Memorial Weekend: Part II

Saturday morning Mr X and I headed into Canyonlands to try our hand at some biking. We'd just gotten our bikes tuned at REI a week or so earlier. We haven't had them tuned professionally since we bought them nearly 6 years ago. Mr X's bike was a complete wreck apparently - the chain was worn so badly it needed to be replaced and both of our bikes brake lines needed to be replaced. I'm really glad we got that done before attempted what we attempted in Canyonlands.

You see that zig-zaggy line in the photo below? That's the trail we picked for our bike ride. It was just crazy switchback after switchback nearly the entire way. The corners were pretty much sandy like the beach so we frequently spun out or skidding out on them. If Mr X's chain broke or his brakes wen

t out I'm sure he would have shot out down the cliff edge or something. BUT - our bikes were well tuned and we had a blast flying down the trail but coming back up was a different story altogether. It was excruciating. And it took so long! It probably took 3x as long to get back up the trail. We had slathered ourselves with sunscreen before we took off so we were pretty greasy to begin with. Then we sweated through everything on the way back up. But since there was a good breeze (thank goodness because the cooling breezes now and again helped me re-decide over and over that I could in fact make it up the trail) by the time we finished we were covered in a red grit from head to toe. Our bikes were too - they looked like they had completely rusted up by the time we finished. I'm not sure we'll ever get them totally cleaned up properly again unless we take them back into REI, which we won't do because we're too cheap.