I guess the title is a little bit overdramatic. It's not like we were attacked by mutant wild pigs. Or rode over a canyon edge. Or got stuck in the rain. Or were even really uncomfortable at all.
But. We chose today's ride because it is the course for the 24 hours of Moab. If I were to set up an event like this, I would have two ideas at the forefront of my course choice:
1. This race will be attracting national and international racers, and will serve as the representative ride of the area to all of them.
2. A 24 hour race means that these racers will be riding the course again and again and again for, you guessed it, 24 hours straight.
I can only conclude that Moab locals are sick of all the bike bums hanging around town. I can't think of a better course to ensure that every racer spends the next few years convincing every person s/he knows to never go to Moab to ride bikes.
The ride started going up a prolonged, sandy, bumpy, jeep track. Finally, it turned down an extremely sandy hill. In retrospect, this was the best part of the ride. The climb back up the other side was even sandier. Then we had to make a choice on how we would approach an impassable river bed.
After successfully not dying during the crossing, the trail got sandy. At least, sandy in comparison to how the trail had been before this point.
Then we met a bull in the middle of the road / sandpit, who gave off a very nasty vibe and would not move. We waited for twenty minutes until deciding to go cross country.
After carrying our bikes across the desert to avoid the bull, we ended up in a wash. I carried my bike up and over two separate sand dunes. Seriously. Sand dunes. In a race course.
Escaping the sand dunes proved to be the last hurdle. Except that if I were racing the 24 hours of Moab, I would be 1 lap in, of around 20. I can't imagine.
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