Today would be the end of the “easy” days. There wasn’t a lot of elevation today in the grand scheme of things. We would end up riding just under 33 miles and gain about 2,350′ for the day. The difficulty would be that we were finally dropping down to under 5,000′ in elevation after spending the majority of this trip to date above 8,000′. This meant it was going to be hotter, quite a bit hotter! Gone would be the 80’s during the day and 40-50s at night.

The soft sand we ended day 4 with meant we started with it on day 5. The roads were not horrible, but they definitely did not flow as easy as the harder packed roads we had been on until recently.

I was hoping to give the singletrack option a whirl today. It only took about a quarter of a mile for me to get super annoyed with my seatbag rubbing on the tire every time I hit a drop or less than smooth section of trail. I ended up turning around and opted for the main gravel road route, which in the long run was just as nasty as we dropped down into a gully before climbing out. Because of the quite rough road conditions I ended up rubbing a hole in my seatbag and even rubbing a hole in one of my shirts that was in my seatbag. That sucked!

There is a bit of humor in riding with a bunch of guys who range from the “young” age of 44 to the good Ol’ age of 57. For any male approaching 50 it means……Peeing, a lot! I can’t count the number of times at least one of us stopped to pee. It was no different as we all stopped at the start of Ute Creek trail.

The Lost Boys had left a bit before the rest of us. Carl, Matt, John and Colby all headed down the Ute Creek option. I had a few miles of riding by myself, including the aforementioned rugged downhill. I caught up with Dean and Johhny B towards the bottom and before the final climb of the day.

It was total luck that I was finishing up the final climb just as the Ute Creek group popped out of the woods about 100′ in front of me. We couldn’t have planned that better if we had tried. From the top of the final climb into the city of Gateway it was an insanely fast and twisty dirt road descent. Matt and I ripped down this thing at somewhat of an inappropriate speed. It sure was fun though!

Needless to say, it was quite toasty down in the valley. I saw over 100F on my bike computer and there was almost zero shade anywhere. Taking our time to cool off in West Creek was one of the highlights of today.

The ride sheet for today indicated a convenience store about a mile before our hut for the day. There was specific mention of ice cream being available! I think Colby and I spent almost 45 minutes sitting inside drinking cold beverages and eating ice cream. I even started to shiver at one point being damp from sitting in the creek. I was not going to complain though.

Today’s hut was another one on private property. It was some sort of farm with a whole variety of animals just across the way from our accommodation for the night.

Dean and Johnny B had booked a room at the Gateway Canyons Resort just across the river from our hut. They had both had enough for the week and would be getting picked up by a shuttle back to Moab the next morning. It was a smart decision on their part but a shame that we were losing two of our group. They did have air conditioning, soft beds and most importantly a hot shower. Yes, I was jealous. The rest of us did bike over to the restaurant that night though. Nobody wanted to cook in this heat.

Dean and Johhny B were kind enough to take a lot of bags and clothes from the rest of us. I kept just enough for the next two days of riding and hut clothes. I got rid of my seatbag (YAY!) and crammed stuff in my backpack or frame bag.

This night in the hut was crazy warm! Colby ended up sleeping out on the hut deck and being visited by the donkey and horses at one point. I know I slept like garbage this night. Just too damn warm to get comfortable. Even with a fairly constant breeze all night. Day 6 was the second toughest of the week. It sure would have been nice to get a decent night of sleep before the huge climb we had coming up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,
-Pete

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4