Moab

Putting off the Leadville 100 race report another day to post pictures from Moab. Rode the Porcupine Rim Trail. It was decent overall. The legs felt like poop from Leadville 2 days prior but when you are in Moab I guess riding is called for. I'd been through Moab three times prior and never ridden so I kinda had to. Porcupine rim started with several hundred feet of climbing up a crummy four wheel drive jeep "road" to the top of the ridge. Technical climbing was the order of the day as I slowly drug my tired carcass up the chunky rocks. 2.5-3 miles in I had reached the top of the ridge and was pleasantly greeted with some spectacular views. After a brief photo stop I was rolling again, looking forward to 12 more miles of downhill fun. I was wrong. I had barely started the downhill when I dropped out of a rocky section at speed when my day went south. At the bottom of said rocks was some very deep sand. My front wheel dug into the sand and washed out bobo style while I was still moving quite fast. Down I go. Not into the sand but past the sand into more chunky rocks. Awesome. My chin was the first thing to take the impact. Could have gotten a hand out but somehow got my thumb caught behind my shifter nearly breaking it off. Anyways- my chin landed square on a boulder, rattling my teeth and nearly knocking me out. I felt the unconciousness coming as tunnel vision was closing down my sight but managed to fight it off. That hurt very badly. As I laid on the ground I tried to assess the damage. It was hard to think with the massive, immediate headache I'd aquired. Once I was able to focus I checked myself out. Aside from my head problems and the blood on my face, my freshly injured (from Leadville) knee was ripped open again and emptying my blood out as it tends to do all over the rest of my leg and the sand. My thumb was already swollen and turning purple. Fortunately, that was all that was wrong ( physically ) with me. My bike was fine as it managed a soft sand landing ( jerk). Back to riding I soon found my biggest problem. I couldn't shift gears. My thumb wouldn't push my shift lever anymore so I had to shift with the palm of my hand. Not very efficient or safe as I had to take my hand off the bar to shift.

Anyways- the rest of the downhill was quite enjoyable. The trail got better and better the lower I rode. Soon, I was off the "road" and onto the singletrack section. The trail flowed much better here, fast but still technical and becoming more exposed skirting the edge of canyons. The last several miles were very cool with a cliff to my left, and a several hundred foot drop into the canyon on my right. Nice, technical sections littered the trail requiring me to remind myself of the consequences of going for it with nothing but a hundred foot drop to my right. Keeping things safe, I soon made it down to the road and the 5 mile ride back to town. My ride back was straight down the canyon and quite spectacular with towering canyon walls all around. Got back to the motel, patched myself up, and we were off to Vegas. Overall, a good trail once you get past the opening section. However, still liking the East coast riding better! DH