In the holy land.
Best trails on the planet.
Yesterday was a perfect day for riding. Perfect. Bluebird in the way that, in my life, I’ve only seen over the Colorado Plateau. Chill in the air, warmth of the sun. The often sandy/gravely/slidy parts of Cassidy and Rich through the woods had sucked up some melted snow, and were as tacky as anything. I’m thankful I was the only one out there, as I was a wee bit noisy in my fun.I once again came within one section of cleaning everything, up and down, on Thunder Mountain. This trail is not that hard, but every time it seems that one little climb catches me unawares, with a defining failure of rear wheel traction. In a new spot this time, too. The quest must continue.
And I’m parched! My acclimated to humid climes systems had a trace of a dehydration headache in the afternoon. !
Wish you were here.Vegas this evening for the “bachelor party.” I may (if/when the threatened strip club nonsense comes to pass) have to reprise my role of holding my girlfriends stuffed animal prize on a bench near the entrance to the roller coaster, waiting for everyone else to wait in line and take a ride. In eighth grade. Seriously. I hate roller coasters. And amusement parks, and I don’t regard supporting the traffic in female bodies as moral.
I think.
I think we’ll just have to move to Moab in the end, only town in the holy land without cultural craziness. Or I’ll keep becoming more of a curmudgeon, and just move to Henrieville.
Edit:
Thanks to Chad, I found this. I don’t like the precedent, but cannot but be excited by the potentials. (Needless to say, the contention that bikes impact trails more than horses is a bunch of shit.)
A off-the-cuff list of stuff in national parks I’d like to ride:
–Highline Trail in Glacier. 100% rideable, with a nice loop possible by riding up the road from the loop to Logan Pass. Probably not one to be opened anytime soon.
–Riggs Springs Loop in Bryce. Also almost totally rideable. Very scenic, very much like the riding I did yesterday. Would be best counter-clockwise. This one is plausible, I think. It doesn’t get a ton of traffic.
-The route we backpacked in Yellowstone last month. Some of the meadow hiking would likely be too boggy to be rideable, but the Wapiti Lake sections and the Lamar River sections would be fantastic.
-Maah Daah Hey through Theodore Roosevelt. Perhaps. Potential for brilliant riding, though the horse guides would hypocritically bitch. The climb up out of the Little Missouri River in the south unit was fucking destroyed by horses taking the fall line in damp, soft soil.
-Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon. Yeah right. It’d be a glorious epic, but will just never happen.
More will come to me later. Add your thoughts, and rides!
Bedrock & Paradox 
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