White Rim In a day

[jitterjepp]

I did the White Rim Road trail last week in one day. It's basically like a double track rolling through the desert. There are about three hard climbs that are sweet downhill rides into the canyon going the other way. At first the road seems passable by car then you realize it is not at all passable by car. I carried all my water. It was about 320 oz. in a pack that with food and other stuff weighed about 35 - 40 lbs. By the 90 mile mark my shoulders were screaming with pain. I can say I did it but I got my arse spanked big time. I'm thinking about trying it again in the fall after I have more riding in. I didn't hardly do any riding over the winter so I was a bit out of shape for such a ride.

I ran into about 25 people total including three park rangers. All of the people I saw riding were part of multi-day vehicle supported guided trips. I even saw a women only group that had about eight riders. If you are thinking about doing the Century in the desert drop me a line and I'll give you all the info you need.

I hit Bootleg Canyon south of Vegas yesterday too. That was pretty cool but it's more of a downhill riders place. It's real rocky and mostly big gravel. If you fall there you will get hurt.

[Don Youngdahl]

Did you do it clockwise or counter-clockwise? If you did it counter-clockwise and climbed Shafer Trail to Island In The Sky road at the end of the ride, that's a brutal & impressive feat. If you're one of the folks talking about the "challenge" of doing the Ironman this Sunday, you're just blowing smoke!

Several years ago we were on our dirt bikes near Shafer Trail, & gave our remaining water to a couple of riders who were pretty well fried and very, very, happy to get the extra water.

Don Youngdahl

[jitterjepp]

I did it counter clockwise. The climb up to the Shafer overlook was brutal
after riding all day. I also had to do it in the dark because i didn't start until about 8:45am. I don't know that going clockwise would be any easier. It was 23.5 miles to the mineral bottom fork at the bottom of the canyon from the Shafer lot. Most if it was downhill. I'm not so sure that a 23.5 mile gradual climb is easier than a two mile climb going to the same place.
I still had about 70 oz's of water when I got to the Shafer climb and seriously thought about dumping it to get the weight off my shoulders. The weight of the pack bouncing around all day was a huge problem. I had the belt as tight as it would go but the pack would just sag over when I went over bumps causing the shoulder straps to dig into my shoulders. It was extremely painful. I cannot think of anything to campare it to or say enough to fully express how bad it was the last two miles. I'm just gald it was dark and no one was there to witness the whole ordeal. I hated that pack and wanted to burn it when i got to the top of the climb. It's a really good lightweight pack. One of the best around. I borrowed it from a friend so I had to be nice to it. If it were my own pack? I can't talk about the things I would have done to it after the ride.
Think of putting about twenty pounds into a pack and jumping up and down on a pogo stick for about seven hours. This is enough torture to make a special forces warrior give up the entire battle plan. Other than that
it was a great ride. Next time I'll bring a saddle bag.

What do you mean blowing smoke? Like its easy or like I'm talking smack here.