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Sandstone arches, red rock mesas, and lots of adrenaline

An Illustrated Itinerary of one of our many travel adventures for gay men, lesbians, and friends.

This information supplements our
shorter Overview of the trip.

For our week of mountain biking in the canyonlands and red rock country of Utah, we're based in the town of Moab, just a few minutes drive from Arches National Park, and just a few miles from some of the world's best-known trail biking sites. We've scheduled four days of biking with a local guide, another day on which your mountain bike is available for biking on your own or with others in our group, and a final day on which to relax, hike, or try out a new activity from the diverse choices that Moab offers.

The schedule below describes a typical week. Our actual selection or sequence of rides, restaurants, and activities may change based on trail conditions, weather, or simply what cyclists in our group want to do.

1: Arrival Day

"I always envisioned Utah as a big flat, rectangle with a corner cut out of the top," said one first-time visitor. "I couldn't have been more wrong."

The variety of terrain and rock formations in Utah is, indeed, astonishing. Just north of Moab, where we spend our week, lies Arches National Park, a fantasyland of several thousand sandstone arches formed by eons of erosion. The roads above Moab are lined with hoodoos, sculpted pillars of stone that serve as Rorschach tests, looking over the valley like eagles, owls, brides, and camels.

Our trip officially begins at 6:00 pm, but from four o'clock onward you'll have opportunities to meet up with other early arrivals and walk the main street of this historic town. Once flush with revenue from nearby silver mines, Moab has weathered several boom-and-bust cycles. Today it maintains a funky balance between the old-timers who came to extract minerals from these hills, and newer arrivals who prefer simply to bike or hike on top of them.

Who will be in our group? This trip always draws a friendly and energetic group of cyclists. The majority will most likely range in age from late twenties to early fifties, and don't be surprised if several come from outside the United States. Gay mountain bikers from around the world have easy access to this website, and we've had countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam represented on our trips. The photo here, taken later in the week, shows some of our 2002 group.

After a reception, introductions, and a brief orientation, we enjoy a casual but tasty southwestern dinner at Eddie McStiff's, one of Moab's most popular restaurants. Try one of Eddie's microbrews: Jalapeno Beer was a hit our first year there; so was Moab Lime Beer and their Extra Special Bitter. The food is equally memorable, from grilled salmon or portabello penne, all the way to "Mud Slide Pie."

Afterward? Moab's gay nightlife is, shall we say, limited, but a few members of our group head for one of the local saloons, while others, awake since early hours to catch a flight, are ready to call it a night.

2: Fat Tires and Dinosaur Tracks

Moab's reputation as a mountain biking capital means we always have several appealing choices of routes. Each day our guide will pick the one that seems best, based on the preferences and experience levels of the group.

One possibility today is Klondike Bluffs, a varied mix of slickrock, jeep track, occasional patches of sand, and a stretch of four-wheel-drive road. Dinosaur tracks, some as much as a foot long, are among today's highlights. They're easy to spot: a ring of small stones has been placed around the most prominent of the tracks.

Vast expanses of slickrock also await us here, as well as assorted cracks, crevices, and small ledges on which to learn some new techniques. Keep your weight back! is the critical advice on certain downhill moves. At the far end of the mountain bike trail, a hike takes us into Arches National Park for lunch, with views of the remote Tower Arch.

Dinosaur buffs will be in heaven here in Utah. A short drive from town lie the five-toed tracks of the first sauropod ever reported in Utah, as well as three-toed Allosaur tracks. Along the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail, 13 miles north of Moab, petrified wood and fossils are preserved in their natural settings.

Another mountain biking option is Hurrah Pass, a scenic road that passes under towering red cliffs where rock climbers can be seen threading their way up a crack in the rock. Further on, the guide stops for no apparent reason. When we're all assembled, he points overhead: Right in plain view, but easily missed if you don't know where to look, are petroglyphs dating back 500 years. Or perhaps 3000 years. No one's quite certain.

After the ride, many of us choose to take the Fiery Furnace hike in Arches National Park, a 3-hour guided hike amidst the sweeping rock fins in a remote corner of the park. It's part hike, part scramble -- but grandmothers have threaded their way through here, and so can we. A Park Service guide gives us a sense of the geological forces that created these unique formations, of the plant life that survives in seemingly harsh conditions, and even of what is required of an opening in the rock to qualify it as an arch. (It must be at least a meter in diameter, in some direction; and must not have been formed by water -- which would make it a natural bridge, not a natural arch.)

