Moab Day III
There were only five who wanted to do more riding so DownHill came up with a plan to ride this shorter trail that was a bit more difficult. That should have been my cue to bail on the ride, but I’m a glutton for punishment, and I figured since I had yet to fall on this trip, I should go. Kane Creek, is the name of the trail, only 13.5 miles long, but much to DownHill’s credit he thought we should do the trail backward so the harder stuff was early in the ride. It took us some fair amount of slabbing it to get to the trail head. Then about 2 minutes into the trail, I came around the corner to find DownHill checking out routes down a drop off. I should have gone home…..
I actually made it down the 3 foot drop without any issues and I was feeling pretty good, that only lasted about 4 minutes until BL got his bike stuck on the skid plate and took about 5 minutes to get it off. He then got off and came back to help me down the rock ledge. I did manage to get down it just fine, I know that it wasn’t pretty and he really wanted to grab the bike, but I asked him and then had to order him to stop trying to holding onto my bike. I’m okay with struggling, it’s my process and when I reach the point where I need help I ask for it. As they soon discovered. This trail winds around on it’s self and crosses Kane Creek I don’t know how many times, but I really like the water crossings. It was about 3 minutes after that we came to another drop down, I made it down just fine, but then I bounced the front end off a large rock and fell over. I just happened to fall such that I couldn’t get out from under the bike. So BL had to pick it up off me, I really hate it when that happens.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033931783&k=knhSjH2&lb=1&s=A
After that section we hit some more reasonable parts, I was able to get in front of BL and I was able to keep it flowing and was just fine until we got to this steep rocky section. I made it down the first two steps. On the second one I stoppied the bike on the ledge, I really thought I was going to flip the bike, but the back came down and I stopped nicely. Mikrow was front me to the right and he saw the whole thing. I could see the panic in his face as I waited for the back of the bike to go one way or the other. LOL. After the cheering and high fives for not killin myself from him, I decided to walk the bike down and up the rest of it. I know it doesn’t really look like it from the picture above, but it was steep. I walked the bike through the creek and started it up the other side only to discover that I was too dang short to pull that off. DownHill had a good laugh at the position I was stuck in and then he took the bike the rest of the way up the hill. I’m really glad the boys don’t feel the need to pictures of me on the ground or stuck in the odd position I get myself into.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033932091&k=3x43sf3&lb=1&s=A
We rode along for a short while until we go to another uphill rocky section where I managed to bounce the bike off a rock and do a great face plant. (It was at this point I knew I no longer needed to worry about my neck surgery. If I was still functional after that, I was going to be just fine. Cause damn I hit hard that time. I actually bent and twisted the hand guard on the bike.) Downhill told me that night it was the scariest thing he’d seen in some time. I fell just shy of the edge of the trail, and about 50-80 feet below me was a mangled vehicle that had gone off in the same spot. He had thought I was going over the edge. I got the bike up and was back on it before anyone else could get stopped.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033932737&k=CjS7K95&lb=1&s=A
I caught back up to DH and we road one until the next really nasty part. I made it about half way down til I managed to get myself in the wrong spot. That is DH next to me pointing that I should go that direction… my response was “your f*kin kidding, right? That’s so not going to happen!” He took the bike and rode it down for me. I slipped and fell on my butt just walking down it, so I was okay with saying it was too much for me to do. The next pic is a guy who had way more skill then the rest of us, and he just blasted past us making it look so easy.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033932518&k=zfSxznf&lb=1&s=A
Now each time I got into trouble it was made worse by my stalling the bike. Which is exactly what I did in the pictures below, and it was stick sitting on the skid plate again. BL suggested just gassing it, but all that did was dig the back tire in. This time Mikrow being so dang tall, but rode it out once we got it off the skid plate, he was able walk it while straddling it. Being short sometimes is a pain.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033933005&k=TNTj4CT&lb=1&s=A
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033933460&k=wQwvFhN&lb=1&s=A
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033933951&k=3jDkCLg&lb=1&s=A
Now this trail had soooooo many drops and steps that I was starting to figure out how to pop the front end up and power over the ledge. This came in handy for the last bit obstacle we had, given that there was about 9 other bikers sitting on the other side watching us ride past. I was nervous about stalling it and falling in front of them. It didn’t help that I was behind DH and he went up over and just about fell on the landing, not his usual riding. As I got to the top I saw the big split in the rocks, I almost panicked, and instead I popped the front tire over it and gassed it hard. The bike hopped over the crack, and I landed it on the back wheel on the other side of the rocks. HOLY COW!!! It was the coolest feeling, and I heard the guys clapping! I think that was the high point of my whole trip. I caught up with DH at the end of the trail. We took off our gear and wait for the rest of the guys to show up. I was surprised they were so far behind us. When they caught up they fessed up to having issues with that last rock obstacle.
We made it back to town, had lunch at the Moab Brewery, and then headed back to camp.
http://ratman.smugmug.com/Other/Moab-2015/49036431_Jsjdwm#!i=4033935911&k=FkGd8C4&lb=1&s=A
Once back at camp, it was still early, no one else was around so DH, Mikrow and I decided to play on the Slick Rock trail. I think DH suggested it as a way to see just how much my riding had improved since the last time I rode with him. Slick Rock is pretty hard, it take a LOT of finesse with the clutch and gas. I had two issues one the deep sand before a steep rock climb. I buried the front tire just before the rock and fell over. The second time I fell was a really steep downhill sharp left turn up a steep rock face. I made the turn got a little way up the hill and stalled the bike. I fell to the right, the bike and I slide down the rock into a slight depression. I had the bike on top of me, it was still up a bit on the hill and I was on my back. By the time the two got off their bikes and got to me to get the bike off I was laughing so hard, they thought I was crying. Mikrow: “Are you okay?” Me:”Oh yeah” MR: “Were you crying?” Me: “Nope, I was laughing.” He stood there looking down at me like I was nuts… Me: “Dude, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. Come on, that’s pretty funny, right?” This time they both looked at me like I was crazy. Pft. I’ll admit I was a bit slap happy by that point, I was getting really tired and I was out of water. I finished up the loop without falling again, but I was going really slow. By the time we got back to camp, I was actually ready for bed and it was only 6pm. I still don’t care that I broke the brake lever and I had to take my hand guard to someone to bend it back to the right shape to get it back on the bike. It was some of the most fun I’ve had in almost two years.