My journal entry for the MMMM trip

Moab Trip – Spring 2006
February 23-25

The time had finally arrived for when we were to get together for the coveted Moab trip. I woke up earlier than I thought – even earlier than Jack and Andy. That is saying something as they wake up pretty early. I had quite a bit of stuff to do before the trip so I started. I got all of my stuff put together and tried to get out as fast as I could. I was in contact with Darin and Caleb the entire morning, getting hourly updates on where they were.
I was really worried about Darin’s bike. I used quite a bit of cell minutes last night because I was trying to help Darin get his bike to idle. He had just bought a new exhaust system – a full Yoshimura head, mid and tailpipe. I guess we are all pretty excited to see what the full system does compared to just the tail section. He installed it, and his bike would not idle. Anyway, after taking the carb off multiple times, he finally got it kind of running. He put the throttle cable in a tension so it idled.
Anyway, it was kind of a short night last night. I was thinking of Darin’s bike and I also had to do a little of work before I left. I had to fold all of the laundry and clean up the house. Alice appreciated that. But I did stay up until 2:00. It wasn’t that bad to wake up. I was just kind of worried because I wasn’t going to get very much sleep over the next couple of days. But hey – you gotta do what you gotta do.
I was kind of late getting over to Eric’s place. I believe that I was the last one to arrive. But, I must say, and add to my defense, that Eric was still the one for whom we were waiting. We got loaded up and we were on our way. Alice was meeting us there because I wanted Andy to see all the motorcycles all loaded up. She had to take Jackson to preschool so she was a little late getting there. So to be fair to Eric, we really weren’t waiting for him, but he was the last person to get all of his stuff ready.
We also talked with Rusty – RUSTY!!!!!!!!!! (a la Kramer) – Jackman, Jacob’s friend, about where we wanted to ride. There was some previous talk about where we wanted to ride in emails. Eric wanted to ride what was called the devil’s racetrack, and Jacob wanted to ride what was called the Factory Butte. Well, Rusty – RUSTY!!!!!!! – wanted to ride the butte and stay the night in Hanksville. Well, we really didn’t decide what we were going to do so we said we would talk more as the ride continued.
We were on the road. It was Eric, Darin, Dallas, and I in George’s truck, and Jacob, Caleb, Ryan, Ben, Corey and Rusty in Rusty’s truck. They had brought Bruce L’s trailer from Pocatello and used that to tote their bikes. They had 7 bikes, Rusty’s XR 350 as a spare, in the trailer and we had the red trailer towing our bikes. Caleb had forgotten his backpack in Pocatello, so he had asked Eric to lend him some swim trunks. As we were driving along, Kynda called up Eric and said that there was a pair of swim trunks sitting on the kitchen table. It was kind of funny, because Eric was naming off certain things and saying that he had them – one of those being his swimsuit.
We stopped in Wellington and filled up our bikes with gas. We called the other truck and they were over a half hour behind us. I guess they stopped in Price and got some maps. There were some minor delays in getting the maps. But the maps they got were awesome. I wish that I could have that map. I am hoping to get in contact with them and get the file or something and get it printed at Kinko’s. The people who put it together are the Sage riders and I guess they are fighting a lot for areas where some people want to close to OHV use.
Well, we said we would meet them at the Hanksville exit, and talk more about where we wanted to go and ride today. We arrived sooner than they did, so we climbed the nearby hill and threw rocks and stuff like that. We finally saw them coming, and they just turned and went down the road. We were very disappointed in that. I think that the consensus in our truck was that we didn’t want to ride the factory butte, but ride the Devil’s racetrack. We were extremely disappointed – to say the least.
We got to Hanksville and talked with the group. It was still a little ways from Hanksville to the butte. But a comment on Hanksville – THERE IS NOTHING THERE! I can’t believe that Rusty wanted to stay there that night. We finally arrived at the butte – and my first impression was that here was NOTHING to ride. I was fairly surprised when we started to ride and found a huge drop-off into a pretty cool area. The ground was just this dirt that just sank when you hit it. Rusty – RUSTY!!!! – called it poof dirt. You just had to hit fast and let your momentum carry you. It was an amazing area. It was really odd because the Sierra Club wanted to shut this area down. There is nothing out there except dirt! Why would you want to shut that area down?
