rockgremlin
12-14-2004, 11:51 AM
The Poison Spider Jeep Trail should never be attempted on bikes unless you have a boatload of food and water, and you REALLY enjoy getting off your bike and walking every 10 minutes.
Back in 1994, Chuck and I attempted the Poison Spider Jeep Trail on bikes from start to finish (about 15+ miles). And those are 15+ miles of the hairiest up and down extreme terrain you'll ever see. (It's actually rated a double black diamond jeep trail, and for good reason!) Well, we didn't know what we were in for. We thought it would only take us a half day maybe, and so we packed extremely light. One full waterbottle each, and a few packages of crackers. And away we went. On top of all this, it just happened to be the hottest day of the year so far that day - 113 degrees! Well, to make a long story short, we made it half-way until we had to quit from exhaustion and lack of water. The terrain is so rugged that we had to be continually getting off our bikes and walking. Finally we just ditched our bikes in some bushes, and set off on foot in the general direction of Moab. We eventually stumbled across some standing water that was being used by some cows in the area. Not having had anything to drink for over five hours in the extreme heat, we drank that crappy cow water. (I can't believe we didn't get giardia!) Well, we eventually found Moab - that is, we found ourselves perched on a cliff 800 feet up looking down at Moab. By this time, we were out of food, energy, and only had cow water to drink. It was around 8:00, and dusk was coming upon us fast. We were faced with a very real possibility of spending the night up there, which would have nearly killed us. Luckily, we stumbled across some guy in a forerunner up there alone. He said he was just getting ready to leave when we found him. He was the only other person besides us up there on that mesa at the time. He said that he had actually planned on going to Lake Powell that day, but for some reason changed plans that morning for no reason. We told us that we looked so haggard when we stumbled across him that he thought we were participating in some desert survival course gone bad.
To quote the popular country band Alabama..."I believe there are angels among us..."
Back in 1994, Chuck and I attempted the Poison Spider Jeep Trail on bikes from start to finish (about 15+ miles). And those are 15+ miles of the hairiest up and down extreme terrain you'll ever see. (It's actually rated a double black diamond jeep trail, and for good reason!) Well, we didn't know what we were in for. We thought it would only take us a half day maybe, and so we packed extremely light. One full waterbottle each, and a few packages of crackers. And away we went. On top of all this, it just happened to be the hottest day of the year so far that day - 113 degrees! Well, to make a long story short, we made it half-way until we had to quit from exhaustion and lack of water. The terrain is so rugged that we had to be continually getting off our bikes and walking. Finally we just ditched our bikes in some bushes, and set off on foot in the general direction of Moab. We eventually stumbled across some standing water that was being used by some cows in the area. Not having had anything to drink for over five hours in the extreme heat, we drank that crappy cow water. (I can't believe we didn't get giardia!) Well, we eventually found Moab - that is, we found ourselves perched on a cliff 800 feet up looking down at Moab. By this time, we were out of food, energy, and only had cow water to drink. It was around 8:00, and dusk was coming upon us fast. We were faced with a very real possibility of spending the night up there, which would have nearly killed us. Luckily, we stumbled across some guy in a forerunner up there alone. He said he was just getting ready to leave when we found him. He was the only other person besides us up there on that mesa at the time. He said that he had actually planned on going to Lake Powell that day, but for some reason changed plans that morning for no reason. We told us that we looked so haggard when we stumbled across him that he thought we were participating in some desert survival course gone bad.
To quote the popular country band Alabama..."I believe there are angels among us..."