Category Archives: MTB

bikes, MTB, national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

JEM & Zion

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Up early on Thursday to go & ride before it got too hot on the JEM trail – one that came highly recommended. At the trail head just after seven, a couple from San Diego (of all places) – Mike & Annie – pulled up & had the same riding plan as I did. I waited around a little so I had some riding company & we took off up the first part of the loop – Gould’s Rim Trail. This climbed a bit up on to a plateau & as the sun was still rising (no daylight saving in Utah) the spectacular scenery was cast in even better light than I had previously seen it.

While the map we had was great, unfortunately some of the trail markers were annoyingly absent. We skirted around the side of a canyon & it was mostly nice twisty, but not too difficult single track.

There was one really rocky & gnarly downhill section – Annie must have been feeling it on her hardtail. As we got closer to the highway, we lost the trail again – we split up, they went down & I went up a dirt road trying to find the JEM trailhead. In the end, I did a few extra miles uphill & couldn’t make it across to the highway so had to backtrack – unfortunately I never saw Mike & Annie again. I made it up the highway & hit the JEM. What a fantastic trail! It was on another exposed plateau, but overall it lost altitude. It was more of the same great single track that weaved around, but it had plenty of little rises to hop off, plenty of bermed corners & was generally a big chainring flowing singletrack. The most difficult bit was when it plunged down in to a small canyon with a series of very tight & rock singletrack.

As I was beginning to discover & appreciate with a lot of the riding I was doing in the Southwest & California, babyhead rocks could appear at any time & completely change the trail. One thing I will say about the fireswamp – it definitely keeps you on your toes. Near the end of JEM, I joined the Hurricane Rim Trail – it basically followed the top of the gorge formed by the Virgin River back to Hurricane.

It was starting to get a lot warmer by now & there was quite a bit of climbing considering I was following the river down – but there was still the odd cool downhill & rocks to negotiate (they always make the climbs more challenging than back in NZ – it’s always nice to conquer them). Due to my little detour, I ran out of water with about four or five miles to go – how I wish they were the much shorter kilometres! I eventually made it back to my car – another great high-twenty mile ride under my figurative belt. Back to the motel to clean up & then off to explore Zion National Park.

Once again, I joined the masses at another popular national park. Due to its popularity, the park has a great shuttle bus system – you park your car at the bottom & hop on & off for free as the whim takes you. The day had clouded a bit (when I left the motel, I couldn’t believe the amount of cloud that had come from nowhere & how much the wind had picked up), but the canyons on either side of the Virgin River (upstream tens of miles from where I was riding earlier in the day) were still vividly red-brown. Every twist in the road or path showed a different side to them & I was enthralled. I went on a few little walks, some only five minutes or so to get a bit of elevation to look out at something, one about an hour loop that took visitors up a side stream to a series of rather tranquil ponds & stunning waterfalls. Completing all my little walks, it was back in the mighty Avenger to drive to the east edge of the park. The geology here was a little softer, with some nice patterns in less steep cliffs. There was also a very impressive 1.8 mile tunnel that was blasted out in the 1920s. As awesome as the Grand Canyon was (& I really liked it) – for some reason, Zion was that little bit more enjoyable – perhaps because at Zion you are in the bottom of the canyon looking up at the immense rocks above you. Back to Hurricane to do some much needed washing & have an early night – big drive the next day to meet up with some more MTB internet friends back in California for a weekend of camping & riding.

bikes, city, engineering, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Hot dam!

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Up at seven & off to go riding (why else?) before it got too hot. After sorting out breakfast, making my way the half hour or so east to Boulder City (town was constructed to house those building the Hoover Dam). Managed to find the well constructed trail head – ample shade, water, showers & toilets – and was riding shortly after nine. Unfortunately, the trail map on the board & the signposting wasn’t too great. I rode up a couple of nice rocky trails for about forty-five minutes, the grade was pretty good (middle ring the whole way again), but although it was still relatively early it was getting hot. Easily in to the nineties & then touching the low to mid-hundreds (around 35-40 degrees Celsius – rather warm), I carried on up & was rewarded with great views of the desert, Lake Mead, Boulder City & then Las Vegas.

Definitely time to turn around – the downhill of the same trails (I liked the look of them on the way up, so decided to go down the same way) was fantastic. Some nice rocky switchback, some bits that flowed well, & all the rocky steps that I had had to lift the front wheel over or attack at pace made great drop offs.

