The Whole Enchilada

The highlight of my stay in Moab and perhaps this whole experiment has got to be shuttling The Whole Enchilada.  It is one of the biggest descents in the whole country.  From the parking lot, you climb up to Burro Pass, just over 11,000 feet in elevation.  From there it's about 26 miles and 2,000 feet to the bottom.

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I caught shuttle in this monster on a chilly Halloween morning.  While I was shivering in the parking lot, I struck up a conversation with our driver and found out that he was an HSU percussion grad.  It turns out we have a lot of mutual friends back in Humboldt.  I wish I could remember his name.

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I ended up staying with most of these guys throughout the day.  Most of them were in from Colorado for the weekend to celebrate a birthday.

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The view from the top!  There are many shuttle services in Moab that have similar schedules.  It seems like all the riders from all the shuttles stop at the top of Burro Pass to catch some much needed breath and to reset their gear before the long and very steep descent ahead.

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A break to take in our first view, looking out over Moab.  The day had just begun and both my bike and I were already feeling the toll of the descent.  About half way down this first section I already had a spoke that was completely slack.  Luckily one of the Colorado guys had a spoke wrench.

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Not a bad place to stop for a bite to eat eh?

Awesome Suck

I have been in Moab, UT for over a week now and I must say, I have not had so many ups and downs in such a short amount of time.  The week started off great.  I had three days of riding on world famous single-track, hung out with some new friends in town and saw some truly amazing scenery.  But then came the suck.

One evening, I found myself out at Dead Horse Point State Park after photographing the sunset.  I climb in my rig to drive it back to town only there is one problem.  The thing won't start.  After a little trouble-shooting I decided it wasn't a dead battery, so a jump wouldn't help.  Luckily, I had one option left, a push start.  With the help of a couple friendly bystanders and a bit of sweat, I got the thing running and was on my way back to town with the hope that it was just some temporary gremlin in the electrical system.  I was wrong.  The problem persisted the next morning, so off to the auto parts store I went.

With a new starter in hand I showed up at my friend's house.  He was kind enough to lend me some curb space while I got to work on my project for the day.  It was a fairly simple job.  Just disconnect two wires, unscrew two bolts, then out with the old starter and in with the new.  The only difficulty was the tight spaces where the starter was located.  With space enough for only two fingers and a socket wrench, it was a little tough to break those old bolts free.  They eventually came out though, and with them the whole starter motor.  From there it was relatively easy to get the new one in place.  With that done I hoped that my suck quota for the month had been reached.  Again, I was wrong.

A Petroglyph panel near Moab, UT

The next day started out pleasant.  I spent the morning touring a bunch of local petroglyph panels with my friend, Matt.  I was still hurting from a tough ride I had done two days prior, so it was a nice change of pace.  After that I spent the rest of the day doing chores around town.  I made a nice dinner and settled in for a relaxing evening with a beer and a movie when the next round of suck began.

Slowly throughout the evening, a pressure began building in my gut.  I tried to ignore it, thinking it was just from some lactose that sneaked in to my system when I forgot to ask for almond milk in a coffee earlier in the day.  I was disillusioned though, when my dinner made a surprise reappearance.  I will spare you the gruesome details, but for the next 24 hours, everything I put in came right back out.  I was mostly over it after two nights but it still lingers even now, three nights later.

As much as this week sucked, it was also incredible.  But, I think I'll wait to tell you about it next time.