Traveling (not touring) with bikes

As I finish up this journal of two very enjoyable trips with my bike, I'm in the processing of trying to narrow down a tour location for 2004. I have to keep reminding myself that it's OK to do a trip that isn't a tour... While I really like touring by bike, there are some locations that I want to visit where touring would be difficult for me. Not impossible, but not necessarily an ideal spot for a solo tour.

OK, I know that some of you are more daring than I am and are willing to tour in places that I wouldn't consider...

But - for 2004, I am planning on a tour, not day trips! I just don't know where yet.

Looking back on these two trips to Moab reminds me that I enjoy traveling with my bike, whether or not my ultimate destination and activity is a full-blown bike tour. As I mentioned in the beginning of this short photo journal, I would have been happier on my 2000 hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies if I'd had a bike with me. Don't get me wrong - that really was a hiking trip - but I would have enjoyed riding on one or two days. Obviously I think it is worth the trouble of traveling with a bike. The one negative is that if I bring my bike I have to check luggage on the plane. Well, I guess that's both a negative and a positive - a negative in that I have to wait for the bags at the end of my trip and I have to trust that the airlines will not send my bike to some other destination, and a positive in that I'm not hauling my belongs all over the airport. And while on occasion I have had my bike arrive on a different flight than mine, so far my luck has been good and my bike has always been delivered within a couple of hours of my own arrival. Here's hoping that my good luck with planes and bikes continues...



My Moab trips were somewhat unique in that since Moab is such a mountain bike mecca it would have been easy to rent a decent bike there. Not a road bike - which is one of the reasons my bike traveled with me - but decent mountain bikes are available for rent. It's much harder to find nice road bikes for rent, but I have been known to rent a bike for a few hours when I really want to ride and I don't have my own bike with me. All in all, I'm happier bringing my bike along!

Resources: links and comments

Are you thinking of wandering off to Moab yourself? Here are some of the resources I used to plan my trips; maybe they'll be helpful to you too.

The Moab information site has links to park information, lodging options, general visitor information, and lots of pictures.

discovermoab, the official website of the Moab Area Travel Council, has a page with PDF brochures and maps of the area. This site also has links to park information, lodging options, and other general visitor information.

The National Park Service site contains information on all of the US national parks. There are many more national parks in Utah than those that I visited on this trip. But I thoroughly enjoyed the two parks that are close to Moab:

• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park

For a small town, Moab sure has a lot of bike shops!

Are you fascinated by my traveling bikes? You can check out both my Pocket Rocket and my Air Glide (and Bruce's Air Friday) on the Bike Friday web site. If you happen to call the folks there, please mention my name!

Although I'm really not a mountain biker, the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park fascinates me. The biking in Utah site - which contains mainly information on mountain biking - is the only non-commercial source of information on the White Rim Trail that I could find (look under Canyonlands on the trails page). If you're thinking of heading out on this trail - permits are required, and they limit the number of people / groups allowed in any one backcountry camp site. If you don't want to do a commercial tour, I imagine that you could get quite a bit of information by calling one of the many Moab bike shops. Information is also available on the famous Slickrock Trail, in addition to information on many other trails.

Moab is a tourist area, so there are many choices for places to eat. Here are some of the restaurants that I liked:

• Slickrock Cafe. I had both dinner and breakfast there; good food, and an Internet cafe too.
• I ate at two Mexican restaurants - one called Banditos Grill that was a couple of blocks from the center of town heading toward Arches National Park, and the other in the center of town. Both were very good.
• The Red Rock Bakery and Net Cafe was a good breakfast place (bagels, bagel sandwiches) and another place with Internet access.
• Breakfast at Tiffany's - right next to the Hotel Off Center - had great breakfast food, both hot food and good pastries.
• And Jailhouse Cafe was yet another good breakfast place.
• Ice cream was readily available as you wander through the center of town. I usually stopped at an ice cream place next to the Slickrock Cafe for my after dinner ice cream.

There is a decent grocery store within walking distance of the center of town - just head south.

On most of the rides that I did there was no place to restock food or water - so be sure to carry whatever you need. The exception - on my out and back ride on the Arches National Park road, there is a campground at the end of the road so I was able to fill up on water there.

It's fun to share

It was a good few days, and it was fun to share this area with a friend.

Time to head out... Bruce was planning to ride his bike to his plane, which is parked at Moab's little airport about 10 to 15 miles north of town. I offered to drop him off on my way out of town, and he took me up on that offer. We had a leisurely breakfast, then loaded up the car with all of our gear. My bike was packed in its case, ready for travel by commercial jet. Bruce's bike was just folded into a soft bag since he was going to put it in the back seat of his plane - no need to pack it into a case. I dropped him off then headed back to Grand Junction to catch my own flight home. My return trip was much smoother than last year's - everything was on time, and my bike and I even arrived in Boston on the same flight. Amazing...

