We had to do a bit of maneuvering to make this 4-day trip come to fruition. The minimum number of clients is usually six and we only had two. Holiday managed to combine our trip with another two person trip and made an exception for our now group of four. Add in two guides, plus a guide in training, and we ended up with a great group of seven.

We did the mandatory gear check the evening before and met our fellow riders, Carmen and Trevor. They had been friends for many years and were a great addition – Carmen has been taking a women’s mountain biking course and had tons of technical tips that I actually used almost every day. Trevor currently lives in NY and said he only rode a mountain bike once and did all his training on a Peloton in his apartment. For his fitness level and biking ability, he should be a company spokesperson! The guides Rachel and Tristan with trainee, Luke, rounded out our group.

We loaded the gear the next morning and drove down to the Island in The Sky Visitor park entrance in Canyonlands National Park to take the clockwise route. A very short drive after that we were at the top of Shafer Canyon where we began our ride. The roads on the White Rim Trail are four-wheel drive trails so not very technical but starting off the four day trip with a very steep and long downhill was a bit of trial by fire. Not sure of anyone else but I basically had a death grip on my brakes for the entire descent (1200 ft. in 3-ish miles.)

We stopped to regroup at the bottom of the hill and then headed off. The weather was about perfect for a ride – not too warm (but a bit humid.) It seems like this four day trip hit a weather window that was ideal – the week prior and after our trip, the temperatures shot back up into the 90’s. We think maybe the typical weather kept a lot of people away but it worked to our advantage as there were very few people out, even for a holiday weekend.

We stopped at Musselman Arch and heard interesting stories of past escapades on the arch. It is not allowed to walk or stand on the arch now, but in the past people walked, rode bikes and one individual drove a small VW over the arch. Carmen has been on this trail six times and told a pretty horrifying tale of her brother riding a bike across years ago. There are several cracks and grooves in the rock and apparently her brother’s wheel got stuck in a crack and his feet were clipped into the pedals. It takes a pretty significant twist/yank to usually free oneself from being clipped in and I am sure her family was horrified watching her brother try to get out of his pedals before the bike fell over… UGH.

We stopped for lunch at Little Bridge Canyon and then pedaled for our camp for the night at Gooseberry Canyon. A total of 28 miles biking and at least my rear end was happy to get out of my cycling shorts into something more comfortable!