Gotta Get Some Things Done Before Leaving for Two Years!

Before going on a mission, every prospective missionary has to do a few things for the "last time" before leaving home for two years. I remember a river trip and some motorcycle rides prior to my mission. One of the things on Jeff's "Bucket List" was to go mountain biking in St George before the weather cooled and the trails got muddy. He and I headed out to St George on November 6 leaving as soon as Jeff could get away from work at BYU. We got a room at a Super 8 in Hurricane, UT because there were baseball tournaments going on in St George and most of the rooms were booked. Not only that, it was a lot cheaper in Hurricane. We had dinner at Bajio's and watched the movie A Christmas Carol. I am probably without culture, but I have never enjoyed the book and the movie didn't do much for me either although the animation was amazing.

On Saturday we got around pretty early, ate the free breakfast at the motel and headed out to Gooseberry Mesa. Gooseberry is similar to the famous Slickrock bike trail in Moab only a little less work for about the same amount of fun. I think that I like the look of the red slick rock of Moab better but otherwise Gooseberry is every bit as fun and unique in its own ways. This was Jeff's first time to Gooseberry and so we took the beginner loop first. That was really more for me than Jeff because he can handle a LOT more than I can. Then we headed up the road and started on the Hidden Canyon Maze that ultimately ran into the South Rim Trail. This was mostly humbling to me as I watched bikers much older than me ride they things that I was walking. However, I had a great time. This was only about the 3rd time or so I have really been able to try out my new Teocali Elite bike and it was great on the slickrock.

The South Rim trail has some really nice views where much of the trails follows along the edge of a cliff. Breathtaking but fun! At the end of the South Rim we followed the four wheel drive road back to the Suburban and grabbed some lunch. Then we packed up and drove back to St. George for the Bear Claw Poppy trail.

Jeff had never ridden Bear Claw either so I took him to the top and dropped him and and then drove to the bottom. While Jeff came down and play on the Fingers of Death and Acid Drops, I started chugging up the trail. Fortunately, it isn't very steep near the bottom but I had already pretty well burnt my legs on Gooseberry. We met about in the middle of the trail and then Jeff turned around with me and we both rode back to the top so that we could take a few pictures. We got a few nice pictures of Jeff coming off the Drops and I found a nice bicycle light buried in the dirt that someone had rattled sometime back.

It was a great time and a fun chance for the two of us to do something together before Jeff leaves for two years. I think Jeff had a great time too but probably fell a little behind in his homework. It always worth it though for some great mountain biking.