Moab: Slick Rock Bike Trail

    At 5:00am this morning Sarah woke me up saying some animal is sniffing around our tent.  Thinking she meant a coyote, I grabbed for my knife and reluctantly went outside to find nothing out there.  Later she tells me she just thought it was a ground squirrel.  We were told that if we wanted to do the Slick Rock bike trail we should start early or the heat would kill us.  So we loaded our bikes, got some breakfast in town and were at the park by 6:45am.  As a side note, remember to bring $5 cash to get into the park or you will have to scrounge up every penny you have in your change drawer, just like we did. (the rangers there probably hate us)  After a quick tune up we were off on the trail.  We had originally planned on doing the 2.2 mile practice loop but Sarah was feeling ambitious and we jumped onto the 10.4 mile Slick Rock Loop.  Just in case you have never heard of this trail:  The 10.4 mile loop is rated a 4 out of 1-4 with 4 being the hardest.  The trail runs almost all on slick rock.  Slick rock is a sandstone type of rock in which your tires stick to almost like glue and helps you get vertical on the bike.  It is an extremely difficult and fun ride and will get your heart rate pumping to its max.  If you’re a mt biker this is unlike any bike ride you will ever do. It takes a little while to trust that your tires will stick to the rock but once you do it makes for a pretty awesome rode.  Almost at the end of the ride my rear axel finally gave into the extreme pressure I was putting on it and broke.  I was able to bomb down the rest of the ride and finish strong.  I ended up taking my bike to an awesome local shop called Chili Peppers and the guys there fixed it right on the spot for a great price.  It seems like all the bike shops in Moab are filled with awesome guys who love biking and don’t care what level biker you are or how much money you have. (Unlike some citys...cough..LA.. cough)

 

Most of the rest of the day was spent enjoying some amazing lunch at a local coffee shop, relaxing and pumping liquids into our body’s to get ready for mt. biking day 2 tomorrow!

Scott riding some slick rock

Sarah bombing down a hill

Colorado River

Scotty made it to the bottom

One of the only flat parts of the ride

Colorado River viewing

Extreme climbing (this is why I broke my back hub)

We did it!

Escalante

    After a morning hiking in Bryce, we were headed to Escalante National Park. We had reserved our campsite at Escalante State Park Reservoir. Scotty wanted to go swimming but I did not allow it since they informed us they had some gross parasites in the water that gave you “swimmer’s itch”. No thanks! We then decided to hike to the Escalante “Natural Bridge”. We realized that average hikes are now going to seem boring after doing Angel’s Landing and The Narrows. We didn’t realize that the trial led you back and forth over a river where we had to keep taking our shoes off to wade across. That got old quick, so Scotty took one for the team and just gave me a piggy back ride across. Eventually we got to the bridge, which was pretty cool.

            That night I was stoked because we could actually have a campfire.  We bought way more firewood than we needed and had dinner, a bonfire, and s’mores. As we were going to bed we both realized that the fly was on backwards, so we actually could see directly up to the sky, which was kind of neat at the time…. until 2 am when we woke up to rain smacking us in the face. After we turned our sleeping bags around, we fell back asleep and had a soggy cleanup the next morning. It wasn’t the best case scenario, but all the people who we ran into that day were happy to have their first day of rain in 3 months. 

Zion: The Narrows

After renting our canyoneering gear the night before, we were all set for a day of hiking the Narrows. Zion Adventure Company has a great deal where you can rent a hiking stick, hardcore water shoes, and little sock booties for $21. When you put the shoes on, you feel as if you are an astronaut, but they are well worth it after a few hours of hiking in the water. Also, they are good about giving you some pointers and letting you know if it’s a good day to do the hike (and no flashflood warnings are present). We also made sure to use dry bags so that we could get our backpacks wet for the inevitable swims that we would encounter.

The Narrows isn’t like any hike we have done before… It is actually walking, wading and swimming through the Virgin River down an amazing 1,000 feet deep canyon that is only about 24 feet wide at some points. I have done this hike once before in October, but I was looking forward to seeing the differences in temperature, water level, and amount of people. It was even more beautiful than I had remembered. Zion was about 100 degrees that day, but in The Narrows it was much cooler which was nice to have a break from the sun. Along the way we were surrounded by hanging gardens, various colored sandstone rock walls, waterfalls, creepy narrow caves, and gorgeous green and blue water. Scotty’s favorite parts of the hike included: Lunchtime when he finally got to eat his PB & J sandwich and Gushers, exploring Orderville Canyon (a side slot canyon, where we had to climb a old log to get up and over a waterfall), and floating down the river on the way back. 

Zion: Angels Landing

    After an exhausting 2 days in Vegas we were relieved to set up in our quiet campground.  Here is a few things we have learned about Utah so far.  1. Campfires are not typically allowed this time of year, but that was ok with us as it stayed 100 degrees out till around 2am.  2. At 2am the temperature drops 40 degrees and the winds get ferocious.  3.  Apparently Utah is on mountain time and it doesn't get dark till 9pm.  4.  You will see some of the most beautiful views of your life here.

Today was our first full day in Zion so we decided to wake up early and tackle Angels Landing.  Sarah tried to do this hike before but wasn't able to finish the last half mile of the hike due to her inherited fear of heights.  The route to Angels Landing involves hiking up a series of steep switch backs which leads to narrow ridge where support chains are anchored intermittently for you to hang on to for dear life.  Round two was a success for Sarah as she stared at my boots and refused to look down or stop the whole way up.  The views at the top were well worth the 1500 ft of elevation gain it takes to get to the finish.


We finished the day with a swim in a nearby creek and  battle with the local squirrels. 

View of Angels Landing from the bottom

Switch Backs

Scotty climbing the chains to the summit

Sarah using her death grip on the chain

We made it to the top!!

Checking out the views