Saturday, May 17th, 2008 by B.J.
Tuesday morning we woke up to snow showers in Denver and decided to get the heck out of dodge. Snow…c’mon…we’d just sent our skis home with Jimmy and Shannon and we were looking for warmer climates. A snowstorm in mid-May in Denver was not on our list of things to do…so we hit the road. We went directly over to Golden, CO as I am a bit more familiar with that town having lived there before. In our usual fashion, we set up shop in the van and poached the internet from the local public library. After a few hours working in the van, with the wet snow and rain falling outside, we headed inside for a change of pace. All in all it was a very productive Tuesday as only snow and rain showers can pull off!
After some last minute bike parts, food and beer purchases we pointed Ron directly West…towards Fruita, Colorado and warmer weather. With the later start out of the Denver area, we didn’t pull into Fruita’s Colorado River State Park until around midnight. Since both of us were tired and we had not yet done much research on camping in the area, we simply forked over the $20 for the “tent” site…parked the van in the parking lot…popped the top…and fell directly to sleep. Lesson #1 – Don’t camp here! There is free camping out at Bookcliffs just North of town and that is where quite a bit of the riding is in the area.
That morning we heading directly to the Aspen Street coffee shop and once again set up shop for another workday. We decided to spend the morning hours in town and then head out to find a camp site in the early afternoon. The camps are about 10 miles out of town and they are surrounded by some of the best singletrack “run” style riding in the country. And, to top it off…we now can work directly from camp…as long as there is a cell phone signal! Yup…its true…it even works when you are cruising down the highway at 80mph…high speed internet…at high speeds on the highways! So, we set up camp (hanging the hammock and unloading the bikes)…and then settled into an afternoon of work. That night we got our first taste of Fruita’s world-class singletrack…an original Fruita classic – Joe’s Ridge to Prime Cut.
The next morning we headed over and experienced an incredibly flowy and beautiful ride called Chutes and Ladders…we worked all day from the van (most productive I’ve been in a while!)…and took off for a ride on the other side of the valley from the Kokopelli trailhead. We started off on the wrong trail, but finally made our way to Mary’s and Horsethief Loops…WOW…this ride is epic…nothing really challenging…just beautiful…and we were lucky enough to have wasted a good 30-45 minutes earlier in the evening on the wrong trail to hit the sunset just right!
Early the next morning we headed out for a more challenging trail called Zippity Do Da…a great ride with some fun steeps along a somewhat exposed ridge line…we’ve decided that when they say “challenging” and “exposed” that we can read to mean…”damn fun” and “must do”! We then headed into our favorite coffee locale and set up shop in both the van and inside. In the late afternoon, while working from the front window of the coffee shop…we started to notice quite a bit of activity outside…and who would’ve known…but, of course…it was the start of the “Mike the Headless Chicken Festival”.
Story has it that in 1945 a poor chicken was on the menu for dinner…he didn’t want to die and lived for 18 months after the taking an axe to the neck. Read more here (http://miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.html). Well, now this little farm town that has taken in the mountain biking community has quite a little festival around “Mike” the wonder chicken. If we had known what were going to be missing…we would have planned to stay in Fruita longer!
So…after taking in the festival quickly…we hopped into Ron and pointed him a bit further South and West…once again to Gooseberry Mesa (our new home away from home)! We pulled in around 1:30am to camp that Tim and Mary Lynn have setup with friends Jimmy, Trish, Jimmy’s brother Mike and his son Nicholas.
Its now Saturday afternoon…around 90F…we rode my two favorite trails this morning before the heat settled in and are now just relaxing…with the sound of margarita preparations in the background. Although its hot outside…there is a nice breeze and the shade is just about perfect. Of course, we will see how it goes as it is supposed to get up to 104F on Monday! OUCH.
BJ and I pulled into camp atop Gooseberry Mesa at about 1am on Friday night. Popped the top of the van and fell right asleep. When we woke in the morning, it didn’t take us long to fall right into weekend mode with Tim & Mary Lynn, Jimmy & Trish, Cory, and Mike & Nicholas (the youngest member of our weekend gang). We gathered a group to join us on our introductory Gooseberry ride – out to the point, then back on the South Rim and Hidden Canyon Trails. 
I had forgotten how fun these trails are – a combination of slickrock, dirt, gorgeous views, pretty flat, but just enough challenge to keep you breathing hard and on top of your game.
Sunday to Subway – No photos for this one (see Tim & Mary Lynn’s blog for a visual journal). Tim and ML have been practicing their rope and climbing skills and invited us to join them to hike the Subway in Zion National Park. We called it a day of extremes as we began hiking in 100 degree weather and slowly made our way down a plateau to a narrow canyon where we would complete three mandatory rappels and four mandatory and icy swims (one of which was so narrow you had to doggy paddle). Towards the end of the tight canyon it becomes obvious why the area is called the Subway. Picture tube shaped walls perfectly wide enough for a subway train to wind its way through this remote route in the rock. A slow meandering walk out brought us back to the mesa just in time for Trish’s delicious steak fajita dinner at 9pm.