day tom wouldnt show up since he had had a history of coming up with excuses as to why he couldnt do a duo with her. We lured him down to NM with green chile chicken enchiladas and a nice big king size bed to sleep in at WB's parents house. Ok so maybe Tom does need a shower.

Day before the race:
We make the drive down to ABQ and head to the race site for packet pick up. We stop briefly at the beer tent for a root beer and Pale Ale and then head back down into town for some green chile chicken enchiladas.

Race Day:

Up early to get to the venue and set up our canopy and lounge chairs. Race starts at 9am. Tom and I line up at the start and it is not a crowded start. There are may 60-70 people at the start. Theres probably 150-ish people in the whole race so definitely a small field but for a first time race thats to be expected. 

The course is a 13 miler with ~1400' of gain but it was likely a little less based on my garmin which actually tends to overestimate so it was likely even less than that. 

We are off and hit the singletrack immediately as this trail is about 100% singletrack. We come up to our first technical section which is a big rock garden. THere are about 20 of these throughout the course. We push on in typical first lap fashion which is real slow and in line. I always have to caution people who go out on the first lap because the first lap is rarely true racing. Its just too crowded especially on tight singletrack and can be dangerous if you try to pass in a bad spot. I would suggest to anyone that if you want to race lap 1, you better get in the front row or get out onto the singletrack before everyone else. You always have to realize that no one wins or loses on the first lap, its slow for just about everyone. you have to ride smart, pass when you can but dont take too many stupid risks and risk a flat or hitting a tree because you are trying to pass so many people in a bad spot. I like to sit back, put on some tunes on the boom bottle and have fun. It is mountain biking after all. 

Make our way through the loop and get to some super flowy sections where you can really open her up and get on the gas. Then youll hit some more techy stuff and then some nice flowly stuff again. Like most other places on the planet except Colorado and specifically the front range, climbs in NM are not long and sustained but short and punchy. They are maybe a quarter mile for the steep ones and maybe 1-2 miles for the more gradual low grade climbs. Unfortunately for us Front rangers, we make up all of our time on the climbs and lose time on the descents so these courses certainly level out the playing field. 

I make sure i stop at the albuquerque bikeworks donut station on every lap and grab a half donut. This was super awesome as it allowed me to really not eat much on these laps other than my donut. They were located at about mile 7 so it was a perfect spot to grab some calories each lap. I stopped one time in the middle of the day when i was starting to bonk a bit. Water was just not as refreshing as it should have been. The climbs were getting to me as was the 75-80 degree sun. I limped into the donut stop and Vincent hooked me up with a corona. It was deeeelicious and just what i needed. After a donut and the corona i was back out and ready to hit my 3rd lap in a row. Teresa and I traded off in a 2 or 3 lap to 1 ratio for the race. WB and Tom were doing 2:2's and were really killing it.
I had predicted those two would be very competitive and sure enough they were holding steady in 2nd place the entire race. the 1st place team was just ahead of them by 1 lap the entire day and 3rd place was one lap down so they just had to ride safe and smart and finish with no major crashes or mechanicals.
Teresa and I were holding strong in 4-5th place in the Male 4 person teams (dont ask!....) Dusk quickly came up and were headed into our last laps. Lights on as it was now dark and this tight course was sure to be a party under darkness. Luckily our Magicshine lights throw some crazy lumens and light everything up. A bit off our pace but we finished strong and both of our teams held our positions.
A super strong day overall for all 4 of us. Teresa certainly wins the award for overcoming her fears of racing, especially on this super technical trail. She was by far the most courageous person out there and absolutely killed that course. wait until she sees what i signed her up for next....
It was another fantastic day with friendly riders and the best organized event you could ask for. The Oak flat camp ground was a fantastic venue with great trails that you just cant beat. We hope to be back next year and also that it draws some larger crowds to keep this race going for many years.
Team It Never Rains in NM: 2nd place coed duo
Team WB stole a dog once: 4th place Coed Duo (although results are unofficial since we somehow were put in the 4 person male category.)
For the gear junkies..
bike setup: scott scale pro 29er. maxxis ardent race tires, 1x10 (36x11x34 up front). magicshine 808 light (1000lumens).
nutrition: about 6 donuts, 6 Bosque beers and 1 corona. Twizzlers and a turkey sandwich. 1 large americano after laps 1 and 2.
Miles: 73mi
elevation: 7200'

