When I came back from the 24 Hours of Moab a few weeks ago, I saw the Dewey Bridge for the first time since it burned last spring. It’s a landmark I’ve seen on many trips to Moab. It was so sad to see it destroyed.
The following photos of the Dewey Bridge are from when I rode the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita to Moab last year.
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The 24 Hours of Moab has long been the party at end of the mountain bike race season. A lot of the the teams are there just to have fun and the race is secondary. A few teams like the winning Pro Men Monavie/Cannondale team and the winning Coed Pro/Am PRO CYCLING team are serious about racing. Solo riders are either serious or don’t know what they got into.
One year when I was racing solo there was a team close to my pit that had a portable hot tub surrounded by pink flamingos and Christmas lights. Middle of the night, I so wanted to take a soak instead of heading back out into the dark.
Saturday I walked around camp looking for the most fun camps. Sadly I didn’t find any interesting ones. I don’t think it was because the fun has been lost but because of the wind. Saturday morning tent poles were snapping and tops had blown off Easy-Ups.
I think everyone was just trying to keep everything from blowing away. I did spot a disco ball lying under a camp table but I didn’t make it back later to see if they put it to use.
Even though the wind caused some problems, it didn’t keep people from having fun.
Want to see more of the fun at the 24 Hours of Moab? Take a look at many more photos I took at the 2008 24 Hours of Moab.
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Update 10/27: I’ve created a page for my 2008 24 Hours of Moab photos.
When I woke up Sunday morning, it was cloudy and cold but none of the wind from the day before. It’s always cold there first thing in the morning. Even the year I raced when it was in the 80’s Saturday afternoon, it got cold at night.
I headed over to the the big check-in tents to check the RealTime Scoring and get something to eat. The lead solo riders of Josh Tostado, Tinker Juarez and Roan Exelby had continued to hammer out the laps while I slept.
Just after I posted my Day 1 report, I checked the results and saw that Chris Eatough hadn’t headed out when he came in at 10:21 PM. I had seen him on that lap. He looked good and had opened a couple minute lead over Tinker. The lap before I had seen both of them riding together.
I heard that Eatough had gone to the medical tent and that he wasn’t feeling good. I never heard what they thought was going on but he was feeling better in the morning. On Tostado’s last lap, I heard a couple guys riding with him saying it was probably because he was so far behind Tostado. Some riders are that way but I’ve never heard anything about Eatough being like that.
After breakfast I headed out and spent a few hours on the first part of the course. Not surprisingly most of the team riders still looked fairly good. Even the top solo riders were looking good. Some of the other solo riders looked like zombies which is at least how I felt Sunday mornings when I raced there.
Although Tinker was still looking good on his last lap, he said in his race report that he was beat up. His knee was hurting and he took way too many Advils. Because the top guys make it look so easy, it’s easy to forgot that they suffer too.
This was the first time I’ve been to the 24 Hours of Moab since I last raced it solo in 2001. It’s a good course for me in a lot of ways but all 4 times I raced it I had an asthma attack. It didn’t seem to be so much from all the dust but from the campfire smoke. I’d do fine until I’d come through the pits around day break. By then there was always plenty of smoke and my lungs would shut down.
Being there this year certainly made me want to go back and race it again. Since I started taking Xolair, I haven’t had any bad asthma attacks. Maybe I’d be alright racing there now.
The best I’ve done at the 24 Hours of Moab is 13 laps. Since 2001 I’ve learned a lot about staying awake and how to eat. With more experience and being able to breathe better, I think I could do 14 laps. As competitive as it’s gotten, it probably wouldn’t get me in the top 5 but I might be close. First I have lots of weight to lose and lots of training to do.
Related Link:
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Update 10/27: I’ve created a page for my 2008 24 Hours of Moab photos.
I’ve been busy going through all the photos I took at the 24 Hours of Moab. I know I’ve already used a few different ways to display photos. I’ve now set up a customized SmugMug account. So far I’m really excited about the way it looks and everything that can be done with the photos. The thumbnails look good and the navigation is easy. You can view the photos in 7 different different sizes. If they’re geotagged, you can also view where they were taken on Google Maps.
So far I’ve uploaded over 400 photos from Saturday. The 1st album is from the start and the riders coming into the check-in tent. The 2nd album is from out on the course at sunset. I manually geotagged them so the locations aren’t exact but will give you a pretty good idea where I was when I took them.
I’ve found a couple other good albums on SmugMug. My favorite one is from Xavier Fane. The other is also very good and is from Jen Curry.
Superhuman Magazine also produced another one of their great videos. It shows how rough some sections are. It also shows a great shot of a rider riding down Nose Dive.
Related Links:
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The first day of the 24 Hours of Moab has been very windy but the wind starting calming a little before dark. At the end of the 1st lap, 4 of the top 10 were solo riders. Josh Tostado was the 3rd rider to finish lap one. He has continued to build his lead in the solo race with Chris Eatough and Tinker Juarez chasing.
