M to the OAB

This is like when you get all into a series on TV and they get to the end of the season, you have to wait until it comes back on and they have new shows.  Yeah, kinda like that, except not as entertaining.  I really think the two or three of you that actually read this are just waiting for a break down or for me to go verbally insane and just write horrible things about people you know.  I'm not to that point....Yet.  But if it got more people to read......

So when we left our wayward travelers they were about to embark on a single track daytime assault mission at Dead Horse Point, UT.  It was cold, the air was crisp with the morning sun warming the red rocks.  The view, spectacular.  The man and his wife donned the frocks of mountain biking.  Words were spoken, helmets fastened, chains were aligned into the proper gear ratio.  A small wheelie of joy was held for the slightest of time dropping from pavement to high desert dirt. 

Time to rail some sick turns.

DHP is a trail system with two conjoined loops with an inner short/easy loop and a longer/easy loop.  Distance worked out to be a mile or so less than what was posted.  It was a very well thought out trail, and it did have a few intermediate sections, but all in all it was super fun.  All single track with flowing turns a few ups and down, but no climbs.  Fast, fast, and more fast.  There was quite a bit of snow on the trail in the shaded zones, but no mud to speak of.  The snow on the tires mixed with the powdery clay dirt an made some crazy sugar cookie tires that shed like fragmentation grenades.  This was a little annoying at times and fun at other times.  Perspective.  Remember this is the first time I had been on a bike in a few hundred hours, so I had it pinned.  The wife was not too amused with my childlike enthusiasm for speed, to her credit she was riding a broken bike.  Front fork seized, and rear brake was spongy as Mr. Squarepants.  She soldiered on like a trooper not wanting to rent a $45 bike.

At the end I was ready for another lap, but there was a pint and a burger waiting at Moab Brewery.  My wife asked for a sample of their Stout, and the waiter with limited English comprehension skills brought a pint.  She did not like this one.  I had an IPA, was elbow deep into my burger and then tried to finish off her Stout.  Yes, and we were still going to go to Slick Rock to check out the world famous trail.  I am ashamed to report that I could not finish the job and left beer on the table.  It was a sad sad day, I felt shame walking out with a half empty beer on the table.  -Optimist.

Hold on folks this is the part of the show they call the cliff-hanger.  They build up the action right at the 0:55:00 mark and then put up the to be continued...  We headed from Moab Brewery to Slick Rock and geared up for some more MTB action.  The parking lot was full of intimidation, it was the view, the feel, everything about rolling out of the lot onto the trail felt ominous.  We headed to the Practice Loop, and the first up section was a gear grinding 4mph short climb right into a roll-over screaming downhill turn into some snow and ice.  It gets better???