Monday, April 30, 2007

Fried After Fruita

I will tell the tale of our trip to Fruita in reverse. After five mountain bike rides in three days, I decided to spend our last day away from the bike and enjoy the incredible terrain on foot. Shannon and I dropped into the Colorado National Monument on the Monument Canyon Trail.

This trek yielded some amazing scenery, as depicted in the photos here. We were rather fried after so many days in the sun and in the saddle, but the mind boggling scenery of this park made us forget about all that. Incredible natural beauty always melts away our myopic, self important views of the world.

Enormous red rock canyon walls surrounded us as we explored the life on the canyon floor (see green lizard) that inexplicably thrived in such an intense environment. It is always impressive to see how tenacious nature is in its ability to survive in crazy conditions. And to think that this poor lizard had neither Clif Bars or a Camelbak, let alone sunscreen.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

First Day in Fruita Photocollage

Beer and fries in Denver

Our connecting flight

Touching down in Fruita

Bike building outside Over the Edge Sports

Ready to hit the dirt tomorrow

Monday, April 23, 2007

Fruita Gallery

Few areas show off the stunning capabilities of Google Earth as the American Southwest. So I dedicate this blog post to a few images near Fruita. Click one to make it big:













Thursday, April 19, 2007

Bound for Fruita

Tap, tap, tap... is this thing turned on?

We are breaking our silence to announce our planned trip to Fruita, Colorado for the Fruita Fat Tire Festival. The Earthlings will reunite for a 4-5 day extravaganza of desert mountain bike riding. This event is not a race, but an excuse to suck down some fresh air, ride a lot and drink tremendous amounts of high quality beer.

Oh wait... there is a race involved: the Clunker Crit. This race is all about costumes and bikes with major funk. Check out the video.

The Fat Tire Festival has occurred annually for some 12 years and enjoys a widely-held reputation as a great time. Interestingly enough, Fruita is only 100 miles or so from Moab, the site of our last (mis)adventure.