After that clear night shown in the previous post, it was rather chilly and a little grey when we rose Tuesday morning.   We spent a fair bit of the morning in the large RV of Chad & Michelle while Jackie did her best to cook pancakes that didn’t taste like garlic – & despite much analysis of all the ingredients, failed utterly.  It wasn’t raining much & looked, to the optimist, as if it might clear; consequently, it wasn’t long before I started itching for a ride.  As the Slickrock Trail was so close & I hadn’t done a whole loop after almost a week in Moab – it was about time.  Eventually we ended up a group of five heading out – I’m not sure how that happened, everyone else looked pretty happily ensconced in the RV.

What to say?  I’ve said it before I’m sure; it was rocky, up, down & around steep gradients; grippy and a lot of fun.  With a large group there was ample opportunity for photos.

Jacket weather for the first part of the lollipop stick

I’d avoided this the previous time; after Porcupine Rim it wasn’t a problem. Then pretty much everyone rode it

In our intermittent attempts to get a photo of Megan & me with bikes for our families & posterity, it’s unfortunate that the best one is when we aren’t looking at the camera

Off I go, down & back up again

Trying to remember to look at the trail

Megan riding up things

across things

and even down things – what a well rounded talent for riding, well, things

I clearly had plenty of time to take photos

At about the furtherest point from the trailhead, Megan & I for some reason decided that we should get back a bit faster than we were going to at the current pace (probably mindful of Alex watching Finn & not being able to ride), so we split off.  There are no more photos after that, as Megan took off & I struggled to keep up for a solid forty minutes back to camp.  I’ll just go with the excuse that I’d been riding ahead quickly & then trying to snap photos, so was a little tired; yip, that sounds plausible – let’s run with that.

Late afternoon I strangely found myself going on a ride that I hadn’t really thought of to do or instigated. Just the other side of camp is Fins ‘n Things – where you follow stegosaurus markers painted on the rocks. It’s mostly a Jeep trail, but you can ride it. Alex, Jackie & I rode off in the prevening sun looking at the storm clouds rolling in across Castle Valley. I remember a strong wind (which had revealed itself on the last few miles of Slickrock), large sandtraps, some steep climbs that were longer than those on Slickrock and some fun lines down various drops.