Ride Around the White Rim in One Day: Trip Report

[tallsteve]

Well, I finally did the RAWRAD (Ride Around the White Rim in a Day) trip this past Saturday. By mountain bike. In one day. In 90 degree temps. With a bad back and ruptured disc in my neck. Can you tell I’m still tired? Since some friends want a detailed trip report, here you go. Having Jeep’d the White Rim Trail a few times I at least knew what type of terrain to expect and where the major climbs are, but I had no idea how brutal those climbs would be on a bicycle or how EVIL the sand would become near trips end at Mineral Bottom. I’ve always wanted to do this ride and have enjoyed hearing my buddies, who have done it, regale me with their tales. Since I’m headed to surgery next week for a discectomy and fusion between C5-C6, I wanted to get one last hurrah in before I can’t ride for 6 weeks. When I heard Timpanogos Bicycle and Biker Peddler were putting together a RAWRAD trip, I jumped on it. This would be a supported ride with a pick-up truck following behind. Because of my back and neck problems I didn’t think I would be able to pedal all 100 miles. I figured I might be able to do about 50. Because of this I invited my buddy, Mike, to join in and be my support in his vehicle. We have driven this route a couple of times in his old, highly modified, Landcruiser. He loved the idea and came onboard. We drove down Friday, found a cool camp spot at the top of Long Canyon then did a short 12 mile loop ride on the EKG trail. In hindsight I wouldn’t do any pedaling the day before. I was trying not to exert myself much, but the EKG trail requires it and, consequently, I didn’t have fresh legs on Saturday. Saturday morning the group started out at the Mineral Canyon Rd. / Highway 313 intersection. I figured I needed to pick my battles and would skip the initial 10 miles pedaling on pavement and would meet them at the top of the Shafer Trail. They arrived at around 7:20am and off we went. Coasting down Shafer was a rush and a good way for me to start, but I kept wanting to stop and peer over the edge. At the bottom of Shafer we stopped, re-grouped then took off. The terrain after is mostly rolling on a rough, rocky, bumpy, sandy 4x4 road. I carried 2 water bottles with me on the bike which I would refill from my support vehicle when I’d get low. My liquid consisted of powdered and combined PowerAde and CarboRocket. I like the benefits of CarboRocket but don’t care much for the taste. Combining it with powdered PowerAde makes it scrumptious. My energy food consisted of mostly small, boiled red potatoes, drizzled with olive oil and salt which I separated out into small, manageable zip-lock baggies. Occasionally I would chew down some CocoNutz energy balls, HoneyStinger waffles or chews. I loved the potatoes. I would eat about a half of one every couple of miles or so. They were very satisfying, provided pure carbs, easily digestible and didn’t make me want to barf them up during the heavy exertion. After the 2^nd regroup location, the group got more and more spread out. Every ride I do nowadays I use a heart-rate monitor. It helps me ride/train smarter. I know what zone I need to be in for longer rides, so I settled down into a comfortable pace of between 130 to 140bpm. Seemed some of the guys really took off, but I knew in order for me to do well and ride all day, I needed to let them go and keep my heart-rate down. At around mile 50, came Murphy’s Hogback, the first of three brutal climbs. The 4x4 road is unbelievably steep, up and over this ‘hump’, and is probably ½ mile long which doesn’t count the several smaller step-ups leading to the base of the big climb. After conquering the step-ups I wondered why there was a large group of folks waiting at the bottom. Seeing they weren’t with my group, I kept going. I should have rested there for a bit and caught my breath. I regretted it about halfway up. Anyway, I was able to pedal up the whole thing, but I had to stop about 4 times to catch my breath and let the heart-rate decline a bit. Brutal. I was probably the 4^th or 5^th of my group to reach the top. At the top, we rested a bit, ate lunch, lubed up the bike chain and waited for everyone else. I didn’t want to eat a ton and start riding again on a full stomach, so I ate sparingly. While everyone else was finishing lunch, I told them I was forging on ahead. Since I had my own support vehicle, I didn’t need to wait for them. I hope they didn’t think I was rude or un-social but the longer I was stopped the more tight my legs were getting. I don’t know when they got going again but only 1 of the group members caught up to me after that and he’s a twenty-something, expert class category mtn. bike racer, named Dan. