Mountain Biking 2007
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Introduction note: This was a break-through year for me (Joe) with mountain biking. I had really done very little of it in the past few years on an old Specialized frame with no suspension. My close friend Jackie Bassham was mentoring me, but I was taking baby steps, while he was truly a veteran of the sport. This year I was given a 13-year-old Trek 9000 full suspension mountain bike through an odd chain of events. As old as the bike was, I was excited at the prospect of getting deeper into the sport on a full suspension bike.
Shortly after acquiring the bike I met Wade Liedtke (aka Greyhair) here in Green River when I sought a tune-up for the bike. Wade is an over-the-top mountain biking enthusiast with an infectious passion for the sport. He is a shade-tree mechanic in the bicycle community here and went out of his way to welcome my late interest in the sport. He helped me make a few fitment modifications and then led me on a tour of some of the great trails right here in Green River. He has been so very generous with his time and advice. I doubt that my interest in this sport would still be arcing upward were it not for his association. Wade has great maps and descriptions of the Green River Trail network on his Greyhair website. Following are some photos from this summer and fall.
Click on thumbprint photos to see them enlarged.
The following images are from a couple different outings on the Brent & Mike Trail with Jackie and Wade. This is one of many trails right around Green River.
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The following images are from the MacBones Trail. This is another Green River trail that Wade led us on, and he took all these photos.
The following are images from the Better Than Dead Trail. It gets its name from originating at the town cemetery. It is also in Green River. I took these photos of Jackie.
The following images are from a new trail that Wade is helping another guy build. A working name for this trail is Lunatic Fringe. It is an intimidating trail with several ladders, bridges and very narrow off camber shelves that fall away steeply into rocky ravines. It was a bit over my head, but I had fun with it anyway.
For Thanksgiving this fall Christine and I thought we would take the holiday break and go skiing. The snow has been so late this year that many ski resort openings have been pushed back. We really wanted to get away so we switched gears on the skiing and planned a trip to Moab, Utah instead. We invited our friends Jackie and Kirk along to make it a mountain biking adventure. Christine had not been to Moab yet so she was content to explore the town and Arches National Park on her own while the guys went mountain biking. We shared a cozy cabin a few miles south of town and enjoyed the holiday together. We were able to ride on Thanksgiving Day and on Saturday. The snowfall on Friday shut down our riding plans for that day.
Jackie had cracked the carbon fiber swing arm on his bike the previous weekend so he was forced to rent a bike. I thought this would be a good move for me too, so that I could ride a newer better fitting bike with a modern suspension. Wow! What a difference that made. We rented our bikes from the very helpful folks at Poison Spider Bike Shop. Jackie and I both ended up renting Rocky Mountain Elements. He was on a Model 30 while I rode a Model 10. We were very happy with these bikes.
The following images are from a newer trail north of Moab called the Sovereign Trail. It is all single-track over slab-rock, dirt, and slick-rock. Click the preceding link to learn more about this trail. We all really enjoyed it on a cool Thanksgiving Day. We rode about 8 miles in before turning around and doubling back. Kirk took some shaky videos with his camera. This google video link shows me & Jackie descending a short technical pitch.
The following images are from our Saturday ride. It was still cold and snowy outside from the day before, but the sky was cloudless and we wanted a big ride to make up for being snowed in the previous day. We drove up into the Manti La Sal Mountains on the La Sal Loop Road to the summit overlook. From there we got on our bikes and descended on a slippery snow-covered Kokopelli Trail. We missed our first connection with the Porcupine Rim Trail and thus went three miles down Sand Flats Road to start at the true trailhead, which meant three more grueling miles up the trail to reach the Porcupine Rim. The scenery was fantastic and the ride kicked my butt. I fell several times; a couple were pretty bad. Jackie took a bad spill himself. There aren't many photos because we spent so little time relaxing. It was a long trail that ended up being nearly 30 miles before we finished right as darkness overtook us. This is a premier Moab single-track trail. I enjoyed it, but I was glad to see the end.
Christine took the following images of Arches National Park and a view from our cabin.