Team DGBG does Durango to Moab via San Juan Huts

7 days, 6 nights, Durango to Moab via the San Juan Huts Systems. 215 miles. Easy. www.sanjuanhuts.com

Prelude: WB had done the Telluride to Moab trip last summer with Barb Blok (who will become famous throughout our week of travels this year) and the Wilderness Society of something and loved it. When she returned she spoke of beautiful vistas, cool summer nights in the wilderness, snickers bars for lunch and sweet flowy forest service roads. A MUST DO trip for sure. So, we pinned Durango to Moab as our next adventure. During the fall when the San Juan Huts offer their half price deal we jumped on it. Booked a week and figured we could easily scam 6 other friends into joining us for a week on the bike the upcoming August. We had all ski season to make this sound exciting to whoever we could find. We began first by mentioning the idea to the Krazy Krzyzaniak's, barely got the words out of my mouth and they were IN. Brought an 18 pack of Old Chub and a growler of Stem ciders to Jen and Jordans house one night and they were IN. Actually, Jen was in but jordan was passed out on the couch drooling on himself so we just reminded him he was in the next day. Mentioned it to J-woww, who didnt even own a MTB, and she immediately scoured the classifieds and ripped off some college kid who needed beer money and got herself a sweet lefty. Turns out black mamba can get you a cannondale on the corner of colfax and speer. The last addition was Mike, our Durango connection and local who would be able to easily navigate us around the southwest parts keeping us safe from bears and the most difficult of terrain. also got him real drunk on his own home brew and reminded him he also agreed to the trip the following day. His gracious wife Sarah agreed to the whole thing too so we think she may have also had one too many bottles of wine that night. We asked Sarah and Mikes children if it was ok and they immediately got their own gear together...next year girls....

Kaia, future singletrack slay-er

So the trip is planned. We continue to spend the next 6 months developing the necessary taint callus on the indoor trainers doing FTP tests and choosing the best chamois cream. Our plans were almost derailed when Sara K tore her ACL hucking a cliff in Utah in March. First thing we did was fire her normal trainer (Derrick Roses guy), and hired Willis McGahees. We paid her ortho guy a little extra and sent Jen, a PT, out routinely to make sure she is recovering adequately. Sara and Brian K also get some slick new wheels and are out slaying singletrack in Peoria in -30 degree winter, which finally ended in July.

Packing: What do you pack for a 7 days trip? Consult Barb of course. One set of extra clothes, extra chamois, warm clothes for the cold nights at 11K feet, tools, tubes, extra tire, rain jacket, sneakers, garmin, sleeping bag liner, good 30L pack, and medical kit (a very large med kit as it turned out) 

Regarding the pack, this is was one of the most critical pieces of gear you'll need to have. You need something big enough to carry 2L of water and all this extra gear, be comfortable enough to wear for 7 hours a day on the bike over rugged terrain. After checking out several types and sizes we figured a 30-35L pack would be a good size. I used my Ergon BX4 30L pack. Whitney got an Osprey Stratos 36L w/Airstream. By day 1 I was not impressed with my selection. Developed some hot spots on the shoulders and lower t-spine region. Clearly my pack was an enduro pack and not built for multi day trips. WB loved her pack, the airstream system allows for great ventilation and keeps the weight off of your back. I would highly recommend this one. I would also not recommend Sara K's Gregory pack, whichever model it was, as you'll later see we had to do major surgery on that one to avoid her from developing grade 4 pressure ulcers. 

Bike setup: full suspension. definitely. no panniers, no saddle bags, etc. Cant slay singletrack with that crap. 