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t making this a race- I was just trying to survive. I just expected most everyone to catch up. Dan and I stayed in range of each other for the entire rest of the ride, mostly because Dan needed water from my support vehicle which we were more than happy to supply. I can’t blame him for not wanting to wait for his support truck. Their truck was WAY more slow going than what Mike could drive it in his Landcruiser. If he didn’t need water, Dan would have been long gone. I’ve always liked Dan, so it was nice to chat here and there. Way before this it had gotten really hot, with temps right around 90. I am so glad I brought along a couple of bandanas that I picked up as an afterthought at Recreation Outlet last week. I placed the bandana over my head and under my helmet which kept the brutal sun off my neck, ears and the sides of my face and it never made my head feel overheated. That simple little accessory saved me! I also applied sunscreen on my arms and legs, which I don’t like to do because it blocks my sweat pores, preventing the body from cooling itself down but, it was necessary. At around mile 70 came Hardscrabble Hill, another insanely steep climb. Although Hardscrabble isn’t as long a climb as Murphy’s, it was harder for me, probably because I was nearly wiped out at that point and there was a bunch of other bikers (not in our group) and vehicles bunched up there, all trying to go up at the same time. Again, I was able to pedal the whole thing but I had to stop a couple of times to let my breath, legs and heart calm down. About 30 yards from the top of the hill, the road gets seemingly impossibly steep. There had to have been about 30 other bikers standing there and cheering encouragement to those of us coming up. To those of us that cleared it, they gave a loud shout-out. Pretty cool, but I also felt like I was under too much scrutiny to clear it. It was a little unnerving! When I reached the summit I didn’t stop like everyone else ‘cause I knew I could catch my breath going down the backside. The backside descent was interesting. Really steep in a couple of sections, with 6-7” of fine powdery dust covering the trail. This can be treacherous if you hit an unseen dust covered divot with your front wheel, you’re going over. Fortunately, I was able to maintain control and stayed upright. At that point I was now pretty much at the river bottom (the Green River). The next few miles are fairly flat or rolling but, because it is river bottom, there is lots and lots of river bottom sand. Did I mention how EVIL this sand was? Like little pitchfork wielding devils from Hades, this sand had to have been placed there just to torture man. Not fun and I was exhausted. The sand was demoralizing for me. Trying to pedal through it was using up any little scrap of energy I had left. With about a ½ mile before the 3^rd brutal climb up the Horsethief Trail road from Mineral Bottom, I was just barely turning the pedals over. I looked ahead of me, saw another 30 yard stretch of sand and knew that was it. I was done, toast, kaput, finished. Mike and the support vehicle was literally right behind me. Like a vulture circling his dying prey in the desert, I think he was waiting for me to just topple over. After nearly 80 miles and 6 hours, 44 minutes of wheel turning, in-the-saddle time, we loaded my bike up on the Landcruiser and got out of there, but not after a refreshing dip in the Green to scrub off the grit, grime and sweat. Driving up Horsethief, I knew there was no way I could have pedaled it. Of course Dan pretty much sprinted it, but he looked pretty wasted at the top. We told him he should wait there for the rest of the group and their support vehicle so they wouldn’t worry but, we figured they were probably, at the very least, an hour behind. We loaded him up with ice water and boiled potatoes and headed for home. All in all, I was thrilled with my 80 miles- far more than I expected. For a 52 year-old, bad back and broken neck dude, riding a small-travel hardtail, I think I did OK. I can now say I did it. Would I ride it again? Right now I’d say no. While the scenery is spectacular, I couldn’t stop to take it in like I would have liked. When it’s all boiled down, it’s just a long, dusty Jeep road. There are a ton of biking perfection singletrack trails in Moab. The only reason I would say do the RAWRAD ride is to say you’ve done it. Check it off the bucket list. Mission accomplished.

[Pelon1]

Way to go, we had a 3 day trip planned but had to cancel a couple years ago, so I have it still on the bucket list!

[live2ride]

Steve you are the man! Great trip report and you know why no one caught you cause your a speed demon!

[Candace66]

Dayum!! It took me two days to drive around there, LOL! Thx for the report!

[Deuce]

Such a fun ride.... Congrats on the one day trip....that sounds brutal. Reading your report, it brought me back to our trip....the climbs and especially the sand. I was hoping that you would take a dip in the green river at Hardscrabble.... Good call!

I want to do it again, though I like the 4 day, 3 night....camping, hanging with friends, drinking beer as a recovery drink and enjoying it a little too much trip....

[Bluff-Canyoneer]

You definitely qualify for an Old Guys Rule t-shirt! Quite an inspiration.

[accadacca]

Great story. I finally read it all. You kicked butt! Congrats!