This is the logical order of things in the bike business. One must attend Interbike and be sold the best colors of everything ever, suffer through hang overs, porn peddlers and people who sell recumbents. Then, as if the gods knew that such suffering must be rewarded, one gets to ride in St. George. This may seem a bit strange for those of you who live here, or know that I live here for me to be writing this, but it’s just the way it works. Every year the Interbikers invade our space and enjoy every minute of it.
So in keeping with this logical order, I posted my Interbike report that I hope you enjoyed. Now I will tell you about the riding…
I’ve been trying to get I-dog to come South for the past two years or so. We even had a trip planned that I was going to pay for, just so he would come to SG. Nothing ever materialized. Then I learned that he would be attending the industry show. I actually thought he was coming with Erik and that both would be swinging back through for some riding, but, as you all know, Erik headed North and did not attend the show. This left Ian without a ride. He informed me that he was flying and that he would be leaving Friday after the show. I made it known that I could get him a ride back from Vegas and then I could take him back Sunday if he wanted to come ride. I got an email saying that he did.
Sir Gurr rolled in with I-dog in tow around 6:30 Friday evening. We finished closing up the shop and headed home. Ian had made it known to me that he wanted to ride every single moment that he was in St. George. He even tried to convince me to go for a night ride right after he got here. I persuaded him to rest for the evening and then we would ride long and hard the next day.
Our plan was to get up at 4:30 a.m., get everything ready and be to the bottom of the JEM by 6. As early morning rides tend to happen, we didn’t get to the trailhead till 6:30 and were not riding until 7. I have to admit that the temperature was a bit chilly sitting in the parking lot getting ready, but once we started to pedal everything warmed up nicely. We rocked out the JEM to the Hurricane Rim through the Goulds and back down the JEM.
Now, we had originally planned to meet Bryce and an Interbike envoy at Gooseberry by 9. Due to our particularly late start we didn’t quite make it. However, I-dog was still semi anxious to ride. So we grabbed some ice, water and snacks and headed up the mesa. We found the Interbikers’ camp and then proceeded up the North Rim. Ian had never ridden the Goose so we scurried around the Practice Loop before heading up the trail.
We smashed into the group that Bryce was riding with just as we were topping out on the North Rim. With Ian’s permission, we flipped a 180 and headed back down the mesa with the group. We finished riding around 2. The exact time I’m not sure. Needless to say, we had ridden a long time. So we thought a nap and a shower would be nice before we hit up a night ride.
After the shower and the nap, I asked Ian, “When do you want to go for the night ride?” He replied, “I think I’ve had enough riding for today.” Okay.
We planned to ride to the Santa Clara River Reserve the next morning getting a good warm up on the road on the way over and then riding all the singletrack. After finishing the Rim trails, I was almost out of water, KB was getting really hot, and Ian said he wasn’t “jonesing” to ride any more. So we headed home.
All in all, we had two days of good riding. It was hot and riding much more than we did would have been difficult…
Out.