There was a creek crossing that different people found the deep spot in. I didn’t find that spot. It was really odd. Some people came out really soaked, and others came out dry – like me. There was one part where Dallas was not able to keep the bike going fast enough – especially for his frame. But he didn’t make it up this hill and so we all pushed him up. It was awesome.
We ended the ride with no problems – that was nice. We packed up and headed to Hanksville. Again, let me tell you – there is nothing in Hanksville. We went to the gas station and talked with the attendant. She said that the restaurant should be open, but looked over, and it was not. Well, I think that put the nail in the coffin – we were going to Hanksville. Dallas was hurting. We didn’t stop for lunch and he was starving. He did get a burrito – past expiration date – at the convenience store, so that help him over. We stopped at a bar in Green River and had dinner there. The Sage Riders were selling 5MOH t-shirts there and I bought one. The shirts were for $20, and $5 went to help their cause. It was a pretty cool shirt, too.
The hot tub was nice. More than once did I like the decision to come to Green River. I tried to get on the internet and do a video chat with Alice. We tried that at home and it worked there. But we couldn’t get it to work at the hotel. It was kind of nice because cell coverage at the hotel was not good at all. We had uninterrupted talking time. It was nice.
The next day, we got up and around and made our way to the truck. We wanted to go and do the 5MOH trail today. We ended up getting to the trailhead around 10:30. I am not sure if it was fast enough, or just the right time. It was pretty cold in the morning, but we did go there to ride.
I think that we all forgot how trying that trail really was. It was just one thing after another. I think that we all were kind of wanting to try out and back, but we just forgot how hard it was. There was still some snow on the ground in certain areas that made the trail less than usable. But we ended up completing the trail. I wrecked a couple of times. The pre-crux got me this time pretty good. Tried the hill three dang times and messed up all three times. Looking back on the video, I almost made it up the hill the last time. But I did eat it pretty good. I haven’t had a wreck like that in a long time.
I did conquer on of my nemesises on that trail. The post-crux had been nagging me for the entire time that we were waiting for the trip. It had been nagging me for along time. And I took it without even thinking twice. It felt good. Caleb took a different way, and a few other people did not make it. I felt really good about that move.
The other place that I wrecked was the end of the face. It was that bad, except my bike ended up squishing my leg between it and a rock. It didn’t feel that good. I felt bad that I did that. That was a stupid wreck. The rest of the ride, I felt really good with it. It was extremely taxing, and extremely challenging. Maybe it has bee too long since I have ridden the trail, but I think that it is doable to go out and back. There are a few difficult spots going the opposite way, but there are also difficult spots going the way we went. I still stand by my want to go out and back. I would be more than happy to just go out and back and do that for a trip. That would be worth it to me.
We got back to the truck and I was beat. I really just wanted to pack it in and call it a night. Dallas was wasted. Corey was battling a cold the entire trip so he was wasted. Rusty was battling his bike the whole trip so he was wasted. Eric was wanting to ride some more. Well, he convinced a couple of people to ride, and then a few more, and then a few more. We decided to do a small loop that had the Green trail to the orange trail, to the blue trail. We rode to the trailhead and were kind of disappointed to find out the trail was rated a 1. 5MOH was a 5. How fun is this going to be?
IT WAS A BLAST! It wasn’t hard, and so getting the bikes and opening them up was just fun. I think that I was standing up for most of the trail. It was so hard to stand up near the end – my legs were just killing me. It was a very exhausting trip. The green and blue trails were pretty easy – kind of just the whoops and stuff like that. The orange trail was more challenging. The blue trail was easy. But it was super fun. We ended up going the same distance as we did on the 5MOH trail with the last trail. It was well worth it. THANK YOU ERIC!
We ate at the truck stop this night – HELLO HEARTBURN! It was good as we had an entire area to ourselves. It was nice as we could be pretty loud and obnoxious, and no one even cared. The hot tub felt really good tonight again. How grateful I was that we were staying in Green River.
We got up earlier than yesterday and had breakfast at the hotel. Did I mention that there was a continental breakfast? Free? I would venture to say that it would be worth it to stay there even if we rode all the time in Moab. It was really nice.
