So starts the first real post of He Spoke, She Spoke. An idea that started not more than a few weeks after Lea and I first met. We were in that 'still getting to know you' phase and I casually mentioned how fun it might be to mountain bike the entire length of the Colorado Trail...on a tandem. Of course Lea jumped at the idea. We even registered this domain name that evening.
Not long after that we borrowed a tandem and tried out a local trail. Let's just say it didn't go well. Idea shelved. Move on.
Fast forward to 2011.
More thoughts and talk about fun and interesting ways to travel the world and the tandem idea was born again.
So it was back to see Todd at DaVinci Designs and a deposit was made. Seven long weeks later our bike was ready. Bad ass custom paint and all.
Even harder than waiting for the tandem to be built, was waiting for Lea's achilles to heal. We got in a few brief rides around town, but nothing like Moab.
That whirl wind tour brings us to today....Monday October 24.
The morning was quite brisk as they can be in desert country. So we lingered over breakfast a bit while deciding where to ride. We were all set to to do a long easy ride over Hurrah Pass and up to Chicken Corner, but a local stopped us on the way to the car and we chatted for almost an hour. The tandem appears to be a huge conversation opener.
Harlin quickly nixed our plan and sent us off to Dead Horse Park with the promise of moderate single track, few people and great views.
The trail head to Dead Horse is on the rim of a canyon that is hard to get your mind around. Look straight down and you would swear it is only a few hundred feet deep. But a glance sideways or across the valley shows otherwise. Probably closer to eight or nine hundred feet to the valley floor. Crows are soaring in the lift band and a few bikers are stretching out near their rigs.
Only a hand full of the trails in Dead Horse are open to bikes so we take off north to explore those loops.
Immediately we begin to hit some challenging trail. Nothing that I would worry about on my single, but the tandem requires a whole other range of skills that I (we) have yet to master. Despite that, we clean almost everything, only walking a few section out of prudence.
Everyone seems stoked to see a tandem out there and most are quick to cheer us on or whip out a camera. Probably in hopes of catching a spectacular menagerie of limbs as we eat it on some rock ledge.
One thing you have to realize about riding a tandem on single track is that Lea can not see ANYTHING we are about to go through, over or around. So we are building a language that is both descriptive and terse. Luckily most words like shit, fuck or oh-god are quite descriptive...and terse.
Approaching any challenging obstacle I have an immediate choice to make. Commit to it...and probably make it...but risk a much more spectacular crash. Or hedge our bets and be ready to bail safely and risk lots of little bumps and bruises. Mostly we played it safe with small dabs here and there because I loath to put us in the ER on day one.
The ride at Dead Horse was short and the day had many hours of sunlight left. So off to Gemini Bridges. Lea wanted a ride on a dirt road so that we could take in the scenery a bit instead of being focused on the immediate dangers around every bend.
We dropped 1000 feet in 6 miles as we blasted down toward Gemini. The twin arches we alone except for an Australian Shepard, his owner and a mountain biker couple whistling at a small ground squirrel.
The ride back up was a grunt, but we managed to top out and didn't even get shot at by the hunters.
All in all a great first day in Moab.
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