Riding Days 1 & 2

Monday 5th
Mark was very prompt at picking us up from our hotel right on 7am. The hotel just gets better and better with free wireless internet and free breakfast; a breakfast that is actually worthwhile that is.

Ride 1: Bearclaw Poppy - Full Trail Description
Mark drops us off at the top of this ride and it begins with a small uphill on a 4x4 track. After jumping a stile to prevent motorcycles the track begins proper with a nice downhill for a bit before our first challenge of the trip – the three fingers of death… This was kinda scary to begin with as we’re really not used to this kind of riding but by the end we’re having a blast. The braided runs of BMX style bumps ensure that all three of us have huge grins at the bottom where Mark is waiting for us. The icy cold Gatorade he has for us is also very welcome.

The ride temp is 26° and the heart seemed to be running a lot faster than normal. I’m blaming the altitude and heat but it will only get worse…

Ride 2: Church Rocks Loop – Full Trail Description
This is more of a challenging track with some climbing involved. With it being a loop Mark drops us off at the bottom and waits in the car for us. We really enjoyed the intro to riding the slickrock and also the views of the surrounding hills. By the end the temp is 34° and the Gatorade is even more welcome.

We stop for lunch and to drop Vicki’s bike down to the bike shop as it has problems with the rear brake sticking on. No amount of pushing the hydraulic pistons back in seem to alleviate the problem and I reckon that only bleeding them will solve the issue. This is exactly what the bike shop ends up doing.

Ride 3: Bearclaw Poppy again.
Mark has picked up a Canadian couple who will be joining us and we decide that Bearclaw Poppy was such a great warmup ride for us that we’ll do it again with Ken & Tracey. It’s really, really, warm this time around and the temp has reached 40°. The second time around the trail flows a lot easier with us and the end section Neil and I race on down to the car. It was serious fun… The Gatorade at the end is now essential!

We were supposed to go and do another ride but all decide that it’s really just too hot and we adjourn to the hotel pool (which is luke warm) to cool off a bit. Later on we check out Marks recommendation of Café Rio Mexican café. It turns out to be as good as he says. By 9:30 we’re all done for and make an early departure for bed.

Tuesday 6th
Mark picked us up this morning at 6:30 and we head over to our first ride of the day.

Ride 4: J.E.M Trail – Full Description
The top section of this really put a smile on our faces. It was real nice flowing single track but with a downwards bias it involved little effort for the reward. The second part is more up and down but brings us on to some amazing views of the Virgin River deep down in a canyon as we ride above it. Due to the time of day this is a lot cooler ride than our previous ones.

We then head over to Zion National Park where we drop Simon off as he going to do some walking up there and then head to the Gooseberry Mesa trailhead.

Ride 5: Gooseberry Mesa – Full Description
This is a completely different ride again with lots of technical slickrock to challenge us all the way. I’m amazed at what angles we can actually ride on this stuff. The views along the way are extreme and I’ve begun to run out of superlatives to describe it all. The photos will have to speak for themselves. Although this ride is at a lot higher elevation and therefore cooler both Neil and I are very surprised to find at the end that we are out of water. Over the two rides we’ve both drunk 3 litres from our Camelbaks, plus topped them up with another small bottle of water, plus two Gatorades each. I think this is possibly the most liquid I’ve ever drunk in a day and its only 1pm.

We head back down to pickup Simon and then its straight home to the hotel pool.

Tonight we’re looking at riding J.E.M again but at night with lights! Can’t wait.