Half way I met a couple of local guys that had started the climb after me resting under the only shade I had seen – an overhanging rock. Happy to see some other people, I stopped & chatted for a while & they recommended a place for lunch in town before I headed to Hoover Dam for the afternoon. The next & last trail down was also fantastic & had big sweeping corners, berms that rose & lots of little jumps to pop off – & more rocks! A quick shower & it was off in to Boulder City to have a little poke around. A nice sleepy little town with bits of dam building history around. I had a great lunch at a cool little microbrewery – it turns out that any time anything is offered with a boysenberry flavour, I have to have it. This time is was a tripleberry beer, a few days ago it was boysenberry frozen yoghurt. Must be my way of dealing with being away from home.

It was on to see the Hoover Dam after lunch – I’ve long wanted to see this product of a lot of engineering & pure hard slog. It definitely didn’t disappoint. I was interested to see how much the building of the dam & the taming of the Colorado tied in to Imperial County’s irrigation & the All-American Canal (this is relevant as I spent the weekend in Imperial County ten days ago). By now the day was getting really hot (eventually it got to 111 degrees) & there were a lot of people at the dam. I was impressed enough by the parking building – it was pretty big & tucked in where a lot of rock used to be. I did the tour of the powerplant & got a look inside one of the diversion tunnels. As expected, the whole place was massive & photos may be better than me rabbiting on about it.

Intake towers

Lake Mead

To cope with all the traffic going down the road, this new bridge is being built – next year you will not be able to drive over the dam.

Back in to Vegas, a short nap – this morning’s early rise & early, hot ride had caught up with me.  I then went up the Stratosphere tower & admired the view – & saw my first wedding since I got in to town. Also went on one of the rides at the top – Insanity – apart from dangling a few hundred metres above the street, it wasn’t particularly thrilling.

I took the monorail to the far end of the Strip & got off at MGM Grand & proceeded to walk the length of the Strip looking around.  In the end it was masses of people, many casinos.  It was better & more interesting than the previous night & I could see how it could be fun – but all I managed to get was a blister on the ball of my foot from walking about four miles on concrete.  Bed at the respectable hour of midnight – big day of driving ahead.

bikes, friends, MTB, travel, USA

Up early for a ride

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Somehow managed to wake up to hear the clock chiming five & suddenly remembered that I was to get up in five minutes for a big ride. Stumbled around the house – being the longest day, it was nice & light – getting ready & managed to force an extra piece of toast down & I was on the road before six. Met up at Chip’s house & we loaded our bikes on to the borrowed old Volvo (it has racks). Annoyingly burnt my tongue on the liquorice tea, & we arrived at the trail head (down the I8 again, towards where I rode at Big Laguna last week) fifteen minutes early & waited for the others to arrive. In the end, there were seven of us – me the youngest (easily having less than half the years accumulated as the most senior), a couple of guys on singlespeeds – one a very nice custom titanium 29er.

Started off at 8.00 & it was a little chilly as we cruised along some singletrack not too far from the road. After a while we started to climb a little & I was impressed to see the singlespeeds leading the way – usually the case, I remember having to just go at hills & not being able to cruise. Found a big rock for first rest stop.

The whole area we were riding in was destroyed by wildfires in 2003, so there weren’t a lot of sizeable trees around, but the scrub has had a few years to regenerate. It’s a bit of a blur, but we did a lot of climbing (middle-ring the whole way for me, so not too difficult) on some nice singletrack – quite dusty, but otherwise fine.

I think we started at about 3000 ft & eventually we crossed the Sunrise Highway (~5000 ft) & continued climbing on the singletrack. Stopped a couple of times for a rest & for the tourist to take photos:

By now we were looking out towards the edge of the desert (further north of the one we drove through to go camping last week).

Some of us felt that we should leave the Perfect Cycling Trail & hike-a-bike up to the road. Unfortunately, this was twenty minutes of clambering, pushing, carrying through scrub getting very scratched legs. Probably the hardest part of the day for & somewhat draining. We rode up the Sunrise Highway for a few miles, down a bit & back on to singletrack. What followed was pure bliss – we must have had two or three miles of downhill & it started out nice & dusty (of course) & twisty & then proceeded to get rockier & rockier – it was great fun barrelling down there. The closest I came to riding off the side of the hill was looking up & seeing Billy two or three hundred yards down the trail & trying to work out if I could catch him. I put my head down after that & concentrated on staying on the trail a bit more – the rocks got bigger & combined in some nice chutes, where having suspension soak up the occasional poor line was comforting. Pleasingly, I managed to catch Billy right at the end of the downhill & we sat & waited under a tree for the others to turn up. Those few miles were fantastic & the riding (& perhaps, the) highlight of my trip so far.

