We went to Moab to escape the wet local trails. And we were not the only ones with that idea. We were getting ready to head out from Lion's Park towards Sovreign when the Moffits pulled up. Joe had spotted us as they were heading into town. After a short discussion, we convinced them to join us on the first half of our ride--the Sovreign portion.
We took our normal route crossing the river, taking the old highway, to seven mile canyon, to sovereign. It was more sandy than it has been, but it was nice and warm. Sovreign was great. Kevin and Joe peeled off to go back to the car and Chris and I stopped for lunch at the gas station. Then we headed to Gold Bar, Golden Spike, and Poison Spider. Luckily we were having difficulty with the road cassette that I had been running on my bike and had switched in a mountain cassette. The climbs were killing me. I felt pretty rested from the weekend before, but hopefully that was why it was so much more difficult this time.
We had more difficulty following the trail too. This made Chris cranky. I just smiled--I was having a good time. I was suffering but it was a beautiful day.

This is what Chris looks like just before getting cranky.

Arch's parking lot

A view from the top