Large volume tires (Conti X-king 2.4, 6+ scoops of Stan's for tubeless setup, normally just 2-3). 2 tubes per person + patch kit for every few people. Extra derailleur for the group, extra set of brake pads for group, lots of zip ties. Extra duct tape around the handlebars for everything. Carrying 3 extra powerlinks for group, mini tire pump, shock pump for the group, One 29er tire, One 27.5 tire strapped to frame, one water bottle for "reserve", Garmin edge 500 for mileage. And most importantly, spoke tool. Unfortunately the two most catastrophic failures that could possibly happen would include a destroyed hub and taco'd wheel, neither of which a tool we could carry could fix. 

Day 0: Arrive in Durango fueled up after stopping at the Pagosa Baking Co. Plan to all crash at mike and sarahs place so we can figure out packing, give each bike the once over and double check all bolts. Beer is flowing and we may have completely torn down a couple of bikes and rebuilt them after Kaia had overserved us. Head out for a group ride to test the set ups and make sure no ones wheels are going to fall off...did i mention we were overserved?

 Day 1: Molas Pass to Bolam Pass Hut 20 miles 3800' elevation gain. All singletrack

We start out a bit slow on Day 1 after being overserved by the Kaia the night before. We get a lift to Molas pass by Sarah and find out the land cruiser has a pretty good leak in one of the tires. We are not starting out on the right foot here but the bikes are holding up. We decided to not take the standard route from Purgatory resort to Bolam because it would be all jeep roads and less spectacular views, plus we had fresh legs.
After some intense discussion on dollops of chamois cream we set out on the 100% singletrack option which would be the Colorado Trail for the entirety of day 1. We climb up up and up and just as we start our initial decent Jordan's rear wheel appears wobbly. We pull off and i get out the trusty spoke tool and begin trail side surgery. The wheel is pretty jacked though. Some BIG wobbles in it. We go back and forth about what caused it since it was true at he start. Possibly the addition of 40lb pack?. We get it semi-trued and we are rolling. Not exactly how we wanted to start considering we have 210 miles to Moab and are heading away from civilization with no cell phone service, no gas stations, no nothing. Weather starts to move in and we are getting hit with some showers and see some lightening in the distance. We appear to avoid any direct hits and are able to summit with only a handful of crashes and can begin heading down into the valley. We peak out at about 12,600' and can certainly notice the air is a bit thin. The packs on our backs are certainly feeling their presence as well. After 7 hours we finally roll into the hut at around 5:30pm. We immediately crack into the cold beers in the cooler and whip up some appetizers (refried beans, green chile sauce, and hormel chili with tortilla chips). Jordan assesses the rest of the canned goods and is able to throw together a delicious chicken curry with rice dish for dinner. Who would have thought canned chicken could taste so good.
Overall, day 1 was a bit harsh. We underestimated how technical the singletrack would be especially with 40 lb packs on. We had some minor mechanicals which also set us back some time. The couple of crashes didnt help either. Sara K dropped a 6 footer and crash landed with her bike tumbling down on top of her at one point. We limped into our sleeping bag liners that night glad everyone made it safe, and a bit wet. The huts dont have electricity so once the sun sets its time to start planning for bed. In Bed by 10pm, assessing tomorrows maps and looking for that standard jeep road option...

