So Chris and I have been dreaming of Moab. It just has not been that good of a year to be riding there, but we love Moab for winter riding. We decided to plan, once again, to ride there this past weekend. Chris watched the weather very closely. It looked good--40 degrees and sunny. Then he started to wonder if they got snow from the last southern storm. He gave a bike shop, which I will not name, to see what the trails were like namely sovereign. The guy at the shop said it would be muddy. Chris was surprised and responded with "Sovereign muddy?" To which the bike shop attendant said that our tires would sink in a foot. Confused Chris hung up.
He recanted the conversation to me and asked what I thought. We are going to Moab! When has Sovereign ever been muddy? Seriously, it is all sand out there. Gemini Bridges road, I could see being muddy.
We woke up and headed to down highway six to Moab. I was so excited. The plan, of course, was the 70 Miler. A long day climbing on the bike sounded ideal. Approaching I-70 there was no snow. Patches could be seen in the shade while on I-70, but it looked good and approaching Moab looked even better. We dropped off our stash in the lunch spot and it was warm and not muddy. Getting ready at the park was a bit chilly, but we did not need to bundle up--arm warmers, knee warmers, vest, and ear band. Sure we were wearing full finger gloves, but not winter gloves.
It was beautiful. No mud on Bar M, which is actually dirt and not sand. Sovereign was amazing up and down. It was more ridable than ever. We were making our way to lunch. Chris was climbing in front of me when disaster struck. Yep, Chris broke the spindle on another pedal. Son of a... Luckily he was climbing. The last time he did this we were in Moab also. It is crazy that it never happens as he is landing a jump. When you look at it you can see that it started to break before and he just finished it. So I pushed back to the car. Chris limped to lunch. I picked up Tex and drove to get Chris.
We looked at renting pedal, but it did not make much sense as bike shops close early this time of year. Instead of six or seven hours it was around three hours of riding. But it was an exquisite three hours and I was just happy with the opportunity.