Moab Adventures

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for (or thought you were waiting for)! Now that I have provided an introduction, some possibly thought-provoking ideas, and an ode to my faith and my wife, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite places on earth:

MOAB, UTAH!

My first introduction to Moab was through a group of friends who convinced me to run the Canyonlands Half Marathon with them. I was instantly in love - the possibilities for adventure, the solitude, the awesome ruggedness of the land, the silence of canyons whose walls could tell stories we can only imagine. It is an inspiring place.

While living in San Diego with my uncle and his family, I convinced my cousin, Matt, to join me on an extended-weekend adventure to top them all (yes, I'm going to start with one of my most memorable adventures - how could I not?). It wasn't a hard job convincing Matt to come. As an avid mountain biker like myself, he is always up for a road trip to Mountain Biking Mecca.

We loaded up the Jeep and drove 12 hours through nothing but desert from San Diego to Moab. Now here's the catch - we didn't have any other plans besides go have a fun time. We didn't have hotel reservations, a tent, campsite reservations . . . no accommodations for 4 days. A had a few friends running rivers for a Moab based outfitting company there, but staying with them was against company policy. So we had to go find places to sleep. That wasn't too hard to do, considering there are tons of campsites all over the place, run on a first-come, first-serve bases. The problem? Mosquitoes. Don't go camping in June in Moab with out a tent and lots of bug spray. We had neither and that was the worst part of the trip (along with Matt not feeling particularly well . . . although that did lead to pit stops in parts of the world I have never stopped to look at before).

The rest of the trip was incredible. Slickrock, the critically acclaimed mountain bike trail, was just about all it was cracked up to be. I'm more of a cross-country mountain biker, so conditions were perfect! (Another hint for biking in Moab in June: hit the trails early, like 6 am or earlier - it gets hot and it's less crowded earlier). There's no place like Slickrock where you can climb almost vertical walls, fly down trails on top of cliffs hundreds of feet high, hop ledges, and dodge every kind of off-roading vehicle imaginable. Here's me, stoked to be in Moab:


With all of the rave over Slickrock, Matt and I found what we like to call our "secret spot." It's not secret, but it is uncrowded, not well very known, and hard to get to unless you have a car that can handle primitive dirt roads. But man, it rocks (pun intended)! Like Slickrock, this trail is predominantly rock. And there's no marked trail, like at Slickrock, so whatever goes. Just don't fall off the enormous cliffs, run into cactus, or endo on the extremely steep runs. Here's a few of my favorite photos from the trail (to keep this spot as we like it, I'm not going to give up the name unless you personally ask me for it):

Aside from mountain biking some amazing trails, we spent some time in Arches National Park checking out unique rock formations and hiking through the desert. Another note if you're planning on visiting Moab in the summer: Bring lots of water. We went through almost 2 flats of Costco water bottles and we probably didn't drink enough. One of my favorite memories was when I used the natural acoustics of the Double Arch in Arches National Park to create my own amphitheater acoustic guitar concert for the desert and the few other visitors there.

Over the few days we were there, we hooked up with my friends to do some other Moab-ish activities: canyon hiking, cliff jumping, and kayaking the Colorado River in two-man inflatable rafts. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip and epitomized what we were doing - Matt with the Jeep, one raft strapped on the top, two un-inflated rafts inside, two mountain bikes, a baker's dozen of kayak paddles, most of our camping gear, and barely enough room to sit or drive.


Sunday morning came and Matt and I wrapped up our Moab adventure. On the way home, we spotted a chapel in a small Utah community and pulled off the highway for church. I'm sure we got some interesting looks from the crowd. 13 hours later, we pulled into San Diego tired and dirty, but smiling ear to ear and bursting with excitement about one heck of a great adventure.