Crappy Day? NO WAY

Yesterday it rained all day... really hard. That made for some big problems for us. First, we didn't get to ride. Second, when we headed for Goosberry Mesa to ride today, the dirt roads that lead to the trailhead was 6" deep in mud. We saw 4x4s turn around and head back instead of driving in. Our second choice in rides was in the high country and they got 6" of new snow yesterday while we got all that rain.

After driving around half the day, we headed off to do "The Loop". The Loop consists of Gould's Rim, the JEM trail and Hurricaine rim. It turned out to be the perfect loop. It was just under 22 miles. It started with a big climb, and finished with a big climb near the end of the loop. In between it was a really cool mix of buff singletrack, long, gradual downhills and small rock gardens. There were great views all the way around the loop. One of the coolest things is that it is a really wide open loop. What I mean by that is that you cover a lot of ground on the loop. You almost go 7 miles in one direction, turn, go 7 miles in a different direction, turn then go 7 miles back to the car.

The photos turned out great. I'll post them up when I get home.

The tough part of the trail was the way the different trail surfaces mixed together. On the JEM trail, there were long sections of swooping downhill that you just fly through like on a BMX track. Towards the bottom, however, there were some fairly large rock gardens tossed in. Jason's suspension saved him a few times when he flew into areas with too much speed. I had some good luck with a few of them... I was able to pick a good line through and bunny hop the worst of a few of the gardens. There were two in particular that pretty much ate me up though. I got two pinch flats from hitting too a rock garden going too fast. Luckily I carry tubes.

We had a blast and managed to get back in time to pick up a DVD, eat some pizza and watch a movie in the Hotel room.

Talk to you later.

Pete