We decided (from all of the people who I spoke to) last night that we were going to ride in Moab and do the Gemini Bridges/Golden Spike/Poison Spider trail system. We also found out that we needed to leave Moab by 4:00 so Corey could get to Boise on time for his flight. So anyway, we got to the trailhead. I don’t know what it was, but I was the last one on the trail. I am not sure if I have too much stuff to deal with, but it really bothered me to be the link that trail.
THIS WAS THE TRAIL THAT I WAS WAITING FOR! I love riding the slickrock. Golden Spike and Poison Spider was where it is was at! That is what I was waiting for the whole trip. 5MOH was just so taxing, but so fun at the same time, you never really got to fully enjoy the trail. This was the trail that I purely enjoyed the most. It was also so fun because after 5MOH, this trail felt like nothing! You would go over obstacles and just think that it wasn’t that hard. You would go down obstacles that you would definitely think twice. But it is nothing compared to 5MOH. It was just a purely fun trail.
I had another nemesis conquered this trip. There was this spot where I Corey and Ben made it the last time we rode this trail. I saw that spot, and I knew that I just had to try it. I was a little nervous in doing it, but I said what the heck. I went up to it and just did it. I felt so awesome. Caleb tried it and didn’t make it. That made it feel even better!
Corey, Ben and I were heading on and others were just goofing off around some up and down hills. I ended up being in the lead and we were almost finished with the ride. I actually got to the rode where it leads down to the trailhead. Rusty and Ben and I turned around, saying that there was nothing left to ride except back to the truck. It was going to take that long anyway. We met up with others and they just passed us by. What is up with that? I reluctantly turned around and saw that everyone was stopped. Good, I thought, now we can all turn around! I was sadly met with everyone huddling around Ryan with him holding his arm. That’s not good, I thought. Well, a correct prognosis from the trained and licensed PT Eric Roberts correctly diagnosed him with a broken clavicle. Of course Jacob was telling everyone what the clavicle is and how it is connected with the rest of the body and how many muscles control that part of the body and what their names are and how many ligaments were stretching because of the injury and why it was important to do this and do that and blah blah blah. Jacob! A man is injured! We don’t want to have an anatomy class in the middle of nowhere explaining to us how the body works!
Well, luckily a jeep was driving by and they helped Ryan down to the parking lot. Rusty and I took off for the trucks. I was about to take Rusty on the back of my bike (his isn’t registered to ride on the highway) but Darin drove up and let him take his bike. It was nice as it was about 10 miles to the truck. And even on the highway, that is pretty far.
We loaded up the bikes, and decided to take off. Rusty’s truck decided to go to Moab and get a prescription. I guess they talked Ryan out of it, as they turned left at the highway towards Green River. Our truck decided to go to Sovereign Singletrack and ride there. That was another good move. I wasn’t terribly excited about another ride, but that was well worth it. Sovereign had changed quite a bit since the last time I had ridden there. It was a good ride. I rode pretty good on this trail but I was following Eric and I got to a spot in the trail and just stopped. What the heck was I thinking? Eric went over it, and I didn’t. MAN! Another nemesis! I felt so bad after that. I mean, come on! Eric made it over that spot and I didn’t! What a slap in the face!
Actually, I thought a lot about those types of things. Each different obstacle can present anyone with problems. One obstacle can be so easy for someone, but the next person may struggle like nothing to get over it. But the next one will just be the opposite. Jacob’s wreck on the Z was a perfect example. It was just a fluke that happened and he wrecked – and wrecked badly! It is just a weird thing.
The trip home was uneventful. We stopped in green River for dinner. We ate at Arby’s and also got the laptop out with all of the pictures that we had taken. Darin hadn’t taken very many pics, so most of them came from me. That was a surprise as last time, I hardly took any pictures at all. I was glad that I had taken so many. There were quite a few pictures that I took that looked really good. I was quite impressed with my photo taking ability.
We arrived in SLC around 10:15. Compared with other MMMM trips, that was pretty early. Alice was glad to see me – although she was asleep when I got home. I was glad to see her, too. I was really tired. As was stated before, sleep is a commodity that does not come very easily on a MMMM trip. It felt really good to climb into bed and fall asleep.