Run to the Border pt Dos

Saturday we awoke to a very much not picture perfect desert day. It was overcast, grey, and a bit chilly. We busted out the radios to get a fix on the weather. No rain in the forecast meant we were good to go.

12 of us departed from camp and road onward into the grey skies.

There was absolutely no wondering where the state line was, either.

Welcome to the Utah desert. Land of opportunity.

The views were good to the east. See that domed rock in the middle of the photo? That's camp.

Saw lots of this. Shortly after this photo was taken, 4 of the 12 opted to shorten the ride. That left them with a solid 6 hours by the time they made it back to camp.

The rest of us forged ahead. Lots of this, too.


And drop offs. Lots of drop offs. Matty uses those big wheels to his advantage.

And so does Sean. By the time we had 8 left, I think 6 of the 8 were on 29ers, too.

Here was the real money shot of the day. By this time, though, no one was really that talkative and no one wanted to stop. I stopped for the shot. This was also the windiest point of the ride. I wasn't too bummed about not stopping.

Actually, it wasn't that long after the money shot view that we had to stop. We needed nutrients.

even bikes need to rest sometimes.


Soldiering on again. Here, MW shows fine form. Rigid? Single? Hour 7.5 and I'm not tired. Must be the power of wool.

We were heading back to camp by this point. It seemed like that, for all of these little descents, there were equal parts steep that we had to hike up.

but the rim was worth waiting for. B u t t e r y smooooooth and fast. To bad none of us were feeling fresh enough to roll it as fast as it deserved.

That rim is a helluva cliff, too. It's a long ways down there.

Finally, as the sun was starting to set, we made it to the road back to camp. Only a couple more miles, boys!
So, Saturday ended up being a long day in the saddle. We got back to camp 9 hours after we started. That, my friends, is a good ride. The only bummer, though, is that no one had really started cursing at me yet. Well, there was one incident involving a remark about that "extra hour and a half," but no one was seriously injured. :)