The White Rim, October 20-22

The White Rim trail is a 100 mile loop through Canyonlands. Our friends, the Morgans, invited us to mountain bike it with them when they got permits for the ride a year ago.

The permit was for 15. At the last minute a couple of people dropped out so we were able to invite our friends, Bryce Nelson and Kevin Winzeler (our amazing photographer friend), to come along.

We rode the trail clockwise, starting by going down the Shafer Trail.

After stopping for lunch at an overlook by Musselman Arch, we took the detour out to the arch before continuing our ride. It's like a sidewalk, elevated thousands of feet in the air...so cool.

Kevin had us stop every now and then to do photo shoots. There was so much amazing scenery.

We broke the loop up into 3 days. The first day was just 20 miles and Airport A was our first campsite. There was plenty of time to relax, read a little of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitarie, set up camp, make dinner, and enjoy each others company.

Our views were great. The sunset and sunrise were beautiful.

Our second day we rode 50 miles through the most amazing country.

There were a few good hill climbs totaling 4,000 feet, including Murphy's Hog Back. After riding up, John went back down to drive our truck up as the driver was too nervous.

We stopped for lunch at the top of the hill before continuing on.

Johnny, Bryce, Kevin, and I made a push to the next campsite (Hardscrabble Bottom) so we could get dinner started.

If you look closely, you can see Johnny, Bryce, and Kevin riding on the trail across the ravine.

There were a few more good hill climbs along the way. 

Our bikes weren't too happy with all the red sand. Luckily we had a bike mechanic riding with us.

Johnny and I were in charge of food for the whole trip which was a bit of work, but really fun. This was breakfast the last morning.

Bacon, hash browns, french toast and orange juice.

We finally used the big stove that our friend Dave gave to us for Christmas almost two years ago...and LOVED it.

After our tasty breakfast, we headed off on the last miles of the trip which included a good 1.5 mile climb out of the canyon.

Such a great trip! The next feat...ride it all in one day.