Gotta Be Doing Something: Mountains - Bikes

Dan was so excited...can you tell

Tyler showing off his skills...

...all of them

I'm officially a mountain biker (maybe a really bad mountain biker, but a mountain biker just the same), not a marathoner. Yes, this last weekend was the SLC marathon which I had signed up to run. No, I didn't run. After my hamstring issue (that is what I'm calling it because I don't know what it is) I have not been able to run over 5 miles without pain. So after seeing the marathon banners lining the streets of downtown for a week I decided I would have to get out of town for race day. Good thing I have lots of awesome friends that are ready for an adventure with only a weeks notice. We loaded up our cars Friday after work and headed down to Moab for some awesome (and need I say famous) mountain biking.

I will openly admit I am new to mountain biking and really bad (I get freaked out easily). I have been 4 times total before this trip, 3 times on the Pipeline trail and 1 on the Bonneville Shoreline trail near my house (I only did about a mile because the it got dark). Both of these trails have little hill climbing and are nice beginner trails. Not like the stuff they made me do this weekend.

Dan the jumping man!

Excited because check out that view

Saturday we got up and hit the Amasa back trail. It was up hill for 8 miles over what I would have called boulders (but maybe I'm still new at this). I probably spent more time pushing my bike up over the rocks then I did pedaling. (I may have been cursing AJ's name in my head too.) Finally at the top we had a beautiful view of the river and we could even see Corona Arch in the distance. The ride down was better, but I still did some walking. And poor Sterling ended up waiting on the mountain for an hour (thinking I was behind him) while the rest of us rode down to the cars. It really was a sad story.

Mountian biking in heaven

Resting before heading down

After a delicious dinner at the Moab Brewery and getting the much needed nutrients we needed we headed into Arches NP for a evening hike to Sand Dune Arch. The hike was super short (500 yards or so) but we had fun playing around in the sand. We climbed up onto the arch where Tyler and I were totally freaked out when anyone got close to the edge. The fall was probably about 20-30 feet into soft sand so my imagination kept wandering to "what would it feel like to jump? You could totally survive that fall" which just freaked me out more, so we climbed down. Safe at the bottom we played a round of the laughing game. This is a game I learned in college. You get in a circle and lay your head down on someone's stomach, someone lays on your stomach and forth until everyone is laying or being laid on (keep it clean). Then you proceed to tell jokes or funny stories to start the laughter. Once the laughter has begun it doesn't end – because your heads bounce up and down with the shaking of the person you are laying on. I really enjoyed this game even though Sterling wasn't much of a belly laugher. (But AJ had fun because my belly was going crazy.)

Tyler and Dan just chilling after a good climb

I love where my feet take me

Sunday was a short day because I had to get home early. It was also a day for an easier ride not only so I could actually ride, but so we could pick a trail for next months ward Moab trip. We drove out of town to ride Klondike Bluffs. It was a 4 mile hill climb to a short hike into the back side of Arches NP. Luckily it was over smooth slickrock so even though I was super slow I was able to ride instead of walk. The view at the finish was amazing and the ride down was fast and fun. I even ran into a good friend on the trail. All in all a much better day of riding and a great way to end the weekend.