White Rim from Moab via Potash Road Day 2 April 24th 2017

DAY 2 Monday April 24th, 2017

Waking up to a zillion stars is not so bad--plenty of satellites zipping by and darn hard to pick out the constellations. Hey and wait a minute...no wind?  Really, turns out the wind had died off sometime around midnight which let me get at least 6 or so hours of sleep.  More would have been nice as that was two nights in a row plus some sort of ride yesterday which had made me a little tired.  Jumped up though and got dressed, packed sleeping gear up and was back on the bike riding by 6:30am.  Potato Bottom campsite was just down the road so that  made an easy pit stop, eat breakfast, stretch, and get some sun screen on.  

The only thing that I missed was my Cashews.  I forgot to put them away while cooking dinner and left them in the side of my pack.  The little furry critters got in them and eat the whole dang bag.  That was a whole half can of nice salted cashews...did they eat well or what.  Knew I was going to miss the protein hit throughout the day of those--one of my favorite treats!  HA!  

 Sun coming up over the canyon.  Started out sunny but then cloud cover moved in and the temps stayed in the 60's most of the day, maybe up to low 70s which made for excellent riding temps.

 Descent down from Bivy to Potato Bottom

 Then the White Rim flattens out and you get some nice rolling pedaling over the rim and the views open up.  Towers all around in every direction. 

 Candlestick tower in the middle--looks like a bday candle to me. 

 This group caught up with me and were doing the white rim road (100 miles) in a day which I have done several times before.  You go light and hammer out the miles.  Nice way to do it but you cannot look around much or take too many pics.  They passed me fast but then slowed way down and I ended up ridign with them for almost 9 miles.  Riders were from Grand Junction and they had started around 4am from Mineral Bottom road.  The White Rim then started a steady climb for about a mile and the one guy fell back fast so I rode with him but then he slowed more and I had to keep my pace up.  The group stopped and I never saw them again for the day--hope they enjoyed themselves. 

 Candlestick Campsite--my original destination for the night--very exposed and very windy. 

 A quick refuel here and back on the bike. 

 Today is full of short steep climbs over many bluffs--some you have to walk to save the legs, some are able to be ridden.  Hardly saw anyone on the trail though--very quiet. 

 This is Murphy Hogback climb--the route weaves up the left side of the bluff and there is a campground at the top.  One of the last tough climbs of the day--at least I kept telling my legs that!  I actually walked most of this due to the steepness and knowing I had a long day ahead--probably almost 100 miles today. 

 Nearing the top

 Road below where I came from and the white rim actually went around that tower in the distance too. 

 This is a guided group that I ran into--they had a buffet spread out and making sandwiches/drinks/etc.  I rode by ringing my bike bell and asking one of the guides if I could  jump in--free all you can eat buffet?   He laughed and wished me a good trip.  

   

Getting in to the Airport tower area--flatter here again but the road winds through a lot of small canyons and you can see down in them along the way.  The wind picked up a bit at this point and stuck with me for the day. 

 The only cactus bloom I saw on the ride.  I actually railed by it and finally it registered that was a real cactus in bloom so I turned around and went back for a quick pic. 

 Airport area camping--very popular area--4 sites here that each hold 30 people. 

 I am pointing here to a bench just below that tower in the distance.  That is the Potash road river overlook that I took the Panorama picture at the day before.  That is where I will be in a few hours on the way back. 

 Mussleman Arch side track--cool arch that is in a lot of pics...

 Finally, the turn back to Potash Road.   Ahead was the Shafer climb again--glad I do not have to pedal up that again. 

 Only 32 more miles from here but it is 5:30pm...and I still need to find my water stash and refuel.  Pedal pedal!

 Look what I found hiding in the rocks?  I had stashed 2L of water here the day before. 

 And good thing I did--only about a 8oz left in my camel back.  Those 2L were going to get me back to Moab. 

 I stopped a mile down the Potash Road at the Shafer Camp for a pitstop/refuel.  I had earned reward at this point so out came the Peanut M&Ms. 

 The Shafer canyon is really cool to ride through and descends steeply back towards Moab

 Another climb up and back up to the river viewpoint from yesterday. 

 Remember these views of the mountains?  Brought a smile back for sure but the light was fading fast. 

 In the mine area there is a balance rock which was cool. 

 To get to this point the road rolls up and down several times and the legs were talking to me.  I kept up with the salt pills so at least there was no cramping--just had to keep moving and stop/stretch each hour.  I also had my stop watch timer going for an hourly alarm--this was I would make sure to eat/drink even though I was getting real tired. Below you can see one of the large ore buildings to the right side.

 And there it is--19 miles of pavement back to town.  This was the hardest part of the day--head wind of course, tired legs and all sitting/spinning.  You realize how tired you are nad how sore your sit bones are when you have to spin with a heavy bike into the wind for 19 miles.  I would ride from mile marker to mile marker with the next one my only goal at that time.  Rode some standing miles too just to give the toosh a break!   

 The sun started to set on me so out came the lights--front and rear for as much visibility as possible.  . 

 Amasa Back area.  There is a campsite here and I considered stopping for the night--had some extra food and could easily get up in the morning and finish.  Turns out there was a boy scout group camp going on--I am sure they would have taken me in and probably could have had a killer dinner! 

 After miles and miles I finally came to mile 15 marker and turned onto the Moab bike path.  Solid dark at this point and was spitting rain.  The nice part was that as soon as I hit the bike path, the wind was finally at my back and at 25+mph it blew me into town with light pedaling for the final 4.5 miles back to the car.  

I even was able to sneak in a smile as I neared the car! 

 And the car was still there in tact--a concern of mine after leaving it for a night and Moab having such strict rules about cars in town.  A quick removal of the bags, turn the phone on and call home that all is well.  Then off to Denny's for a French Toast Slam, Oreo Shake, and Omelette for recovery meal.  The rain picked up and so I drove on to Fruita that night--that was a tough drive being tired for an hour and a half but made it and crashed at the Super 8 to make the drive home easier the next morning.  I actually had the windows open some to keep me awake--nothing like lonely desert highway at 11pm at night! 

 And I thought I had a tan!  Lots of dirt instead.  I used the Pearl sun legs/sleeves and they were great for not having to use much sun screen and staying cleaner overall.  They do not cover this one section of my legs though.  At night I just use a wet wipe to clean them and also get sunscreen off my face/neck/ears. 

 Final numbers....96.5 for today and another 5K+climbing.  

 Onto the next adventure, now where is my red staples button--that sure was easy!  Just kidding....I am nuked from the two days--it was quite the epic and worn me down both physically and mentally with all the wind, water carry, and rough trail.  It was truly a character building event with challenges every hour and I did not have many miles in me before doing this ride.  Amy told me I was crazy for doing this "off the couch".  Based on that,  we can always prepare more and better on anything but, I pushed my self and made it happen.  Had a lot of fun along the way, saw an amazing place in the country and I still want to ride my bike again (well, at least not for the next week my sit bones tell me!)  Next time though, looking forward to company--who is in?! We have several more adventures of overnight bike packing planned for this summer so hopefully we can get this posted up later on. 

And added this pic--shows most of my trash from food on the trip that I emptied out of bags/pockets.  The only thing missing was Sunday dinner of tuna/garlic beef stick/Ramen, recovery drink, and some more skratch labs single mix packets.  The data shows me that I burned 8000 calories on the trip but I only had 6000cals with me.  I ate two burritos Sunday morning before I left and had that Denny's meal when I got back.  Figure I will still be hungry for the next month...

Day 1 White Rim

Prep