Molas pass

mike jordan whitney

wb and her squirrel about to pass jordan

lots of singletrack

12000 feet up

the crime scene, where sara plunged 6 feet

big water crossing

oops, wet

Day 2: Bolam to Black Mesa Hut 30miles 3000' elevation gain 

After a great nights sleep at 11,600’ and a bottle of ibuprofen we all wake up rested. Breakfast is leftover chile dip on breakfast burritos and lots of bacon. Given yesterdays tough singletrack day we decide to hit the standard route today which would drop us down a couple of thousand feet over about 25 miles through meadows of wildflowers and old mining sites. One last climb of the day would get us home to the Black Mesa Hut at almost 11,000’. Barb warned us that day 2 is tough, be ready for it. We set out fresh but at 0.2 miles we discover Mike has a real wobbly rear wheel. Again, we address it with the spoke tool but the wheel is almost too damaged that only a good pounding will fix. We decide to limp through the rocky descents and see if we can find any bikers or campers who may be willing to sell us their wheel. We explore a few campsites we find along the way but no luck. We cross a highway that would lead us to Telluride about 30 miles away and decide if hitching a ride would be worth the effort. We do have about 190 miles left to Moab and this is certainly as close to civilization or a bike shop as we will get. We decide to push on and see if once we get to the hut we can do some more surgery. We eventually dump into a small remote destination hot springs resort called Dunton Hot Springs. We decide that we should explore it and see if there may be a worker or something that has a bike in the back of their truck that we could negotiate with. We wander aimlessly and find no one except the housekeeping staff that tell us they have a land line we could use. They also tell us the day before a couple of other bikers just a day in front of us also stopped in and required a ride in to the nearest town to get someone to fix them up with a new hub (They were the Bro'z from BOZ, MT that we would go on to read about in the daily diary at each hut.) I cant wait to hear how that ended up I think to myself.  We call up Mikes wife and give her the “hey honey, we are safe…..but we have some mechanical issues. Can you help!?” This was clearly great news to Sarah but also bad news because now we were about to cause her a lot of extra stress. Not only would she now be on the hunt for a new wheel but also someone to deliver it to us. The only problem is where the heck would we be? We continue to wander around the hot springs which have a fantastic bar and restaurant area and I debate pulling up a seat and having a few bourbons. Instead I eat the entire bowl of sweet and sour gummies they have in a bowl on the bar. We walk through the doors of the barn and all of a sudden we see a truck with three 29’er bikes in the back, score! We hunt down the owner of that truck. We find the guy and hes a guide with a telluride bike shop but he has another tour later today. We strike out again. So, we set back out and up to catch the rest of the group who are starting the last 5 mile slog up the mountain to where our hut should be. After a snickers bar and a break I start to think that we should have just asked the bike guide to swap wheels with us since Mikes wheel is technically rideable. Plus, after looking at his clients they sure were not going to be slaying anything more than the gravel road they drove in on. Mike and I eventually catch the group but we are suffering. We lost about an hour searching through the hot springs so we crush a salted nut roll and power on. I catch Jordan easily, but WB is just out of reach and she is clearly on a mission to get to the hut. There is after all ice cold beer and dried mangos awaiting us there. We finally get to the hut that is tucked back in the woods that we actually had a hard time finding it. Appetizers are prepared (refried beans/green chile’s and cheese dip) and we take in some incredible views. We perform surgery on mikes rear wheel and actually get it really straight. It only took a few cranks on it with some leverage between two 2x4’s. A few minor turns with the spoke tool and we are back in business. Chicken and green chile Mac and Cheese for dinner fixed us right up for an intense game of Drunken Stumpy.

Drunken Stumpy© is a great game of toss the rock at the beer can sitting on a stump. It can be played anywhere you have a stump, beer, and rocks, and we had plenty of all of those.Mike somehow found a way to cheat by placing magnets in the rocks that we were tossing at beer cans so he swept us. 

start of day two 

jordan getting some rays with his tanner on

more tanning

"you see this, thats a spoke k2...yeah ill take another beer"

incredible views

Drunken Stumpy

dinner

Day 3: BMH to Dry Creek Basin: 35miles 2,061’ Up, 5400’ down

Today would be the easiest of the trip thus far. Lots of rolling terrain, a stop at a reservoir for a “shower” and one last grueling climb at the end of the day but all on forest service roads.

We wake up and get the coffee percolating and the green chile and egg Hash cooking. We fix Jen's brakes up again and put some air in Sara's tire that was almost flat. Thank goodness for stans. We yell at Jordan for not buying Jen a new bike, again. 
We head down the road and a few miles in we get to a short climb and stop to do some surgery on Sara’s pack. Her Gregory pack has certainly gotten her through many of adventures but this was sure to be its last. It has some wonky frame design with Titanium bars that have been producing a grade 16 pressure ulcer on her back requiring local wound care each night. Brian, Mike and Jordan carefully dissect it out with the appropriate backcountry surgical instruments,  a tire lever, spoke tool, Leatherman, and some duct tape of course and we are back in business. Mike and I supervise like any good government job supervisors and drink all the beer we carried by 10am watching them work. 

