Sunday, January 29, 2006

Sovereign Trail in the Snow

We just got back from another trip to Moab. This weekend was the one weekend per year that it snowed, so we are in the clear for the rest of the winter.
I ride with guys most of the time. Usually, it will end up being my husband, maybe one or two guys from the team, and me. I have one female friend who rides and we will ride together if we can find a time that works for both of us. She actually rode professionally in Europe on a road team. Although, I primarily race in a mountain bike circuit, this year I hope to do a few road races.
This weekend was the annual "Mad Dog Run." Unfortunately, we only saw the guys from the shop at breakfast. To get more miles in, we, the race team, left from town. Well, actually just north of town. Several of us were a bit squeamish about riding the bridge over the Colorado River. The lack of shoulder makes it scary when cars and especially semi whiz by you.
Sovereign Trail was in pretty good condition in spite of the storm the previous day. Some of the obstacles were sandy adding to their difficulty. Snow still lingered in the shady sections. The northern most climb was barely rideable on the way down and all but impossible on the way up. We started from the south and rode out and back. Karl and Carson decided to head back after Sovereign. They had done some riding the previous day. Paul, Adam, Tim, Chris and I wanted more miles and attempted Gemini Bridges. The road looked pretty snowy and we had come to ride not walk our bikes, so we opted to find some dirt roads to explore. We ended up on some dead ends out by Bar M Loop. After about 5 hours of riding and the temperature starting to drop, we decided to head back. It was a successful quick trip.

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