We talked a lot about our plans for long rides in the summer. I was still trying to decide on a destination, and Bruce had already decided that he was heading to Norway to ride. Little did I know at the time of our conversations that in less than two weeks I would be laid off from my job. Footloose and fancy free, and about to have the time for the ride of my dreams.

One last wander

After a quick stop at the hotel we headed back into Arches. Today we drove out to the end of the park road to the Devil's Garden Trailhead. From there, we walked out to Landscape Arch, which is an unbelievably long and skinny ribbon of rock. Beautiful.

On the drive back out we made a quick stop at the Fiery Furnace viewpoint. I guess I'm going to have to return to Moab again because I'd love to walk through this area. The park service describes this area as a labyrinth of narrow sandstone canyons and fins that has no marked trails. You need a permit to hike back there, and the park service recommends that you go on a ranger-led hike there before venturing out alone. I don't need much of a reason to return to beautiful places for another trip - but this might just be the trigger point for another trip to Moab in the future!

Well, time to head back to the hotel, and time to pack up my bike for the plane ride home...

Heading north along the Colorado

Our last day of riding for this trip was an another out-and-back ride along the Colorado River, this time heading to the north and east. We didn't ride to the end of the road this time, since that would have entailed a lot more riding than we were prepared to do - especially since the road we were on, route 128, eventually intersected with Interstate 70. There is actually about a 60-mile loop that looks like it would be very interesting, but neither of us was up for that distance today.

If you're interested, the loop heads out 128, then loops over (around) the La Sal Mountains and eventually comes out south of Moab. I believe there is a section of this that is unpaved - check in at one of the local bike shops for more information.

I find it amazing that our two days of river riding had very different scenery. The ride yesterday had sheer cliffs on one side of the road for a good chunk of time. Today, while there were cliffs, they weren't backed right onto the road. We saw people playing in the river in kayaks today, practicing in relatively calm waters.

It was another good riding day...


Can I say that my bike and I were practicing dipping wheels in the water for my upcoming cross-country trip? Not really, because at this point I didn't yet know that I would lose my job within the next few weeks!

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Time to hike to Delicate Arch

I loved the hike to Delicate Arch last year, and even if Bruce hadn't been with me (this is his first visit to Arches National Park) I would have returned to hike it again. We drove in to the Wolf Ranch parking area, which is also the start of the hike to Delicate Arch, and headed upward, Camelbaks filled with cold water for our out and back hike.

We talked with other people as we walked, and as usual I wondered about the folks who were hiking without any water. I'm always amazed when I see that, although I should be used to seeing unsafe things (like hiking in the desert without any water) by now! We spent a good chunk of time sitting, talking, and shooting photos when we got to Delicate Arch. And on the way back down we scrambled up to a window in the rock that framed a beautiful view of the arch. No goats on this trip, but it was still a wonderful walk.

When we got close to the bottom, we took a side trail that led to some petroglyphs, and then stopped again to look at the remains of the Wolf Ranch buildings.

Then it was time to return to Moab for a shower, clean clothes, and our usual good dinner followed by ice cream.

South along the Colorado River

...rolling on two wheels

It was a river-side riding day today, and there was no need to use that fossil-fuel-powered vehicle to get us to our ride today. We simply rode north from Moab, and turned south and west once we reached the Colorado River. We followed Route 279, also known as Potash Road, to its end at the Moab salt plant (or is it a potash plant?). What a contrast - a drop dead beautiful scenic area that ends in an industrial plan. Hmmm...

We had to stop to watch the human spiders on the rock walls along the road, climbing up sheer cliffs. Interesting that the person belaying the climber was often standing or sitting in the driving lane of the road. Sometimes they were off the road, but sometimes they needed to be in the road.

As we continued down the road we came to a section of wall that contained petroglyphs. You really had to look hard to see them; they were high on the wall, which makes me think that the bottom of the canyon was much higher at the time that the petroglyphs were created.

Back on the bikes, riding, riding... and oh, what's that? There's a calf resting along the side of the road. I wonder where its mother is? It was gone when we came back on our way back to Moab, so I guess it really was just resting, not injured. What a cutie!

And look - there's an arch along the side of the road. Beautiful.

Bruce and I definitely have a compatible riding style, but our body thermometers are really different! Bruce rode the entire day wearing his windbreaker, and I rode (almost) the entire day in a sleeveless jersey. I found the temperature difference between last years ride and this one very interesting. Last year it was very hot, and this year there were days with a touch of cool in the air. We're here a month earlier than I was last year, and I have to say that having cooler weather makes for better riding conditions.

Ah, the end of the road. Time to head back to Moab to swap bikes for hiking shoes (sandals for me), and time to get something cold to drink before heading back to Arches for some walking.