My first truly epic road trip was planned over a case of beer while scouring through mountain bike magazines for great riding spots. By the time we had the plan on paper, we were more than a little gone, so a lot of details were left out, but the goal was set. Our plan was to ride 12 wicked trails at legendary riding locations in just 10 days. This doesn’t sound too tough, but if you live in Edmonton and select locations like Moab UHT, Flagstaff and Sedona AZ, Laguna CA, and Whistler BC, you could be in for a surprise. You could say we got a little carried away with the ride locations, but it all seemed easy at the time.

With 24hrs to lift-off we crammed my civic with camping gear, two bikes, and all the riding clothes and all the Canadian beverages we would fit. Moab was our first stop and we had a long drive ahead of us, but the 19hr drive went by quickly because we were so stoked. As we pulled into Moab at sunrise, it was ride time we decided to ride the famous Slick Rock trail (after a 2hr nap of course). The racers in us thought it was a great idea to try and beat the posted “fast” lap time for the trail. Surprisingly, we did beat the “fast” time! Although to this day I can’t remember any of the details of the ride.

With one ride down we needed food and sleep badly, so we called it a day and decided that day two would have 2 epic rides to keep us on schedule. Porcupine Rim Trail and Amasa Back would be the epics of day two–and epic they were: we had all the usual flat tires, a small crash, and a solid bonk happening by the end of Porcupine Rim. The Porcupine Rim trail is still one of greatest trails I have ever experienced, and along with Amasa Back, they continue to challenge and satisfy–even after riding them both more than 20 times over the years.

After some BBQ Steak and some Canadian beverages in us, we were excited to ride Poison Spider the next morning. I was a little slow to get rolling, and the un-marked trail got me bloody confused (and lost). I’m the last guy you want to navigate on an un-marked trail, so thankfully my riding buddy Brad, who’s a great navigator, managed to bring us back onto the correct trail and back to camp by dark. We had to work fast once we were back at camp because we had to prep the bikes for the next day, grab a shower, eat, and get a good sleep, as we were off to Flagstaff in the morning.

Morning came too quickly for me, but the drive was good, as it was short, very scenic, and we got all 520km covered in less than four hours. We arrived in Flag staff and raced into the first bicycle shop we saw to get directions to Oldham Loop trail. It was a blast to ride because it was full of flowing turns through aspen trees. The cool mountain air was a great change from the hot dry desert air of Moab, and shredding through the local trails made us even more excited for the next morning’s ride in Sedona.

We had a hard time finding a cheap place to camp in Sedona, which seemed to be a high-end hippie hang out with lots of shops selling crystals, hemp clothing,  mystic healing, and fortune readings. Our campsite was out of town and lacked a view, but we were running low on cash already so cheap was good. The local bike shop gave is some vague directions to a ride which they said would be super technical just like wanted, and we were off to look for the trailhead outside of town. Like I said before, NEVER let me navigate. I got us all turned around in less that 2km, and once again Brad took over the navigation and got us the trailhead. Unfortunately from there it got a lot weird before it got good.

We came up to a huge field of jagged rock that was so strange because it looked flat and had two feet of yellow grass growing on it. Once we got into the field though, we could see that the grass was just growing around all these sinister-looking, jagged rocks. It made for a crazy ride, because the rocks would shift under our wheels and jerk the handlebars all over the place–it was nearly impossible. We kept at it though, hoping that the trail we were looking for would make this ride through the rocks worth the headache. Just as we were about to abort mission, we saw this killer steep technical ridgeline trail which would take is from the upper plateau down to Oak Creek at the bottom of the canyon. This trail had everything–steep sections, tight rock sections, and a sketchy steep drop of death on our left. We were in DH heaven, and were hooting and hollering the whole way down! Not even the ice-cold waist-deep creek crossing at the bottom could put a damper on our spirits.

With big dumb smiles we rode back to town in search of a special road trip meal. On this trip we decided that to achieve that “magic combo” of carbs and protein, we should only eat steak and beer for dinner. That night we talked about the rides we’d done and fun we’d been having and planned for another great day in the morning.

In the morning we checked with the local shop once more and learned about the trail Budda Beach via Cathedral Rock. Brad was to navigate for this ride because I was clearly brutal at the job. We rode 5km down a gravel road looking for the rock cairn which was our mark to turn right into the mountains. Unfortunately, we saw cairns everywhere at the 2km mark, at the 6km, and at the 7km mark. We decided that the 6km mark must have been the 5km cairn that mark the shop had described (it made sense at the time). After turning toward the mountain, we saw some bike racks which lifted our hopes, so we dropped the hammer and rode flat out along the trail. Soon though, it turned into a dry creek bed full of sand, so we had to keep our eyes scanning for tire tracks so as to not miss the trail that was supposed to exit the creek bed.

Well, the ride went downhill from there, and we ended up crossing miles and miles of that same crazy jagged rock in search of the trail to lead us back to civilization. To this day, we don’t know where we went wrong but we covered 60km in 7hrs and were so bonked that we could barely ride a straight line by the time we got the highway. If this were just an average ride back home I’d have been upset, but on a road trip it’s different: I look back on that experience with a fondness, for it was kind of like a rite of passage.

The Budda Beach ride was our last in Sedona, so in the morning we were off to ride Laguna Beach. Excited, we rose early to ride the Laguna Beach trails where legends like Hans Rey and Brian Lopes regularly shred. Laguna did not disappoint: with steep climbs, ultra-fast descents with loose dusty turns, and lots of off-camber sections. After 4hrs of riding we drove to the beach too cool off and bodysurf. With our money running out we looked for a cheap motel and found one BUT it was sketchy and ragged. The shower was so stained and nasty that we chose to stay salty from the ocean and slept in our sleeping bags on the bedding rather than risk bites from the bed bugs which surely were waiting for us in the beds.

The motel experience made the California section of the trip a short stop, and we drove to Whistler BC in the morning. It felt good to be back in Canada. On the mountain the village of Whistler just vibrates with outdoor activity and we wasted no time hitting some of the local favorites and kicking back with a beverage at the base of the mountain. That night we reminisced about the great rides, close calls, and funny mistakes along the way and got ready to head back to Edmonton and the everyday life that awaited.

What makes road trips so great is that you live in the moment because each day and experience is different. When you live in the moment you don’t dwell on mistakes and decisions gone wrong, you just take it as an experience and move forward. This way of thinking has allowed me to deal with many challenges life has thrown at me, whether it’s a disappointing race, or broken relationships, and I continue use road trips to recharge my body and my mind.

Bykguy