We are rolling and all are looking forward to stopping over at the Miramonte reservoir for a dip. After our lunch of PB&J’s, goldfish, snickers bars and a few beers we set out to finish our climb and day at Dry Creek Basin. I am hoping that our clean up provides some necessary relief to my spreading and never resolving poison ivy I got a few weeks earlier.

We get in to the hut early today and its REALLY warm in the basin. We have descended over 5000’ in the last 2 days so the weather and landscape is significantly different. We can put away our down jackets and bust out the flip flops. We sit on the deck and enjoy the views. The coors banquets are going down like water, or maybe its just because we drank those after a few Dales.

Not a lot of stumps around today so Drunken Stumpy is tabled. We get some nice fresh produce today in the hut so after our usual appetizer of refried beans/green chile and cheese dip, Jordan puts together a nice asian fusion ramen soup with fresh cabbage and carrots. We have a nice bright moon this evening so we go to bed reassured we will see the bear as it tries to eat us when we all wake up at the same time to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

What we didn’t expect was another uninvited guest in our hut…a PIKA!...or mouse. Mike, Brian, and Jordan fought tirelessly throughout the night to capture the little bugger as it was trying to eat our food and drink our beer. Attempts to remove the enemy were unsuccessful so we were left to be taunted the remainder of the night and we would retreat from the hut after a long fought battle. We were successful in sparing the food and beer though so all was not lost in the effort. 

finally a shower...or i mean a swim

dinner

"oh hes a cute little guy!"

dry creek basin

Day 4 DCB to Wedding Bell Hut 34 miles, 2500' up, 3300' down

we can practically see Moab from here! Except for those 11K foot mountains in our way

Day 4 was setting up to be the hottest so far so we wanted to get an early of a start as possible. We were up early even after our long cage match with the Pika with some coffee and oatmeal. Lots of salted nut rolls, snickers bars and dried mangos in hand and we were rolling. Lots of sandy jeep roads today and through some oil fields. Took a good portion of the singletrack options this day and were rewarded by some more great views and nice rolling terrain. The salted nut rolls save our buts again as they supply some crucial nutrition throughout the day. A few hundred stops to fix Jens brakes which have been worn down to nothing and we are making good progress. (jordan, if you havent bought jen a bike by the time i publish this post we are selling one of yours) We end up getting to Wedding Bells early and upon our arrival we are stunned at the way the hut is just perched on the side of the Cliff.

We settle in and get through our usual routine. Appetizers, beers, wait for dinner. A nice little storm rolls over the top of us and we get some great cool rain. Huevos rancheros for dinner and then to bed early to head to Paradox valley the next day.

Although the night before we listened to the pika try and eat his way out of the hut, this night would be slightly more unnerving. The storm rolling through had some very nice winds and being perched on the side of this mountain led to some scary hours while the winds blew and shuttered the hut. We all laid in bed awaiting the calmness that morning would bring and percolated coffee. Attempts to dream of the salted nut rolls were unsuccessful this night. 

singletrack. kind of

slay-er

mr slay-er

slay-er of all slay-ers

like a boss

she didnt want to get too close bacause i havent washed that jersey in a few days

same for Jordan

Day 5 Wedding Bell to Paradox Valley Hut 32 miles, 3100' climbing, 4100' descending

By the time the sun came up the winds had finally died down and we had all just about had fallen asleep finally to only wake up to the smell of percolating coffee made by our baristas the Krzyzaniaks. We set out early again today because it was sure to be another scorcher. 

