MOAB

You have probably heard of Moab, Utah.  Most people have if they like the outdoors.  I heard about it about twenty years ago after my friends Jamie and Danielle went there for a trip.  So they rode the Slickrock Trail on Rigids (a bike with no suspension).  There was really no other choice in those days so it wasn't old school or hard core then but riding Moab today is a different story.  Full suspension is the only way to fly and you are considered hardcore if you ride it on a hardtail (bike with only front suspension).  Of course the distance you can cover on a nice XC (cross country) full suspension bike and the speed you can descend has increased since the old days.  Regardless of what you ride Moab is a punishing place and it does not suffer ill maintained equipment or stupid behavior.  Moab is also an almost ridiculously beautiful place that will boggle your mind the first time you see it.  Views so vast and wide and full of images of great power that you almost can't accept that it is real.  Thousand foot drops to distant valley floors in the midst of which great towers of red rock rise up and up and up with the Colorado River pushing through it's hard won canyon like a great majestic snake.  Difficult riding, punishing extended descents, remote (and therefore dangerous just for how far away from help you are) locations all make for serious fun.  No matter where you stop you are in for at least a decent view.  Sometimes you just gawk and wish you had wings.

I drove up with my next door neighbor and riding buddy Chris and upon arrival he realized that the allergies that had been plaguing him badly were really a nasty head cold.  He was awake coughing and sneezing the first night and ... so was I, not mine but his.  I know he felt pretty bad with the cold and pretty bad because here he was in riding nirvana with a brand new amazing full suspension bike and he was sick.  He rode the first day and showed considerable pluck but there was no hiding he was sick.  We shuttled up to Porcupine Rim and it was just great.  I tore it up on my Specialized Enduro which was basically built for this type of trail.  It was an epic ride down to the river from the rim.  The night following our first ride was worse then the first and Chris was in a major hurt.  He called his girlfriend in ABQ and she drove the 350 miles north to get him and then they drove home!  Wow.  I stayed on and rode for two more days and met some very nice folks from Fort Collins, Co. who were kind enough to invite me to dinner and ride with me the day following so the trip was very satisfying and I hope to return before we leave NM.