We also learn about cryptobiotic soil, the unusual crust that protects the desert landscape. While the vast expanses of sand in this region of Utah seem lifeless, the top layer consists of tiny organisms (sometimes called cryptogamic crust) that bind together and protect against erosion -- yet can be destroyed by a single footstep. We've already been cautioned not to leave the marked trails, and now we better understand why.

3: New Biking Techniques

Yesterday, we got comfortable on our new bikes. Many people come for this week with little or no experience on mountain bikes, and the easy terrain on our first day gave everyone an opportunity to get an intuitive sense of how they handle. Those accustomed to road bikes find that the wider, knobbier tires give far better traction than they'd expected. Potholes that would dent the rim of a road bike present no impediment to us.

Today's trail, Gemini Bridges, offers a wide variety of sights and terrain. We start from an unpaved road, with an ascent that gives our granny gears a workout. Soon we're on an undulating road, with sweeping views of the canyonlands below, and craggy rocks above that resemble castle turrets.

The towering beaked rock ahead surely merits a name, and sure enough, it has one: That's Gooney Bird. Soon after Gooney Bird, the gravel road turns briefly to sand, requiring an entirely different technique. The sand, happily, gives out after just a few hundred feet, and soon the sandstone known as slickrock replaces the road.

Despite its name, slickrock offers excellent traction for our tires as we wend past gnarled juniper trees and purple sage. We'll get practice today going down small ledges -- a drop of a foot or so. Our guide demonstrates: The trick is to shift your weight back, and resist the impulse to brake as you take the drop. After a few practice runs, we're all more confident.

Our destination, Gemini Bridges, is a pair of rock arches high over a canyon. We arrive at the top and can only, cautiously, look down at the vistas below, as we eat lunch. A few years ago, a four-wheel jeep backed too close to the cliffs in a vehicle that needed new brakes, and part of lunch is spent speculating about the driver's last words: "Honey, I'll fix them next week"? or "Nah, it would cut into my beer budget"?

Most of the mountain biking trails around Moab make for about a 5-hour day. Those who want more will have their bikes all day, but most of us enjoy using different muscles for part of the afternoon. At about 3:00, we head for Arches National Park.

First stop: The aptly-named Balanced Rock, set like an enormous egg atop a stone pedestal. Balanced Rock marks the original entrance to the park, and it was here that Edward Abbey worked as a ranger for several seasons, before writing his famous book, Desert Solitaire.

Then, a 90-minute hike leads to Delicate Arch, a robust inverted-U that, however many times it's been portrayed on postcards and in guidebooks, has lost none of its grandeur.

4: Climbing, Rafting, or Just Relaxing

No guided ride is scheduled for today. A few die-hard bikers may choose to venture out on their own. If you're in that group, you may pedal off to Slickrock Trail, the ride that made Moab famous, and among the most difficult you'll find. Experts have polished off these 11 miles of roller-coaster trail in less than two hours. Most of us will need to allow twice that, or more, to negotiate the half-pipes, the short but steep climbs, hairpin turns, screaming descents, harrowing ledges.

Once more, the term "slickrock" is inaptly applied. The "slickrock" of Utah isn't really slick; it offers excellent traction for mountain bike tires. And the rock on this trail isn't even what's known as "slickrock"; it's Navajo sandstone.

Moab offers a wide choice of other appealing activities, however, and many of us will take a break from biking today. Mountain biking seems to attract a high number of rock climbers, and our first year in Moab, we had four people who had previously been on The Grand, to learn rock climbing skills in the Tetons. Within Arches National Park are numerous walls and spires with magnificent climbing, and several of us spend the day getting vertical, climaxing with an ascent of the dramatic sandstone pillar in Arches known as The Owl.

The Green River and Colorado River both flow nearby. Rafting and canoeing trips are another possibility today. Choose between calm stretches of the river, with time to relax under an ever-changing panorama of red cliffs and blue sky, or go for the whitewater: You'll hit 6 rapids on the Colorado between Hittle Bottom to Takeout Beach. Or just go for a swim in the cool waters of the river.