To this point in our travels we had yet to hit any major weather. Day 1 we dodged storms and rain for most of the day but never had any direct hits, Just showers. Today we actually had cloud cover which normally would have been the hottest day. We had been extremely fortunate especially after reading some of the horror stories in the hut diaries about groups slogging through 15 miles of mud while carrying bikes, getting caught in monsoon type storms, etc. No one wanted to say anything about it because we had been so fortunate but the skies looked like things might be changing for us. As we moved along some clouds formed behind us and chased us up and to our highest point of the day where we immediately donned our pack rain covers and rain jackets. the Rain began to fall but it was only a steady shower, nothing really bad. We made it out on to the lower mesa where we pedaled through some really fun clay creek beds that once we hit them i was in full on laughter at how lucky we were to hit them then instead of in about 60 minutes from now. we had hit it perfectly, Hero dirt for sure. If we were any later and the soil got wetter we would have been stuck carrying our bikes due to mud like the horror stories we had read. We then proceeded to make to Catch em up trail, another "horror story" we read about in the diary.

Catch em up was a $%&@ show. Whoever first road/hiked that trail and decided that was a fun trail and should be ridden again and again should be shot. You are completely insane whoever you are. This sucker was not a trail, it was a cliff band that mountain goats could barely scale. Over 1 mile you descend 1000' over the rockiest terrain ive ever walked my bike down. We all survived luckily and once in the Paradox valley we made the last leg of the day into our Hut. 

The Paradox valley stop is one of the more famous ones as the managers at the Paradox inn and Suites offers services to the hutters at their home. We biked the couple miles into town in hopes of finding the showers and an ice cream that the diaries had spoke up. Sure enough we found Greg, who we named the Mayor of Paradox, and his backyard oasis. We cleaned up and got some ice cream cones as promised. The rain had stopped by now so the rest of the evening was gorgeous. Certainly the Paradox stop at Marty and Greg's is a must do. We headed back to the hut after that cooked up some dinner using some of Greg's finest produce he delivers to the huts. It was Chicken and green beans with pasta and a fine tomato and dales pale ale reduction. Dessert was the usual cereal using evaporated milk and dried mango slices. 

endo

i think thats rain moving out direction

wet little technical climb

catch em up

catch em up

paradox valley

Day 6 Paradox to Geyser Pass Hut 22miles 5300' climbing, 1000' descending

gotta love this elevation profile

Reading the hut diary you start to see mentions of the day 6 climb around day 2. Barb had also mentioned that day 6 is tough, some brutal climbs. And that it most certainly was. We got a relatively decent nights sleep in Paradox however the constant rain throughout the night was a bit worrisome. Clay was EVERYWHERE. If we were going to have to battle mud on our biggest climbing day yet this could be disastrous. We got through the usual routine in the morning with breakfast burritos but there was no real sense of urgency to get out as it was still raining. We shuffled our feet and as long as we could and eventually we were all just about ready. It was about 8am and we had gave ourselves 1 hour before we would leave to let this storm move out hopefully. At about 8:20 the skies cleared and by 845 we are rolling, DRY!.

We quickly get to our first climb of the day, the famous Carpenter ridge climb. Its a 3-4 mile jeep road but it ascends 1700'. This was brutal. I took turns with Mike and WB up front but eventually i needed to just be done with the climb so i pulled away and got to the top. Everything hurt. The 40 lb pack made this climb extremely difficult. It brought back memories of the columbine climb at leadville near the top where its loose and rocky. Luckily we had packed beers for a celebratory drink at the top. 

After a quick break to let EVERYTHING recover, we headed west and immediately got into some really sloppy mud sections of the trail. Our progress came to a screeching halt here as we were continuously stopping to clear mud out of our frames and wheels. Jordan was the first to crack, mentally, so he strapped his bike to his pack and walked about 3 miles. This was the first bad section of the entire trip so far so as miserable as it seemed at the time, i kept telling myself that we were luckier than most. Eventually we made it out of the real sticky stuff and were able to get rolling again. A few salted nut rolls later and moral was high again.

We made it to Buckeye reservoir where we had thought about cleaning ourselves off again but we were almost stampeded by a million cows so we figured we should jet before they call in any more of their friends.

