Last weekend I had the good fortune to once again visit Moab, Utah for a mountain bike vacation. Moab is one of the most beautiful places I've had the opportunity to visit and explore. I left early Thursday morning, heading to Flagstaff to meet up with my good friend Jagadisa. About seven hours later I was in the clean, cool mountains of Arizona north.
After getting settled, we headed out to ride some of the local Flagstaff trails. I was so happy to be in the mountains again. I find so much solace under the canopy of trees, breathing in the cool air, and listening to the sound of the wind moving through the leaves. Unfortunately, my experiences were brought to a halt after my attempt to do a six foot gap that I sort of haphazardly jumped off of. A fall straight onto my back, a cracked helmet, and a pretty bad concusion later, I was back at Jagadisa's house with bloody elbows, wondering what the hell happened, and how I had gotten to Flagstaff. It was the beginning of a great weekend.
That night was a restless night, dealing with the wost headache I think I've ever had. At least that's what it was like at the time. The next day was a relaxing one, taking up most of my day watching mountain bike videos, getting myself back in working order, and getting pumped to head to Moab the following Saturday morning. I was able to ride a bit Friday evening, but not to hard. Most of my ride was spent checking out Jagadisa clear some pretty monster jumps. Jagadisa has become quite a skilled rider in the last two years, since his move to the mountains. Its great to see. By the way, next time I go to Flagstaff, I'm clearing that six foot gap damn it!
It's a quick five hour jaunt to Moab from Flag. It was a great drive with sweet i-pod sounds of Kirtan, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and some Metallica thrown in the mix. We were ready for battle!
If you've not been to Utah, you need to mark it on your "things to do before you die" list. It truly is God's country. Moab is a quaint little town, geared toward adventure seekers. There is so much to do and experience here, it would take months just to "taste a drop". At the heart of this part of Canyon Country lies the wonderful Colorado river. It has etched it's way through these parts to create some of the most epic landscape ever to be seen (I feel like I'm writing a brochure or something). I really hope to spend some extended time here in the future.
Once we got settled into our cheap little motel, we headed straight for Slickrock trail. The "must do" trail for any mountain bike trip to Moab. Slickrock is made up of just that. Slickrock. The only description I can really think of is sort of like riding on Mars. With views of canyonlands as far as the eye can see. We stopped to take a break at one point and take in the view, chant Gayatri, and view the majesty of the Colorado, peacefully etching its way through massive hallway type canyons. I'm so thankful to be rite here, rite now. After our ride, We had dinner fit for kings, pasta and veggie burgers, and got ready to be shuttled up 11,000ft the next morning. This was to be our epic ride!
At 8:30 we hopped in a van with ten other people, rugged mountain bikes strapped to the top and back of the vehicle, and headed up, up and away. After an hour of driving up the mountain, we were dropped off, with not really a clue of where to go but down. Our decent would last about four hours (If any of you are familiar with mountain biking, this is a hell of a long time to decent. A mountain bikers heaven). The upper trail would eventually drop us off onto Lower Porcupine Rim trail, a well rounded, fast, challenging decent, with many sections that are quite easy to fall off of a shere cliff 8,000ft to your death. What euphoria! I'm pretty sure this would be considered gambling, but what the hell! The Rim trail droppped us off rite onto the shores of the Colorado, where we had a majestic four mile road ride along the river back into town.
Tired and in total bliss from our ride, we headed back to Flagstaff, taking the scenic route through Monument Valley, you know, that place where Forrest Gump runs to and finally says, "I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now." Also the place where Jagadisa thinks that meteors dropped from space millions of years ago, to create these massive slabs of earth sticking out of the earth like space ships. Either way, it was a great ending to a great trip.
With Jagadisa back at home safe and sound, I headed back home on Monday to Socal. On my way back I decided to make take a little detour along route 66, to go to the Amboy volcanic crater in the Mojave. This is the location of the most recent volcanic eruption in the U.S. This place was sort of eerie. Surrounding the volcano was about three miles of black lava rock from the last explosion. I decided to hike inside the volcano, even though I was totally out of water. (Kids dont do this at home). What an experience, to be inside the mouth of a volcano. I made sure to grab a piece of lava from here. I climbed to the very top of the volcano so I could get a good look of the surrounding area. It so easy to get lost in contemplation in the desert. My mind is naturally pulled towards the thought of the sruggles of ascetics who have come here to get close to God. I think of the struggles that Moses and his community of followers had to go through, while the Lord cleansed them of every materialistic desire, that kept them from realizing there complete dependence on God. Only then were they given the Promised Land.
It's this reason that I hope I can continue trips into nature like this one. So that I too can experience God bringing me closer into the shade of his loving embrace.
