Bike Destination Vacation - Day 8

I WIN!!!

Day 8 Original Plan:  Travel to Grand Junction, CO via Boulder, CO to visit our International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) Friends.

New Day 8 Plan:  Drive back towards Truckee, CA and stop when we can no longer stand being in the car.

Due to the rather large, uncontrolled fire in Colorado, we decided to bypass that state.  That meant I got to go back to Truckee and I was THRILLED! 

Unfortunately, it meant some long days of driving with no bike riding until Truckee (sad face).  Oh well, I REALLY wanted a second chance at Sawtooth Trail.

We hit Green River, Wyoming, sometime around lunch so we swung in to a Subway and, like we typically were doing on the road, we looked for a local park near water with maybe some scenery to eat at.  As we were driving towards our water sourced park, the RAV4 stopped.  It refused to go any further.  Huh.  We both looked up and were surprised to see a bike park.  Our RAV4 sure knew us well.  

We both leaped out of our PARKED vehicle and forgetting our sandwiches, we walked around and toured the park layout.  Everything from green dots (easy) to blue squares (intermediate) to black diamonds (1 or 2 for advanced and expert) let you know what was designated easy and hard.

We ran back to the car and wolfed down our lunch and Darius pulled his bike down for a trial run while I took out my camera for some pictures.  We sooooo want one of these where we live!

Getting the lay of the land.



Intermediate Drop



Indermediate Ramp

Rock Overpass

Log Overpass

I would have ridden after Darius, except I made the mistake of eating a chocolate chip cookie (chocolate, duh!) with my sandwich – What was I thinking?  And on the road too!  My tummy so does NOT agree with chocolate . . . but I really wanted that cookie!!!  Ergo, no riding for me.

After we ate lunch and Darius played, we headed back out on the road. 

VERY Dry Waterbed

Passing through Salt Lake City, we discovered that things were a little dry on the salt flats.   Sadly, I have a picture of this same location from about 13 years ago, but the mountains are reflected beautifully on the water (which is missing in this picture).

Day 8 Results:  We made it to Elko, NV before we called it quits.  We had been in the car about 12 hours and were ready for a break.  A quick stop for pizza, and then hotel for some sleep.  Did I mention I am really tired of riding in a car?