We continue climbing up the La Sal Mountains that we've been able to see get closer for 2 days now. We find the spring that we've read about which saves our buts for the continuing long climb to the hut. Giardia hasnt set in yet. We keep climbing, and climbing. This hut was a tough one to get to, more climbing. It was still relatively early in the day but we REALLY needed to get to this hut. The team was a hurting unit as we rolled in. Ice cold beer and gold fish would help. We had some incredible views at this hut as we were sitting about 2000' just below the peaks of the La Sals at this point. The Old Chub and Dales were going down like water and cheesy chicken and green chile rice with fresh fruit salad was just what we needed to recover. After setting some coyote traps we headed to bed for our last night sleeping in the huts, until next year. 

k2 and Mike, the pro-rider with his spandex shorts made him ultra fast today. At the top of Carpenter ridge

jordan, walking

buckeye res

views from the hut

i see you mr coyote

failed game of hearts and a$$hole

Day 7 Geyser to MOAB via the Whole Enchilada 35 miles, 2100' up, 7400' down

We were up early again since we knew we had a pretty big day ahead of us despite it being mostly downhill. We still had to get up and over Burro Pass which would take us on some tough and technical singletrack to get there. We cruised on up and by the time we got to the top we were cooked. It was only 4 miles but again we climbed about 1300' at 11000 feet. Time for a salted nut roll.

After a few deep breathes and some pics we start our big decent into Moab. The first section of the WE is suuuuuper techy and steep. Its takes us about an hour to go 2 miles. Lots of rocks, tight corners, roots, creek water crossings, etc. We lost mike in a water crossing again and i dumped my whole bento bag going over a tree that had fallen in the trail. Luckily Sara and Brian scooped up the goods since i kept on riding and didnt notice. We finally make it to Hazard county which is also super tight and technical. It was a miracle no one blew out a tire here as there are hazards everywhere. lots of sharp rocks, roots, and ruts. We make it through there and hit the Kokopeli for a breather. Super fast section here and we then hit UPS. This was also another super techy trail but mostly slickrock. Some fantastic views atop porcupine rim. We decided to forgo to the whole porcupine trail as it would have added a few hours to our ride and our shuttle was to be waiting for us in Moab. We motored down sand flats rd to our destination, Eddie McStiffs restaurant and bar. BEER PLEASE!

A quick wash up and we were on the road with Auggie, our driver who works for Jim and his shuttle service, Dual Sport Utah. Highly recommend these guys. Barb uses them....

Auggie took good care of us on our way back to durango. Being a long time Moab resident he was able to provide many stories and background on the various rock outcroppings and mountain range details. Turns out, every range around the moab region is an igneous intrusion. Definition: a pimple of rock caused by molten rock or magma pushing it up into a dome or mountain formation sometime between now and the big bang. Auggie, you should have been a geologist not a fireman.

morning before we set off from Geyser hut

tough climb up burro trail to whole enchilada

the TOP!

moab is down there somewhere

ups trail, some sketchy but fun little kickers and slickrock decents

UPS trail, top of porcupine

done!

Some final thoughts:

1. definitely doing telluride to moab next year hopefully. Am a bit scared though because it seems we used up all of our luck with fantastic weather and no mechanicals that were catastrophic

2. salted nut rolls are the bomb, as are dried mango slices

3. chamois cream was a life saver, dont skimp on the dollop

4. make sure you preride with the pack youre going to use to ensure it will hold up and where you may get some hot spots to toubleshoot those before youre 100 miles away from anything.

5. If you cant stand the thought of wearing the same dirty clothes for 2 or 3 days and a shower includes using baby wipes then dont ever do this trip. 

6. San Juan huts does a fantastic job at stocking these huts with food and water. I think i gained a pound or two on the trip. 

7. Make sure youre bike is good and tuned before you start. Again, a wheel or hub issue will be catastrophic. anything else you can probably macgyver something to work.

8. Only 1 bear sighting, some coyotes, LOTS of free range cows. 

9. The USGS maps they give you along with route descriptions are super easy to follow. 

10. sleeping bag liners are the greatest invention ever

11. Who is in for telluride to moab???

Day 8: Durango Beer Festival