On Thursday we were up at 5:00am and on the road by 5:30 as planned, and by 10:30 we had the bikes loaded and ready to go.

As we climbed up out of the parking lot, Kyle was awed by the scenery and immediately the photo snapping began.

Mary’s Loop

There is some exposure along Mary’s Loop in Fruita, and I was nervous about how Kyle would handle that, particularly with the weight of the bikepacks, but he handled it without any issue.  He’s done some climbing with friends in Boulder, and I think that’s helped him get accustomed to heights.

Lion’s Loop

The spring flowers of the desert were starting to become plentiful.

Salt Creek

As we left Fruita towards Salt Creek in the early afternoon, we got to some of our first serious hike-a-bike.

As the afternoon wore on, it go hotter, and the winds really picked up.  Soon we were battling 20 mph hot winds consistently, and we took shelter wherever we could.

At the top of the hike-a-bike section, our navi said we had a long downhill, but noooo.  We pedaled hard into the wind, which negated all the benefits of the descent.  

Rabbit Valley, Mack

We had hoped to get to the Westwater Ranger Station which was 15 miles away, but were completely out of water.  Since we were close to I-70, we had four bars of cell coverage.  I called Cris who was staying in Fruita, and she thankfully brought us water and some awesome burritos.  We pitched camp at Rabbit Valley in Mack, CO.

We discovered others at the campsite.

As the sun went down, we got out the cameras and tinkered with tent lighting photos.  This was mine, shot on my iPhone 7+.

This was Kyle’s, shot on his Nikon DSLR.  I think he won.  

The next day would be a big one, hoping to make up our mileage to Westwater, and then down to Dewey Bridge and to start the serious climb to Moab.