He - Moab Day 2

Day Two in Moab somehow improved on day one.

For starters we road right from our hotel...no car, no gas no fuss.

Our thought was to ride up over Hurrah Pass, down into the next valley system and over to Chicken Corner. All in all an ambitious ride considering we wanted to start from the hotel and eschew the whole car thing entirely.

The morning was cloudy and cool with the obvious threat of rain...which was fine by us. We climbed west out of Moab on gentle pavement along the Colorado river. Petroglyphs began to crop up along the ever growing cliff walls and a stiff headwind foreshadowed an afternoon of storms.

As we climbed through miles six and seven the canyon closed in and twisted around itself in tighter and tighter bows, each offering a view more closed off, but more rewarding than the last.

We stopped for lunch in the shade of an escarpment at the base of the steep climb up to Hurrah Pass. Bagels, cashews and raisins were a welcome change from powerbars and gels.

Now the fun begins. Miles 12-15 are straight up. At times so steep that we can barely keep the bike moving forward. But the views just keep getting better and the clouds have chased away most of desert heat. Shortly after noon we summit with a view to the west of the Colorado River and a desiccated valley that has to be seen to be believed. The pass is windy and our clothes are dry in minutes.

A gaggle of identical brand new pickup trucks soon summit. We would later learn that this was likely a photo shoot for a yet to be released vehicle. Apparently that is a rather popular sight around Moab. Annoyed by the lack of solitude and driven on by a curious desire, we drop down the back side of Hurrah Pass. And we drop. Then drop some more. Yeah...even more.

Some up and down double track, some sand, some more steep climbs, more sand...and more sand.

We are 20 miles and a couple thousand vertical feet from Moab so we decide to turn back before both of us seriously bonk. So back up the pass we go.

An hour plus of climbing has us topping out yet again and flying down the front side of the pass. The road is exceedingly rough and steep in sections and our arms are vibrated into jello by the time things settle down in the throat of the valley. Another snack and we retrace the valley floor back to Moab.

About 40 miles of riding today with less technicality, but a huge upside of views.

The bike seriously needed a bath as a red gritty dust clung to every surface and threatened to grind away any metal on metal contact points. Also I wanted to have someone take a look at the brakes and I remember from my days as a bike mechanic that working on dirty bikes just sucks.

The guys at Chili Pepper bikes were awesome. They noticed that our Avid Disk Brakes were setup slightly wrong and explained how they should be fixed. Should be $25 well spent.

Now that the bike was clean and being taken care of it was time to de-spackle ourselves and head over to the Moab Brewery to meet Harlin and his wife for a beer and happy hour wings. Another couple that Harlin knew joined us after the first round. Talk about cool. They are in the their late 60's and run a mountain bike tour shop. They have lived all over the mountainous states and are whip smart, cynically funny and cultivate a general disdain for the norm. Just our kind of people.

Beer, wings, burgers and more beer.

Harlin tried to get us to come over to his place for another round of beers, but our day was catching up to us. So we made the short walk back to hotel where we are going to try to stay up till at least 9 pm before crashing.

I still can't believe how many doors the tandem has opened for us. We would just be another couple of tourists without the awesome local connections that have been sparked from simply being 'that tandem couple'.