Wow! That was an awesomely brutal ride.
I'm soooo totally smoked. Thanks for all the encouragement! I need a bit of time to decompress and I'll toss up a blog once I get back home but here are some highlights:
/* the dirty business */
I started from Dewey at 7:05 pm on Thurs, June 9th and finished 1:19 am on Thurs, June 16th - that puts my time at 6 days 6 hrs and 14 mins. Feel free to double check my math. I'll asterisk this with the fact that I did ride towards Nucla on the Paradox proper, but when I got to Spradlin Park where the pp issue is, there was a truck parked out by that white tank and quite a few ntp (no trespass) signs about. I was unable to make contact with Paul K in Nucla about the issue and felt it proper to just ride back up the road from Nucla (the advised detour) to connect back up to trail on Pinto Mesa, since if it were that someone mentioned that there were 'footy prints all over my desert' (sic.) he - Paul - (and we as mtb'rs) could possibly feel the brunt of any repercussions. I'm all for being loose and free around the edges and such, but...
398 miles
50,193' of ascent
/* end */
- Being totally stoked to get started only to be thwarted by the road to Westwater being flooded out, necessitating a last minute change to a Dewey start. (A week later, the water was gone.)
- Thinking to myself as I descended Carpenter Ridge - 'Man, I can believe Scott and Chad rode/walked up this thing...' Only to realize my Spot had fallen off somewhere since the top. So I ended up blowing at least an hour walking back up and down to retrieve it.
- Almost baking to death on both the Coal Canyon and No Mas Hill sections. I think they lied on the brochure- No Mas Hill ends at Little Park Road.
6hrs to do 22 miles? Insane.
- Walking and dragging my bike through all that snow on the Pool Creek section. If I would have not scouted that last fall, I would have been screwed with an unavoidable dnf since there was no way to navigate over/through the snow w/o my track.
- Saw five black bears in four encounters, luckily they scurried off quickly. Lots of elk and deer. One cat, but it was too quick for me to make out what it was. Strangely enough, the first bear I saw was just after leaving Hideout.
- Making (and then realizing) the same error as my scouting run after riding up Long Creek instead of the 544.
- Having lightning crash all around me under a full moon as I did the Fish Ford / McGraw Bottom / Yellowjacket sections. It was eerie, the moon was out in the east and the clouds were pretty stationary in the west.
- Being totally DONE when I wheeled into GJ but feeling like a million bucks after a shower/nap in a motel and a trip to the grocer for some sushi, fried chicken and fresh fruit.
- Super awesome winds helping to cool me down on the hot cloudless Salty Bitter pill sections of the Kokopelli. The lack of sun really plucked the stinger out of the Yellowjacket as well.
- Realizing that the notion of a 'good idea' and 'grand loop' is quite the dichotomy, a Paradox (pun intended), if you will. This course will certainly mess and mangle with your mettle. That said, never say never (again). Maybe once they get that pp issue figured out and there's no snow up high.
Here's a quick pic sampling (took 268 of 'em out there).
Overlooking Paradox Valley:
Bedrock Store - Closed:
Full Services in Nucla:
Snow on the Pool Creek section:
DH's River:
Good grub courtesy of the Naturita grocer:
Last bits of chicken somewhere on the Kokopelli:
