After a relatively quick drive from North Ogden to Green River, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local gas station turned food truck turned Mexican restaurant – carbo-loading at it’s finest with giant, almost foot-long burritos! Then off to the check-in at Holiday River Expeditions office.

Joel and I both rented bikes so we got “fitted” and then we got a quick run down on operating them. We found out that the company had turned over it’s entire fleet of bikes in the spring so the bikes we were riding were only a couple months old and pretty amazing. Probably only Dad or Ross will find this interesting but we rode Specialized Stumpjumpers with dual shocks on the front , single shock in the back, 12-speed with only one ring in the front, “dropper” seats that you could hydraulically drop or lift for descending and disc brakes.

As it was over 100degrees in the Salt Lake City area the week before, we watched the weather closely and were relieved when the temperatures dropped a bit. Unfortunately, with the lower temperatures, we were advised that there were sporadic heavy rain showers potentially passing through the area almost every day. Depending on where we were riding at any given time, there was the possibility that it would be impassable for the support van due to the clay and sand roads turning into “gumbo” (as Joel likes to say.) We were given a tentative itinerary that differed from the published one but we were all flexible and were just happy to be embarking on this adventure.

We got to meet the “team” which consisted of me and Joel, four other clients and two guides. I was relieved when I had called the Holiday River Expedition office a couple weeks ago and was told that there was another woman on the trip – 71 years old. I figured at least I wouldn’t be the slowest – HAHA. OOPS, she cancelled at the last minute and I WAS the slowest! All the other riders had a lot of bike experience and Joel had done a great job racking up the miles prior to the trip. I was not so diligent!