Today was the final day of our San Juan Huts trip. The Telluride to Moab route was supposedly easier than the Durang to Moab route……if that is the case, I would say not by much! I know I am trying to compare to seven years ago. Seven years younger, maybe a bit fitter back then too.
Today was a 35-mile day with 2,700′ of elevation gain but over 6,300′ of descent! The main goal for the group today was get to Moab before it got too hot. Forecast was for 103F and none of us wanted to be riding in that for very long if we could avoid it.
Less than two and half miles into the ride was a quick stop for both views of the valley and to check out dinosaur prints in the rock. It’s crazy if you think about it. This rock, at 8200′ in elevation, used to be at sea level.
We had a ripping paved descent from the dinosaur footprints down into the valley. Just to turn around and climb back up 1600′ so we could start the Kokopelli Trail towards downtown Moab. Before that though we had Matt’s stepdaughter and her boyfriend meet us to take bags and offer us cold drinks before we headed off to the final singletrack of the trip.
Since I had already given my seatbag to Dean back in Gateway I didn’t need to hand anything off. I did enjoy a nice cold coke though. I suffered up that last paved climb. My legs were total junk today and I was hoping for some sort of miracle as we headed into the trail proper.
During our 2016 trip we hit the singletrack up at 10,000′ and at some point must have come in on this section of trail. I don’t remember that far back but I do remember certain sections of what we were about to ride.
The five of us rode together until the final bailout section. At that point I made the decision to drop down the “easy way” into Moab. I was fatigued and starting to ride sloppy. Had I not bailed I just would have slowed the others down. Prosser decided to join me, and we worked our way over to Sand Flats Rd. It was still thirteen miles to town this way, just gravel road instead of singletrack.
Prosser and I hit up the very first convenience store we passed. I grabbed a couple cold drinks and enjoyed several minutes of air conditioning before we stepped back out into 100+ temps. We casually made our way over to the same city park where Hazard County Shuttle had picked us up over a week ago. Dean and John drove over with Clifford the Big Red Van (I gave Dean my keys in Gateway) and the four of us laid in the grass until Matt, Colby and Carl joined us.
I was glad to be done. I had a really good time though I wish my legs had been better on this final day. No major mechanicals, only a few small crashes by various people. My seatbag issue will have to be resolved at a later date or I just need to learn to pack significantly less stuff. This group of guys was pretty much perfect together. Not any clashing personalities that I was aware of, and everyone pitched in to help cook, clean, drive, etc. So, thanks to John, John, Dean, Carl, Matt and Colby for saying yes when I brought this idea up last fall. I hope you all had fun (or at least didn’t hate it). I also want to thank all our significant others for letting us take off for over a week.
We all still had 1,000 more miles to drive just to get back home to Oregon. Carl and I in Clifford, Matt was headed back to Durango to fly home the next day and the others all jumped in Johnny B’s car for their ride.
Carl and I camped just north of Ogden, UT at Willard Bay State Park on Saturday night before making a huge push to Oregon all day Sunday. I enjoyed a nice HOT shower at the campground before easing into bed in Clifford. I was pretty wired and it took me a long time to fall asleep.
I was glad to get home. I did the absolute bear minimum to unpack the van. I showered, shaved for the first time in over a week and found myself in bed before 9pm just so I could get up and start working again on Monday morning. Adventure over, time to plan for the next one.
Thanks for reading,
-Pete
ON & OFF RHODES 