Here are a few of the photos I’ve taken so far. I have plenty more to upload but it will probably take a few days after I get back.
Update 10/27: I’ve created a page for my 2008 24 Hours of Moab photos.
Update 10/14: I think I took over 2,000 pictures at the 24 Hours of Moab. I still haven’t downloaded the ones I took on Sunday.
Camp Area
Ergon Tent. The Table Had Been Clean an Hour Before
Racer Meeting
Bikes Lined up for the Lemans Start
Waiting for the Start
Granny
And They Are Off
Josh Tostada at the End of Lap 1
Watch the Sandy Spots
The La Sals
Chris Eatough and Tinker Juarez
Surfing in the Sand
Camp from the Ridge
Tinker Juarez
Lights at the 24 Hours of Moab
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Bicycling has put together a good preview of the 24 Hours of Moab with Cullen Barker. I’ve raced with Cullen since the early ’90s. This will be his 5th time racing the 24 Hours of Moab solo.
The video gives a bit of an idea of how sandy some of the sections are. There are a couple downhill sections were it’s feels like you’re surfing on your bike. It’s hard to capture Nose Dive and it’s really looks bigger when you’re riding up to it. It can be intimidating for less experienced riders.
With so many riders the good lines keep shifting during the race. Generally there is wind and that also keeps the sand shifting around. As a solo rider, I’ve noticed fair change between laps. The change is much bigger for team riders that will only see each section about every 5 hours.
Team riders will generally be doing their 2nd lap in the dark so they don’t always know the lines where there a drops. I’ve generally been on my 5th lap when it’s gotten dark so I already knew the good lines pretty well.
Bicycling has a Google map of the Moab course with the location of the videos segments marked. The video of each section are also longer.
Related Link: Headed to 24 Hours of Moab
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The 24 Hours of Moab is this weekend. I’ve raced there solo 4 times. This time I’m just going to hang out and ride around. I also have a new camera
Of course I’m most interested in the solo racers. Both Tinker Juarez and Chris Eatough are registered. It should be an interesting race between them.
Josh Tostado from Colorado is another guy that could do well. Pete Basinger who holds the Iditarod Trail Invitational record should also do well. My guess is the race is a little short for him but I still could see him in the top 3. I raced with him in 2003 at the Fireweed 400.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to get internet access out at the race course. If I can’t I’ll try going in to town Saturday night to upload at least a few photos. Granny Gear will also have a webcast during the race. The race standings are generally updated very often so you can so how the race is going.
The 24 Hours of Moab is where I first raced at night when I raced solo in 1997. Little did I know the path it would lead me down. I didn’t even have a light system. I was racing on the Schwinn/Grand West grassroots team and the team manager arranged for me to use one a demo unit of a new Schwinn dual light system.
It turned out the lights worked great. Unfortunately my lungs didn’t. A couple days before I was laying on the couch with fever, aches and chills. I was feeling better for the race but I was still very congested.
The race went really well for me for the first 12 hours and I was in 3rd place. During the night it started snowing and I got to the point I could barely breath. I ended up sitting in the back of my truck for 7 hours. If I laid down I couldn’t breathe. Even when I fell asleep sitting up, I’d start choking.
Once it the sun came up and it warmed up a bit, my crew convinced my to head out for one more lap. I felt good on that lap and had time for one more. I ended up with 10 laps and finished 8th out of 16.
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It’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since I was mountain biking in Moab. This post has just been sitting partially written.
The final ride I did in Moab was the Kane Creek/Harrah Pass/Amasa Back Loop. This loop was the first ride I ever did in Moab. I had never been to Moab and went out to race the Tour of Canyonlands. My friend was working the evening before the race so we left late. We got to Moab about 3 AM and I got a few hours of sleep before showing up for the race. Over the years since then, I’ve ridden the loop several times both in racing and just riding.
The last time I had tried riding this loop was in 2004 when the Tour of Canyonlands last used this course. I had gotten sick with aches and chills on the way out a couple days before the race. The day before the race, I felt well enough to ride up Amasa Back but was still weak.
I figured I’d start the race and see how I felt. Even when I haven’t been sick, I often don’t feel good before a race starts. How I feel before a race is never a good indication of how well I’ll race.
Within a couple miles, it was clear I’d be struggling just to finish. I considered just riding it easy but was concerned I’d do my body more harm than good. There had been a big rain a couple days before and the first water crossing that was normally a trickle was flowing pretty good. I hung out with some other people and watched some vehicles get stuck and unstuck.
While I was watching, emergency vehicles went by. Then we started hearing that there had been a bad accident with the racers. I would later find out that “Ben” Hall had been killed in a collision with a truck. Although I often saw him at the races and we’d be back and forth sometimes, I never really got to know him. It truly was a sad day in the mountain bike race community.
