Since it’s now March, I don’t feel quite so bad giving up on winter and heading south for some good times in the desert. My shoulder has been jacked up for a couple weeks now, so I’ve been avoiding climbing. Mountain biking isn’t too bad as long as I don’t have to pull up on the bars too much, and I need some cardio work, so it’s all good. As is standard this time of year, Jen and I were joined by a whole crew of friends down in Moab.
We started off the weekend planning on riding the first half of the Mag 7 trail, but when we got to the pull-out point, Scott and I decided to keep going up Gold Bar to the Portal Trail. After the climb up Gold Bar, the riding along the rim was world class—amazing views with excellent sections of unique tech. I wish more trails were like this one. The Portal is kind of the opposite. It’s old-school tech—steep and loose with tight turns. Any of the amazing riding we got to do on Saturday was unfortunately offset by the rather shitty riding on Sunday. We checked out some of the new trails off Hwy 313, and while they were better than sitting on the couch, they weren’t better by much.
While I love mountain biking, I love climbing more. Right now I’m just trying to take care of my shoulder and let it recover enough to get back on the rock. I can’t tell if I’m hitting the rehab too hard or not hard enough. Jen is convinced that I’m givin’ ‘er too hard, but I’m not positive. Either way, I need to get it healthy so I can come back down here with climbing gear. On the way up the Gold Bar trail to the rim, we saw an awesome looking tower tucked back into a side canyon that I didn’t even know existed. That single view held my attention for longer than anything else my eyes came across this weekend. It’s clear what I wish I was doing, and sometimes laying low so you can do what you want to do…later…can be one of the biggest challenges.
