We Like the Night

Short Version:
We ride the 18 Road Area by day and by night and by day, then hit Grand Junction for some shuttling fun

Long Version:
We were camped right alongside some trails that we'd heard great things about, and were on the bikes pretty much as soon as we were awake. We rode for just over two hours, and during that time explored most of the inner trail system, the star of which was indisputably Kessel's Run; a fast, ultra-flowy gully chute with bermed corners and generally nice lines that enabled some massive speeds. We rode it first, and we rode it last, and then we bailed into town to steal internets and to try to hook up with our Coloradan downhill racer friend Travis, who we'd met many moons ago at the Blackrock trail network in Oregon, and who'd driven from the other side of Colorado to come ride with us (Hi Travis!). Our phonelessness hampered our attempts to locate him, but eventually we found him: back out at the 18 Road.

We bought some delicious foods and then headed back out to the foot of the Bookcliffs, where we found Travis and ate delicious foods. Then the boys went for another ride. In the dark. In horizontal, stingingly-cold rain. Lovely Wife laughed at our suggestion that she join us, and stayed warm and dry in the van with a good book. This, of course, meant that she was fresh as an irritating daisy the next morning when the three of us set off to ride a few more of the trails before leaving the area: some of the same ones as the previous day, with some extras thrown in. One of these new ones was my star trail of the day, which surprised both of the others because it was nearly flat and nearly straight. The others found it a bit bland, but I thought it was excellent; untaxing and relaxing, and named Vegetarian to boot.

More delicious foods then a convoy to nearby Grand Junction, where we (eventually) found the upper trailhead and set off to shuttle what the Fruita bike-shop guys had referred to as the two premier trails in the Grand Junction Lunch Loop network: Gunny and Holy Cross. Travis and I rolled Gunny first, and found a wee bit more pedalling required than we'd been expecting. He powered through a couple of downhill sections that I walked, and I rode up a couple of steep climbs that he eyed with disfavour before dismounting from his 8-inch-travel DH bike and hiking up. All told it was a lot of fun, and it was kind of sad to pop out at the road at the end of the trail. Especially so when we figured out that we'd emerged way down the hill from where we'd expected, which meant way down the hill from where Nene was waiting with Travis' enormous pickup truck, which meant a couple of miles of uphill road grunt still had to be done. Sigh.

Nene and Travis next, down the top section of Gunny, then into Pre-Nup and on through Holy Cross to the lower trailhead. Favorable reports (apart from one crash, not by Nene) meant that the next and final run of the day was Travis and I, on Pre-Nup, Holy Cross, and Holey Bucket. There was some great riding done, but not by me: I was having one of those runs where nothing goes quite to plan, and even dismounting to hike an obstacle left me with a pedal-inflicted charley-horsed calf. Sigh. Still a lot of fun though, and from the description the others gave of the arduous hike-a-bike up the final steep poke of Holy Cross I'm glad I was on the run that used Holey Bucket to bypass it.

We stopped for gas and were harrassed by bums for change, which we refused to hand over on the grounds of poverty. Then we went to a Mexican fast food place and inhaled WAY too much cheesy, beany goodness, which meant that after wishing Travis good luck on his six-hour drive home we had a musical and fragrant journey to Rabbit Valley, on the Colorado-Utah border.