Border wars, lost that battle

Thankful for the Dirty Sheets

Short interval session

Prairie dog’n

Rollers then 12 minutes Foundation Training

It’s spring break and time for our annual trip to Moab, Ut.  I was looking for some type of exciting / boneheaded thing to do.  First thought was to do the White Rim on a gravel bike but I didn’t want to do 100 miles solo with no real bailout.  

Next best idea was to do a groad ride that included part of the White Rim Loop but allowed for bailouts if I needed them due to a mechanical.  

So I climbed the paved road to Canyonlands National Park.   I was a little worried about what I would find at the park.  Some websites said they had water, others didn’t.  Things weren’t looking good when I passed a sign that said no water in the park, but whatever I just kept going.   Luckily when I got there was a water pump at the visitor center and I was able to refill.

Now it was time for the adventure, the Shaffer Switchbacks.  A 2000 foot loose gravel drop right off the mesa.  Right at the start a tour guide company person tried to talk me out taking the trail.  Whatever, what do they know?

The trail wouldn’t be too bad on a mountain bike but it beat the crap out of you on a gravel bike.  The road surface alternated between rock and dirt that was packed as solid as rocks.  Now I know why Kegan Swenson did the White Rim on a Mtb.  

While on the switchbacks I tried to ride as close as I could to get to the edge to get some good GoPro footage.  It was kinda cool to zoom past tourons in their cars when you know they were thinking they really should not have taken their cars down this road.

Once to the bottom the views are 5 star, it really is some of the best scenery in the world.  Even though the road to Potash was described as a gravel road, I didn’t see much gravel, it was all rock.  Twice I thought I broke a rim, I might have, I’m scared to look.  It was impossible to hold on to the bars, you just had to kind of loosely grip them and let them bounce around.  And bounce they did, so much so that my hands got hot from the friction.

Regardless of the rough road the views were amazing and it was well worth the effort.  The last 17 miles I was back on the pavement and I was able to average about 20mph until the last 3 miles.  At the end I was bombarded by a headwind that was so strong I could hardly move forward.


In the end it was a great ride.  The only thing I would change would be that I would do it in reverse next time and get a 30 mile coast back to town. I don’t think it would be much harder to climb the switchbacks than it was to descend them.

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Pete Edmondson Moab Adventure Condo

Gravel Adventure on Shafer Road, Canyonlands National Park

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Border wars, lost that battle

Thankful for the Dirty Sheets

Short interval session

Prairie dog’n

Rollers then 12 minutes Foundation Training

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