KOKOPELLI RIDE A PLEASURE

The 145 mile trek from Fruita to Moab was a ball. The group was 5 small and provided the perfect mental let down I was looking for. Our group was made up of a trio of business buddies from New Hampshire, a TV commercial director from London, England and myself.

A bloke, 3 Yankees and a redneck PERFECT!! All great guys.
Check out the almost 200 photo long slide show from the trip at:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=8njcnx5.11h4iaw5&Uy=264l53&Ux=0

Then hit your back arrow twice to finish the blog.
We were spoiled rotten all week long by 2 experienced MTBing guides from Escape Adventures Tours. Mark was a real North Dakota born cowboy-gentleman kept busy maintaining the other 4 rent-a-bike Santa Cruz Blur phillies in the bike corral.

Anne was a twenty-something power house always positive and supportive regardless what the situation was and a darn good roadside chef.






The Dave's were quickly re-named as to not cause confusion on the the trail. I was referred to as Yeti Dave for obvious reasons, while my English counterpart had to earn his name of "Bloody Dave".

David Jones is an excellent downhill, wet, rooty, single U track rider but the un-clipped adventurer on foreign soil soon learned that the loose graveled downhill road off of the Kokopelli Trailhead before the Fruita Loops has a sharp left hand turn. Results. Broken sunglasses, numerous facial bacon spots and a burning desire to prove to the group that he is not easily deterred. Still, the name "Bloody Dave" remained throughout the week long pleasure ride.

I could spend hours trying to recreate the trip but I'll just hit on a couple of highlights.. The weather cooperated marvelously up until Friday morning. Wind not rain. That's the preferred sequence. The ride through Onion Creek Trail was maxi-awesome. The late afternoon heat was tempered by periods of cool canyon wall shaded coasting and the over 20 creek crossing splashes keep us evaporation-cooled while sucking dry chain lube off the bikes. Small price.

Everyone wanted to take time for a side trip to see dinosaur tracks in the area. Very cool.

The stinker of the trip was an uninvited abscessed tooth that drained my race kit of Vicodin and caused major concern when it ruptured on Friday morning. Thanks to reassurance by in-group Dr. Bob, I held on through the weekend and am alive to file this report. New root canal scheduled for October 26. Yeah!!

As, predicted, I WOULD crash. The promise was fulfilled less than a mile from the truck and epic 145 mile finish. On an extremely technical portion of the Porcupine Rim Trail, a triple 45 degree raised plate rock section offered the obstacle. I cleared 2 out of the 3 and as one observer noted "you executed the perfect tuck and roll on the rock slab below". Thanks. Took my mind off the toothache for a while.
The 23 pound carbon Yeti ASRc performed flawlessly all week and was a real joy on the hike-a-bike-sections. XTR tubeless rims and Maxxis Crossmark tires, Stan's Sealant and 38psi tire pressure resulted in zero downtime in the land of goat heads and pinch flats.

The finale of the trip was hanging out with COMotion teammates at the grandmother of them all, the 24 Hours of Moab endurance race the following Saturday. Given my physical condition after the ride, I did good to lube a few chains and re-gas the generator at 2;30 am.

Thanks to Cris Butler, Jen and Ryan & Autumn Schultz for the accommodations and transportation on both ends of the adventure.

Check out all the Escape Adventure opportunities at http://www.escapeadventures.com/