A downhiller’s delight

Our first stop in Utah was Richfield to ride Spinal Tap. There’s been a lot of chatter in mountain bike circles about Spinal Tap. It’s on our way to Moab, so why not stop and give it a go. When we arrived at Venture RV Park we were greeted with 40 mph winds, not fun. Sometimes the iPhone weather is correct: it said the wind would die down in the evening and it did.

While taking my evening stroll through the campground an old codger started chewing my ear off. He was telling me a storm was brewing and he expected it to hit at 4am. I told him where we were going to ride in the morning, he said, “Good luck partner, it’s 9,600 feet at the start.” Then I had to hear the tale of him trying to cross the Pahvant Range in his side by side last May, only to get snowed out. The old codger liked talking.

I was finally able to escape, got back to Opal and told Amelia the old timer’s weather report. The iPhone had no indication of rain. So we went to our go to site, noaa.gov, duh, it was shutdown…

Sure as shit it started raining at 4am! And up in the Pahvant Range where Spinal Tap is located the lightning was going off.

At 8am, when nine guys, Amelia, and myself got into the shuttle van it was cold and cloudy. Amelia was stoked because the driver was a chick, so she wouldn’t be the only one on the van. Her name was Karlie, and also happened to be co-owner of Richmond Bike Shuttle.  Amelia called shotgun and the two chicks talked non stop for the hour long ride. I was two rows back, between two groups that were also talking non stop. I didn’t utter a word the entire trip. We were both happy!

Spinal Tap is an expert level one-way trail with 4,000 feet of elevation loss. If you plan on riding it we suggest using Richfield Bike Shuttle.

We had a beer handoff at the San Diego/Riverside county line on our way out of town. My buddy Acomb’s kid works at Mother Road Brewing in Flagstaff. Whenever he visits he brings beer and Acomb always shares the booty.

Site 12 at the windy Venture RV Park. It’s new and plenty of space between sites, unlike most RV Parks.

Loading up at the bottom. Karlie was quick and efficient loading the bikes. She told us there was no precipitation in the forecast.

Brrr…at the top it started snowing! Karlie couldn’t believe it. She kept on saying, “It isn’t even November yet!”

Stoked to still have some fall color.

Hairpin turns amongst the aspens.

Endorphin fueled happiness with flurries. It was pretty cold and we had to stop multiple times to warm our hands.

Gorgeous fall colors

On the second leg, we finally got out of the flurries, hail and rain into a cycle of dark clouds, blue skies, and puffy white clouds.

Amelia shredding the corner.

Looking down on Richfield.

On to Moab!