{"id":1727,"date":"2019-04-15T21:01:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T21:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/?p=1727"},"modified":"2019-04-16T14:03:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T14:03:59","slug":"white-rim-ride-10-12-april-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/2019\/04\/15\/white-rim-ride-10-12-april-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"White Rim Ride, 10-12 April 2019 (by John)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JACK\nDEFRANCO ADVENTURE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canyonlands National Park White Rim 100 Mile Mountain Bike Ride<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The\nabridged version: Adventurer, Jack DeFranco continues to plan and\nexecute exotic adventures. Months of detailed planning went into\nsetting up the White Rim Ride. Invitations were offered,\nreservations made, authorities contacted, permits obtained,\nchecklists developed, and an operational risk management checklist\ncovered. On the morning of 10 April 2019, a group of 5 riders and 3\nsupport vehicles set off into driving winds and swirling snow. While\nthe thermometer said 35 degrees, it felt like 20\u2019s. The best laid\nplans could not overcome Mother Nature. She had other plans for us. \nShe beat us and tortured us for 8 hours of riding and all through the\nnight. The morning of the 2nd<\/sup>\nday, the weather cleared, road dried out and riding conditions were\nexceptional. At 1300, she decided we were having too much fun and\nset in to torment us with more snow. While the bikes were able to\ncontinue, the support vehicles could not safely negotiate a rough\nnarrow muddy 35% incline two feet from the edge of a 500 foot drop\noff. More rain and snow in the forecast with more treacherous road\nconditions prompted us to turn around. Riders could not continue\nwithout support. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nunabridged version: Canyonlands is 527 square miles of pristine\nwilderness located in southeastern Utah near the Colorado border. \nWater and gravity have carved out hundreds of canyons, mesas, buttes,\nfins, arches, and spires. The Colorado and Green Rivers carved out\ntwo massive canyons. A national park was established in 1964 to\npreserve the beauty of this incredible land. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack\n& Dorie, Uwe & Srisuda, John & Susana, Keith\n& Greg, and Jim all converged on Horsethief Campground just\noutside of Canyonlands National Park. Each have a story to tell of\ntheir journey just to get there. Jim came from South Carolina to\nSalt Lake City, Keith\n& Greg drove in from Phoenix and the rest of us came from San\nDiego County. The ride started at an altitude of over 7,000 feet. \nWe rode on pavement for the first ~9 miles then turned onto the\nShafer Trail Road. The support vehicles needed to reduce tire\npressure to improve traction. We descended a series of steep\nswitchbacks for 1,500 feet into Shafer Canyon. Snow turned to rain\nand the dirt road became a muddy quagmire. Puddles of water formed\nand, even with rain gear, we were soaked within a short time. There\nwere bathrooms at campgrounds and we huddled in them to get out of\nthe elements and try to get warm. The plan for day 1 was to ride 45\nmiles to Murphy Campground at the top of Hogback. We made about 30\nmiles in 7 hours. Campgrounds require permits but the adverse\nweather kept other people with permits away so we were able to find\ncampsites at Gooseberry Campground. Setting up camp in the wind and\nrain was challenging. The support crew was awesome in getting hot\nfood prepared quickly. We didn\u2019t hang around outside very long as\nthe elements were not conducive to relaxation. The wind\/rain\ncontinued until 0400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAt\ndaylight Thursday 11 April, we arose to a beautiful morning. The\nroad had dried out, sun was shining, and our spirits rose as we\nexpected a productive day. First, we had to clean mud from the bikes\nas it was interfering with shifting and braking. Two bikes suffered\nbroken spokes but were rideable. Our crew made an incredible\nbreakfast and we launched our ride with smiles. Greg and John rode\nsteadily, stopping only 3 times for photos and arrived at Murphy\nCampground. The climb up Hogback was not rideable so we pushed bikes\nup for 500-600 yards. By the time the other riders appeared, the\nweather had deteriorated. Our route ahead was awash with snow and\nrain storms. We knew the road conditions would be severe and\npossibly impassable in adverse weather so made the decision to turn\nback. Bikes can proceed much faster than 4×4 vehicles so the return\ntrip was long and rough. We returned to Airport Campground for the\nnight. The weather hadn\u2019t caught up with us yet so we had\nwonderful camping conditions. Still cold, in the mid 40\u2019s but dry.\n Evening meal, a couple beers, great conversations\u2026just like it\nshould be. Temps dropped into the high 20\u2019s that night but the\nwind\/rain held off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday,\n12 April we had another wonderful breakfast, broke camp and continued\nthe slow vehicle trek back to our starting point. At a point maybe\n5-6 miles from where we started, three of us decided to ride. The\nroad was good with steep switchbacks and 1,500 foot climb to Island\nin the Sky visitor center. Once on top the mesa, it started to snow\nagain. While we waited for John\u2019s wife, Susana to pick him up, the\nsupport vehicles aired up their tires and we tried to get the\nappropriate gear into its assigned vehicle. By 1400 we were on our\nway to the hotel for a hot shower and clean clothes. Susana is not\ninclined to camp outdoors so she spent the 2.5 days in Moab and\nsurrounding area. She visited Arches National Park and enjoyed the\nnew snow on the rock formations. There is so much to do in the Moab\narea. We have committed to returning there to complete the ride and\nto hike some of the trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nadventure was capped off by a pizza\/beer party at an Air BNB with\nother friends. Everyone was very tired so didn\u2019t stay too late. \nNext morning some continued to Arches National Park for more\nsightseeing and some headed home. Our decision to turn back was\nvalidated when we received word from Moab after\nour return home\nthat the 2nd<\/sup>\nhalf of our route was impassable during the duration of our permit. \nWe will return to do it again and hope Mother Nature is more\nagreeable! \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks\nto Jack for all the work setting up this event. Thanks to Dorie,\nSrisuda, and Keith\nfor their support driving, fixing meals, hauling gear, and making the\nriders as comfortable as possible. Thanks to the riders for the\ncomradery and mutual support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are we going next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Click on any image to enlarge\/start slide show)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JACK DEFRANCO ADVENTURE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS: The Canyonlands National Park White Rim 100 Mile Mountain Bike Ride<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biking","category-camping","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/IMG_1056.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9x9nh-rR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1821,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whitethaiger.net\/hikers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}