Having regrouped & rested we begun the climb out of the valley on singletrack & eventually were riding up & down a meadow. The dust turned quite slippery here – I’m used to dry surfaces being grippy in NZ, but here I’d hit a switchback too fast (as it turned out) & my front wheel would just slide as if on slippery clay – I managed to turn front wheel inside out once or twice, but somehow stayed upright. One final rest stop before we hit the fire road down all the way to the car – it was quick. I’m still not a big fan of the High Rollers, there were quite a few instances during the day when I think the Nevegals would have helped me out a lot more. First puncture of the day for Cliff about ten minutes from the cars; once that was repaired we easily finished the six hour epic – 27 miles all up. That was about the limit of my endurance, up the last little rise (which was nothing compared to what we had already done) I found myself chopping back to easier gears & struggling up the hill. Got home & realised I was covered in dust – a great glove mark:

& it was just as well I didn’t get talked in to having a pedicure the day before – this is through MTB shoes & socks.

Big nap & watched Master & Commander – as I had been on the HMS Surprise a couple of days before. Must pack & plan & organise a few things (rather, everything) for my road trip today.

bikes, city, MTB, travel, USA

SD Zoo & two more rides

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The day off from sightseeing today – I get a bit sick of it & today’s early start hasn’t helped my energy levels (it may have been the three hour well-paced ride this morning). Yesterday I went off to the renowned San Diego Zoo nice & early. I’m not much of an animal person, but it’s a great place & it exceeded my expectations. Particular highlights were the reptile house & all the snakes, lizards & komodo dragon.

Also, was pleased to see a different kind of pheasant (Malay Great Argus) – the photo is a little poor through the netting. And I spent a good while looking at the kiwi foraging in the dark – I don’t remember ever having seen one so close in NZ (that’s not to say it didn’t happen – only I may have been quite young).

The new elephant enclosure was pretty good – but it’s not quite the same as seeing them roaming the streets in Thailand or Nepal or even going for a trek on one. Giraffes have always been a particular favourite of mine, so it was cool to see some tall-tall ones & some short-tall ones (the youngest being only a few months old).

The gorillas were good to watch as well & a special mention must be made of the polar bear. I have never seen one so playful & active – all the ones I have seen in exhibits (or anywhere for that matter) have looked rather bored. This one had oversized ball to play with in its enclosure. It was a big day of walking & some pretty decent hills in there too – so I hopped on the Skyfari cable car to get back to the top – as you can see it’s a big zoo:

Back home & a brief refuel (for me, not the car) & then off to meet another MTBer from mtbr.com . We rode for about an hour and a half on some tracks that are supposedly off limits (“I mentioned it once – but I think I got away with it”) – not that you would know, we must have seen thirty other riders out there. Some nice rocky & dusty trails up a canyon (interrupted by a brief mechanical – Allen managed to bend a tooth on his granny ring perpendicular to where it should be – this in turn caused shifting problems & then broke the chain – just as well I had a breaker & Missing Link), before we went up a side canyon under a pretty canopy. Quite a nice middle-ring climb with a few technical bits to keep it interesting. Reached the top of the mesa & then we hit one of the five routes down. Really tight trail with very low overhanging twisted trees – reminded me a little of beech forest riding in the South Island. The first route downhill went for ever & it was a lot of fun. Reaching the bottom, we went up the same route & down a different one – this one was even closer & more technical – good fun, but a bit shorter & didn’t seem to flow as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was up at 5.30 this morning for another ride (the one that got canned on Tuesday). Drove about twenty minutes to meet another mtbr.com mate. After a bit of tuning (my brakes don’t squeal quite as much now), we were riding by 7 o’clock. A few miles of road before we hit Mission Trails, then under another freeway before we hit the outskirts of the same Marines air base as Monday – this time on the opposite side & well away from anything. The riding was extremely hard packed drit trail with a few ruts left over & the odd rocky patch. Hard & fast. A nice long series of switchbacks to climb a fair way & then the switchback went all the way down – some were quite gnarly & very dusty, rocky & rutty. Started to miss 2.3 tyre on the front when I almost lost the second corner, but no problems after that – just fun. Continued winding our way up the valley/canyon for a while with a few pinch climbs. Reached a gate & decided since it was 9 o’clock, it was time to head back. Big chain ring down a lot of the path back down & really starting to enjoy the rocks. With a brief mechanical stop (it turns out the pivot in Chip’s Blur had snapped) & a couple of good climbs, we were home at 10.00.

Popped in to the SDPD Northern District HQ to try & get my stolen money back – apparently I have to wait until Monday 3 pm when we go over the scene of the crime with the DA & detective. Which is a bit of a pain in the butt, as I was planning on driving to Vegas that day – it will be a late night, but which night in Vegas isn’t?

A bit worn out & not wanting to do the tourist thing again just yet – I drove Chris out an hour east on I8 to pick up the van – which has had its radiator replaced. It got back safely & our eventful camping trip can finally be put to rest.