Home Visit

James and Aaron sitting by the green pools of Lynn Canyon.
Vancouver was all warm and tropical and full of good friends and yummy food this weekend. I got totally wooed over.

I love Aaron's laughter in this photo.

A & A

Moss

Rainforest Wander

November: not quite cycling weather, not quite ski season.

Sexy Simone

Pixie cups and other lichens.

Fruita, Colorado

After a few days in Moab we decided to head to Fruita, Colorado which is about an hour east of Moab in a car, or a 3 day mountain bike on the Kokopelli trail (we opted for the car ride).

Fruita was full of amazingly smooth, flowy, fun single track. Which was a nice change from sharing trails with Jeeps and dirt bikes in Moab.

James on Joe's Ridge - a favourite.

More of Joe's Ridge.

One of the fun steeps on Zipadee Dooda.

Luckily no one landed on one of these.

This was our awesome campsite. It was located in the middle of a bunch of trails, so we could come back to camp for lunch and brew a cup of coffee before heading out for more riding.

Breakfast seemed to increase in size as the week went on.

Cool seed pods. Unfortunately I failed to find a good plant guide, so identifying plants was a challenge.

James was excited about the dessication cracks.

Rice grass

Field repair

Juniper skeleton

Woot! Right after our last ride on Kessel's Run - think fun swooshy turns, much like skiing.

Arches National Park

We spent a day hiking in this amazing landscape.
This is Delicate Arch above, it's also pictured on the Utah license plate.

The three gossips.

Balanced rock.

Part of the appeal to the landscape for us was the fact that things were so obviously temporary. It looks like Balanced rock may only be around for another 10 or 50 or 100 years. Or another day.

Balanced rock from its squatter side.


The spectacular Landscape Arch.

Made even more spectacular by the fact that a huge chunk of it fell off in 1994. Apparently some folks were picnicking underneath it when a few pebbles started to fall from the arch. The got out of the way and several large chunks (over a tonne of rock) smashed to the ground. No one was hurt, but they closed the trail that went under the arch. Hikers heard the crash and thought it was thunder and one person managed to capture an amazing photo of a huge chunk falling. I just found out today that my boss was in the park the day it happened and had hiked to the arch the night before.

Partition Arch

Funky scoop

Navajo Arch and juniper tree

Licking my lips.
Another amazing lunch of brie cheese, spicy salami, avocado and good bread.

Chimpmunk likes lunch time too.

Cool swirlies on a yucca

Yucca and log,
another great shot by James.

Moab, Utah

Checking out our new map. It's always fun to be on a new road.

...until you approach hour 20 in the car.

Getting psyched for the first ride - or maybe getting more car jitters out.

Cruising around on some slickrock.

About 2 minutes after I discovered falling on Moab rock really does hurt more than soft rainforest moss (you can see dirt smudges all down my arm and leg).
I have no idea how James managed to capture I picture of me smiling. I recall being rather pissed off at this moment.

On top of Amasa Back.

Slickrock. Not so slick.
Yet another picture of me trying to keep up to James.

We got to experience an impressive thunderstorm while out on Slickrock trail. The lighting hit so close to us that I didn't hear a pause with the thunder at all. And then it started to RAIN. Creeks and pools filled in seconds and we were soaked to the bone. The sun came out right after the rain and I captured my favourite pictures of the trip.

Happy and wet.