Breakfast...the most important and vital meal of the day was at Peace Tree. We brought the iPads along to decide on a ride while we ate pancakes and drank way too much coffee hoping that the morning chill would actually wear off.
We nearly went to Top of the World, but a second description had Lea thinking second thoughts about how technical it was. Instead we settled on a section of White Rim. Ridden as a loop White Rim is 102 miles long, but didn't have the legs for that so we did an out and back starting in Canyonlands National Park.
The trail head is way the hell above Moab on a high desert plateau. However is quickly drops into a freakishly precarious abomination of a road that has no business existing. It actually drops almost 1600 feet in 1.8 miles. The views are as breathtaking as is the idea of riding back up.
We put the dual disk brakes to the test and dropped down toward the Colorado River. Minutes later we were cruising the White Rim trail a few hundred feet above the river and taking in the best scenery of the week.
The trail undulates with very little overall elevation change for miles as we enjoy vista after vista. At some point we rest for lunch and decide we have pushed it far enough given the thoughts of the climb to come. So back up the trail we go.
As we approach Shaeffer Trail (the big climb out of the canyon) we can't help but think there is no earthly way or reason for a trail to go there. The vertical walls shut you in like a prison cell. Yet somehow human determination has carved this ribbon of road where nothing should exist.
Truth be told, the climb was not as bad as we thought it would be, but any time you make that kind of ascent in such a short order you are going to be tired. And hungary. And in need of beer.
Moab Brewery helped with all of those but the tired.
I think we burnt about of 4000 calories on our ride....we probably ate 5000.
All in all a great ending to an epic week.
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