I haven't been mountain biking in a while or even much in the past few years. I been spending time road riding and triathlon, so the mountain biking gods probably don't look favorably on me now. However, if you go mountain biking in the birthplace of mountain biking (Crested Butte) and then to the Mecca of Mountain Biking (Moab) are you saved. I'll have to consult the church of the knobby tire on that but based on the spectacular riding in these places I'll have to say I've been saved (for now at least).
Sharon's friend from Texas Tech, Carrie King and I did the practice trail before riding the main loop (Sharon doesn't care for mountain biking). Carrie is the head of the field portion of the Arizona Game and Fish Department's (blackfooted) ferret reintroduction project. Some day I'd like to go to "work" with Carrie for a week (and people really do). How many people do you know that you can say you'd like to go to work with for your vacation? Carrie said to me before I stared writing, "I must be the luckiest person in the word, I love going to work every day."
So I wound up riding the main loop solo the next morning at 7:30 AM becuase slick rock heats up to about 120def F by noon, so you don't want to be trapped out there. Took about 2 hours (the guide books say 4 hours to a full day). Climbing is incredible, you can actually climb stuff you'd probably be scrambling on if you were just hiking. In fact, you grip so well that on one climb I literally fell over backwards off my bike.
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