'Keeping up with the Chadwicks' :-)

Whilst sitting around a campfire a couple of nights ago Dan and I were reminising about old Landy shows and mountain biking at home when we came to a conclusion. Keeping up with the Chadwicks costs a fortune! Andy and Jane Chadwick, our great Yorkshire friends were present and played a big hand in persuading us a Camel would be the ideal expedition vehicle, not the shiney, reliable 110CSW we had at the time. They were also responsible for our first 'proper' off road mountian biking experience in the Lakes (on the way to our Scotland holiday to test the new Camel expedition vehicle we'd just brought and started kitting out....). Mm. So that's a count of 1 Camel 110 and 2 new mountain bikes. lol! :-)

Needless to say, getting the Camel was one of the best things we've done and we're LOVIN' THE BIKING IN MOAB! :-) So, thanks Chadwicks, the bank balance hates you but we love you :-) Hehe.

We'd picked Klondike Bluffs as our first ride as it's one of the only Moderate/Difficult rides in the book (which means easy in Moab) and had been recommended to me as a good first run by Rim Cyclery. When we arrived at the car park there was already a few vehicles unloading, even though it was a Tuesday in late October. We unloaded, filled the Camelbaks with water, first aid kits and PB&J sandwiches and headed out on the trail.

The trail was 5 1/2 miles uphill, but then you got to run round and come back down again... cool. We started out on tracks and sand but soon hit the slickrock and discovered the dinosour trails - Coooooooooooool! The best thing was, they were quite nicely spaced so left ample time to get your breath back as you pretended to examine them - we did notice, we certainly weren't the only ones!



I found it quite weird as I was so used to a heavy bike when I powered up the hills my new light bike just tend to lift off the ground! lol! It took a bit of adjusting the technique but I was getting it towards the top of the slickrock, which was lucky as in some places it was pretty steep, certainly granny-gear territory. Nearing the top of the first slickrock section we came across a v-gully, innocent looking enough I thought I'd give it a go, esepcially since I'd spent most the ride up lifting the front wheel of my bike - Dan was ever supportive and said 'no-way, don't be stupid, I'll end up picking you up of the ground' ... Nah, I thought, well probably, but you don't learn unless you try!

Note to self: Practise riding at home. Slickrock is hard. And hurts. Alot.



But hey! It was fun trying! Anyone who had a bet on 6 brusies, 1 cut and 2 grazes has won. I was quite close to throwing up, seeing as I'd just ridden 2 1/2 miles up slickrock then winded myself, but luckily (for Dan) it didn't come to that. Dan has kindly re-inacted the moment itself so you can laugh at me. It doesn't look alot, but it was bigger in real life, honest. Dan refused to try it and you know how mad he is on a bike:



The rest of the ride up passed quickly as the views were stunning and the slickrock riding very cool. You do have alot of grip, but there's also *alot* of bumps and technical bits and pieces to keep you alert. We got up to the top to find a bike rack at the trailhead into Arches National Park, so we parked up and walked the short way in to enjoy lunch with a view.



After resting a recouperating we jumped back on the bikes to enjoy the downhill we'd earnt on the way up - it took us half the time but had to be double the fun!





We climbed back into Charlie and headed back to Moab to jetwash all the red mud off. Cool as it was (you're right JU, he did look cool!) it was doing a pretty efficent job of blocking the radiator. Once completed we headed out to Fisher Towers, a small track leading to a campsite with, again, a pretty cool view:



A night of stargazing ensued and a plan concieved to tackle the 'Top of the World' Trail in the morning.