TL:DR; Rode to Gemini Bridges, did Hell’s Revenge, Slickrock practice route.
Sorry for the potato quality of my camera. Dust, dirt and it not being an iphone really make a difference. This is going to be a long post with three distinct parts. With the first day under our belts we planned a little more ambitious day. I had taken apart my bike the night before and couldn’t find a leak and the coolant was still full, so we think it is either a minor leak or possibly just coolant burning off from the freeze overflow that happened in Mammoth.
GEMINI BRIDGES
I had never been there but it was highly recommended as “Site to See”. The route was an easy to traverse fire road out and then back around via the highway. Here’s the route in All Trails: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/utah/gemini-bridges.
For this one we had Ernie and Michele join us in their Jeep. Once we got to the place, we parked the bikes and hoofed out maybe a 1/2 mile or so to the bridges. I have to admit I didn’t see this one coming. We were climbing up the road for the longest time gaining elevation and I kept looking around for something towering above that would be the fabled bridges. Walking, we actually headed downhill where it turns out that we were at the top of the bridges, revealing a huge valley below. Kind of like Muscleman Arch.
Disclaimer: I do not have a fear of heights. I can repel off anything, I can climb up anything, but there’s a catch. I must be mechanically attached to the structure. That could be the rock, the building, or the wall of ice. I cannot simply walk to the edge of a cliff without being roped in. That feeling also transfers to others. I cannot watch someone walk to the edge either, unless I can also see that they are attached to something. That’s what stopped my in Zion from going further on Angels Landing. After years of mountaineering I just know this about myself. Weird, eh?
So we walked all around the bridges, and then Michele decided to walk to the edge and sit with her legs dangling over. I can feel my blood pressure rising just typing this. Then Tomm joined her and it became a whole circus of life defying events. LOL!
The Gemini part is that there are twin bridges, side by side. There’s about a 6 foot gap in between them. A drop from either would be several hundred feet onto jagged rocks. I did challenge myself and walk across one of the two bridges. It was wide enough where I felt a little queasy but manageable. It was only after walking away that I heard about two other visitors who jumped the gap. Ugh!
The only way to get a perspective on this is to back up and see it from a different angle. Here’s Tomm on the same edge.
That’s bad enough for me but if we back up and get a different view it’s even worse.
And then to get a real idea, here’s almost all of us, while Adalto hiked to the opposite side and took the pic.
How far down is that? 10 stories, 20 stories? I don’t know but here’s a picture of 2 people walking on the floor below. Those are not ants.
It’s a massive valley. Here’s as close I could comfortable pose for. See, I can play life and death games too!
Here’s a few videos on the trip out to Gemini Bridges. One is full length and unedited (48 minutes!) and the other is a shorter version (just 7:26)with highlights and music.
HELL’S REVENGE
After we got back to camp, we had a bite to eat and then planned to go back into the park and ride “Hell’s Revenge”. It was supposed to be similar to what we did the day before (Finns and Things) but harder. It’s only a 10 mile loop so after that the plan was for the bikes to go do Slick Rock which was another less than 10 mile loop.
Tomm’s knee was bothering him so he stayed in camp. The route started fine but quickly went south when Landon fell and made sure his wrist was broken. Here’s what we planned to do but somewhere around that point #5 Landon and another uphill rock got into a disagreement. (the rock won)
Michele driving the jeep up Landon’s Rock was really impressive. I don’t get to see those kind of things usually close up like that.
So, we had an issue. Really the only issue the whole trip. The route in was a little technical and too technical for Landon’s wrist to go forward so we decided to go backwards and get out but he couldn’t ride the technical parts. So I rode Landon’s bike over the tricky parts, then ran back to my bike and so on. At a certain point he was able to ride out and he was gone. We had no idea where but he hit the road and was gone! He had decided to head to Urgent Care in town and get an x-ray. We called Tomm and told him Landon was on the way and then Ernie and Michele drove back to camp while Adalto and I decided to go on to Slick Rock. It was getting closer to the end of the day so we wanted to keep moving.
SLICK ROCK
Slick Rock is one of those “MUST DO” routes. There are must see, and must do and this has been on my list for the longest time. It was also a good time to slow down and do some coaching with Adalto one on one.
Amazingly, we finally got our headsets to talk to each other so that was perfect.
Before you do the 10 mile Slick Rock Loop you are encouraged to do the short 2 mile Practice Loop so that’s where we started.
This area is mountain bikes and motos only so we were very careful giving right of way to the bicycles.
This route is almost all smooth rock. You follow the little painted dots and stay on the trail. Sometimes the trail goes straight up a hill, makes a sharp turn and goes back down.
The key to riding here is control, control of brakes, throttle, and clutch and that’s exactly what Adalto needed. In this short couple of miles we worked on throttle control, when to use the back brake, when to use the front (I say always!), and feathering the clutch when needed. We also worked on balance fore and aft, positioning your weight on either peg left or right, and all that good stuff.
Adalto wasn’t a bad rider before this but he was a very much better rider after it!
By the time we finished the Practice Loop the sun was getting low and there was no way we’d be able to get the full 10 mile loop done in time. Plus, and this is a very big plus, both of us were tired and stating to make mistakes and that’s never a good thing to do. So we headed back to camp.
On the way back I decided to stop at Milt’s. A greasy looking burger stand that Landon had pointed out the day before. “You have to go to Milt’s and you have to get a shake.”, he said. So, figuring that he’d be back at camp I thought I’d surprise him with a shake. I called Emily to see if she might know his favorite flavor.
I think we decided on Thin Mint Cookie. Adalto and I got milkshakes for all and carefully rode them all the way back to camp, where we found out there was no Landon. He had gone to Urgent Care but they couldn’t see him right away so he had an appointment scheduled a few hours later. So we all sat around camp (sans Landon), enjoying our milkshakes and curly fries and telling stories. When he finally pulled in I went to ride his hour old milkshake over to him and F’n dropped it while getting on my bike. Not just spilled it – but fully dropped it, splattering it all on the gravel driveway.
So what did I do? Well, I did the only thing I could. I went over to see how he was and didn’t mention anything about milkshakes.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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