We woke up from a cozy night (of which most of the time only half of me was on top of the air mattress) and got everything ready for our bike ride. We met our friends Rachel and Ryan at their camp site and dutch oven omelette and then Rachel's sister drove us up to the trailhead. I had read about the Porcupine trail in a book about Moab's best trails and this one was rated as the most dangerous, complete with steep downhill runs, elevated drops and exposure to cliffs (see picture). Kelsi was absolutely in heaven. For the first few miles, there was no trouble. Then we came to some steep, slick rock that both Kelsi and I crashed on. We were both okay, but my bike had sustained a critical injury. My back disc brake had bent, so I had to make the decision of a back tire that wouldn't spin, or a loose brake. Only after a few times over the handle bars I realized that it was better to pedal harder than to only have a front brake! On one of the spills Kelsi said I would have done a complete flip if a bush hadn't have been in the way. Instead, it broke my fall and ripped a huge hole in the back of my pants. Good thing mountain biking isn't really about modesty.
My poor wife didn't stay on her bike the whole time either. Somehow she managed to hit a basketball sized rock in the middle of an open trail. As I was riding behind her, I looked up just in time to see her front tire stop moving and her body flip into the air. It look like she was a BMXer in the X Games doing a handstand on the handlebars. She came down on her hip, though and got a gash on her hip.
It was a great ride though and we saw some beautiful views of the canyon. And as long as we stayed on our bikes, there was great terrain. It was also nice to be dropped off at the top of the trail and not have to pedal back up the mountain! Either way it took us about 3 and 1/2 hours!
After the ride all we wanted to do was take a nap, but we had to squeeze in as much fun as possible. We took my parents and Reilly and Val on a hike to a 'hidden waterfall.' Since we had to cross the stream a couple of times, we tried to see who could keep their shoes dry the longest. Towards the end, it was my mom with two dry shoes and me in second place with one dry shoe (the first time Kelsi and I went, I ended up with only one wet shoe too!)
Then it was dinner time, so we went back to the campground to make burgers and s'mores (with plenty of Sandlot references). Reilly and Val set up their own tents next to ours, but by the time we were ready for bed, we didn't want to split up. Luckily Valerie's tent was almost big enough for three people, so we thought we would have no problem squeezing in four! Somehow Valerie got way more room than Reilly at first so we had to divy up the space again. Then to help us fall asleep we sang the national anthem one word at a time and realized we could use some practice.
The next day Kelsi and I took my siblings on a bike ride which turned out to be much harder than we had expected. We decided we'll have to start out a little slower so Val and Reilly will love mountain biking. On the way back, there was a snake on the trail. He was really drawing a crowd and blocking the trail so I let him crawl on my tire and I carried him to the bushes and let him slither off.
It was almost time to go so we had lunch with my family and then said goodbye. They had brought down Kelsi's ski jacket and skis that she had asked them to get from Kelsi's grandpa's house. He ended up sending a whole box of winter clothes and Kelsi's mom's skis! We all had a good laugh. It was such a fun weekend and we were happy to all spend some time together even if it was only a couple of days.