Although it has been 4 years since the accident, it was on my mind as I set out on my ride. The Kane Creek road is actually pretty boring but makes for a nice warm up. Right about where I thought the accident had happened from what one of my teammates that saw had told me, I saw a simple cross with a chain ring on it.
I always enjoy the views while riding up Harrah Pass. It’s also an enjoyable climb for me since it’s not too steep and I can power up it. I took a short break at the top before the fun, fast descent down the back side.
It always seems like it’s farther than I remember from the bottom of Harrah Pass over to Jackson Hole and the base of Jacob’s Ladder. I actually enjoy being back there so it’s not that I’m not having fun. Less sand would be nice but it’s not all that bad.
Even though I did a lot of work on my bike the first day in Moab, I didn’t change my chain because I didn’t have a new cassette. I also didn’t think my chain had that much wear on it. I was wrong and my chain broke. I carry the Crank Brothers Multi 17 Tool and I really like it because it’s small and has almost everything you could need on the trail. I do find that the chain tool can be bit difficult to use but it’s still much better than not having one. I had trouble fixing the chain and apparently didn’t get it right. About 15 minutes later it broke a 2nd time. That time fixing it went smoothly and it didn’t break again.
The first time I raced on this course I had no idea what Jacob’s Ladder was. Before the race I kept hearing people talking about it. I asked my teammate that had raced the course before what it was like. He pointed to some high cliffs and said, “It’s pretty much like those cliffs except there’s a broken section you scramble up.”
I only half believed him and thought he was just messing with me. I would find out soon enough that his description was pretty accurate. Unlike most of the other racers, I always liked Jacob’s Ladder because I always made up quite a few places on it. It’s no harder than doing the Manitou Incline except that you’re carrying a bike on your back. It’s much easier than doing Gray’s Peak in Montezuma’s Revenge.
Once at the top of Jacob’s Ladder, it’s just a quick descent down Amasa Back. The short steep section back up to the Kane Creek road always seem brutal after descending.
Related Links: 7 Mountain Biking Confidence Killers | Saltwash and Sovereign Singletracks | Gold Bar Rim and Portal Trail
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A 7-year-old boy playing with matches ignited a brush fire yesterday that destroyed the Old Dewey Bridge that is part of the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita to Moab. The suspension bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1916 and was the state’s longest bridge without supports in the waterway it crossed.
The Dewey Bridge was within sight of the new bridge on Utah Highway 128 so it won’t keep mountain bikers from riding the trail. It’s still a big bummer since it was a cool bridge and part of riding the Kokopelli Trail. I’ve driven by it many times and rode across it when I did the Kokopelli Trail lat year. I just saw it when I was to Moab a couple weeks ago.
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Today I rode Gold Bar Rim and the Portal Trail. I rode Gold Bar Rim once before and really wasn’t struck with it. When I asked for readers favorite Moab rides, 3 readers mentioned it so I decided to give it another try.
The other time I did Gold Bar Rim, several of us had started from our camp at Sand Flats. We took the road over to Poison Spider. We then did Poison Spider, Golden Spike, Gold Bar Rim, back to town, and up to Sand Flats.
I was fit and ready for race season so the distance wasn’t bad. The issue was that we had a couple slower riders that we spent a lot of time waiting for. We all ran out of food and water. It wasn’t pretty. I was also headed home that day and was very late picking my wife up in Grand Junction. She brought it up again Sunday when we discussed when I’d be picking her up tomorrow.
Today was nothing like that day. I had felt really tired yesterday after just doing Saltwash and Sovereign singletracks. I decided I’d go part way up Gold Bar Rim and then turn around.
I hadn’t realized that there was singletrack that followed the rim instead of going up and down like the jeep trail. I copied the directions from my route book on finding the singletrack. Of course I forgot and left them in the vehicle when I started riding. They may not have done much good since I don’t have a bike computer or GPS on my mountain bike. The key thing I remembered was always go left and up if you end up back on the jeep trail.
The singletrack was easier to find and follow than I expected based on what the book said. There were a fair number of cairns and blue paint lines. Still I lost the trail several times but always found it again pretty soon. Still there are several places you have to carry your bike so if you don’t like getting off a lot, it’s probably not a good trail for you.
I got to where I could see Poison Spider Mesa and the rock dome where the Portal Trail drops down. I was having way too much fun to turn around so I just kept going. Of course that was about when it seemed like the rock dome wasn’t getting any closer.
The Portal Trail has a lot of exposure. It’s not for people that are scared of heights. I have a rule that even if the trail is easily rideable I get off and walk if falling most likely would mean death. I did some walking on the narrow sections of the Portal Trail. It’s not something to take lightly because people really have fallen off there and died.
Once I got past the narrow sections, the descent down was fun and I was at the road. I hadn’t been looking forward to the ride back to the Gemini Bridges parking lot. It ended up seeming shorter than I had expected. Another fun day of ridng in Moab and I get to ride a part day tomorrow before heading back.
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