Moab (and a Little Schmaltz)
Yawp Cyclery
The Yawp Company recently took a trip to Moab. Depending on traffic and the lead content of your foot, driving to Moab usually takes about 5-7 hours from Denver. This time, driving to Moab took 22 hours. At least it was pretty.
Missing a package? Here it is!
Thanks to an interstate closure, Rebecca and I were a day behind the others, and we missed what sounded like a great ride at Mag 7. We had our own short ride on Pipe Dream, near town. It runs along the side of a mesa and is extremely well-designed. You never gain more than twenty or thirty feet of elevation at a time, and the trail takes advantage of the hillside's best features. The front range could really benefit from a similar trail that would traverse the foothills instead of climbing straight up them.
Style.
There's a no-dab challenge on this trail, which was kind of fun. It seemed fairly easy until I fell into a yucca bush on the flattest, smoothest section of the entire trail. I later dabbed on this leafy path through town:
On Sunday, we drove out to Amasa Back in order to ride Captain Ahab and harpoon the white whale.
This here is a slideshow of Rebecca descending a section of pretty nasty jeep road:
Cullen took a bunch of great photos, too. Some of them you can see below and others you can see in this here video:
Just in case you missed this incredible group photo.
Ahhhhhh! Moab! Photo: Cullen
We haven't any photographs of the excellent trail called Captain Ahab. If you were to believe one particular bold-faced lying member of the Yawp Company, Captain Ahab begins with seven punchy climbs and then descends all the way to the end of the trail. However, the truth of the matter is that there is one strenuous climb at the beginning of Captain Ahab, and then lots of descending punctuated by many punchy climbs. Because there are no pictures of that awesome trail, here's more of this:
Moab was our seventh trip this year and it marks the end of the Company season. Of course I have something obvious and sentimental to say about it.
When Yawp opened, we made building community a goal of ours. I was a little nervous about it--to an extent we don't get to have a say in the community that forms around the shop. As a hermetic introvert, I was especially nervous about the Company and spending precious weekends away from the shop with people I didn't know very well.
The folks who've joined us on these trips have really been a joy to spend time with. Thank you to every one of you who rode with us, and who hung out with us but didn't ride. Thank you for sharing without being asked, for playing well with others, for showing kindness to strangers, for allowing space for contrasting opinions, for riding at the speed of a group, and for never complaining about anything (except Itch and Scratch in Eagle, which more people should complain about). It's been a pleasure getting to know all of you, and next year's trips are the high points on my horizon.