What else? The Moab Golf Course offers 18 holes in a stunning setting of green grass surrounded by ochre cliffs. Movie buffs can visit the sites of such films as Geronimo or Thelma and Louise; the star-crossed women took their final plunge at Dead Horse Point. Explore the nearby La Sal Mountains on horseback or in a jeep.

This is also a free night for dinner. We often have a chef in our group. Our first year in Moab, Michael fired up the barbecue for a casual and tasty grilled dinner at home. The next year, we had our first-ever evening event to combine Vietnamese Caramelized Pork, karaoke, and lots of polyester. It was fun but don't worry. It was the first-ever evening of its kind, and it's likely to also be the last.

5: Amasa Back

Today we'll get more of the spectacular views and hoodoo-lined roads that we've come to take for granted in Moab, as well as new terrain to try out.

Within five minutes of getting on our bikes, our guide Crash has pointed ahead to a drop-off on the trail that looks comparable to biking off a dining room table. Actually, it's worse. A dining room table is 30 inches high; this ledge easily drops 3 feet. A moment later, Crash has successfully popped off it. Anybody want to follow?

As a matter of fact, no. We've gotten better this week, but not that good! We've all gained confidence and skill, however, and the trail offers many opportunities for testing those new skills.

After that short descent ("the Mr. Toad downhill" as it's called by the ever-useful Falcon Guide, Mountain Biking Moab), Amasa Back crosses a shallow stream, then starts up the side of a canyon. If you've seen the big-screen film Everest, you've seen Amasa Back: The mountaineers used it for training, and Crash was one of the cyclists shown.

Soon after we begin the ascent, Crash points out more petroglyphs. Unlike those we saw earlier in the week, these aren't visible from the trail: You have to know where to get off your bike, and follow a short hiking trail over to them.

Lunch today is at the end of the trail. Looking down onto the valley, we can see the wandering course used in a local mountain biking race. We thought we'd been on some steep terrain, but this is steeper: For one section, the racers have to actually carry their bikes up part of the cliff.

After biking, some of us head back to Arches to hike the Devil's Garden trail. The first sight here: Landscape Arch, with a span longer than a football field, believed to be the world's widest free-standing rock arch. Look fast: Several large slaps fell from the underside of the arch recently, and it now appears more fragile than ever. We continue, passing some of the park's most spectacular formations including the famed Double-O arch, with a magnificent landscape opening behind the window that it forms. The "Primitive Trail" route back offers extra challenges, scrambling over occasional boulders, walking along a sandy wash.

6: Porcupine Rim ... or the Monitor and Merrimac?

It's our last day of mountain biking -- and we haven't yet selected today's route.

By now, you have a sense of what you'll enjoy, and we have a sense of what's realistic. Moab offers over 30 top-quality mountain bike trails, and we'll pick the one (or two, if the group is large and divergent) most suited for the week's finale.

There's Porcupine Rim, one of Utah's best-known trails, an invigorating mix of singletrack and dirt road, boulders and ledges, with awesome views from the rim. Or Poison Spider, with Moab's most talked-about stretch of fat tire trail: A narrow pass with a cliff on one side, and a 400-foot drop on the other side. Let's be realistic: Most of us would rather talk about this than bike on it.

More accessible, perhaps, is the trail named Monitor and Merrimac, because of two rock formations that bear a striking resemblance to the famous Civil War battleships of the same names. The trail takes us to more petroglyphs, over vast expanses of enticing slickrock, and past the rugged stone foundations of an old stage coach stop. There's also time for lunch, and maybe a bit of sun-bathing.

Tonight's dinner is at the Moab Brewery, one of several micro-breweries in Moab that offers an extensive selection of brews, and some of the best food we'll have this week. Except, of course, for Michael's cookout, and the caramelized Vietnamese pork.

7: Island in the Sky

By now, we're all eager to see this magnificent country from a different perspective. No official activity is planned for today, but many of us will head for Canyonlands National Park, just a 45-minute drive west, for a day of hiking.

After looking at several tempting options, we settle on the 5-hour Murphy Hogback trail in the park section known as Island in the Sky. From a roadside parking area, we follow a series of cairns to the top of a cliff that overlooks a rugged skyline of red rock and towering mesas.

A trail spills down the rock to the plateau below. We make our way downhill for an hour, past switchbacks and boulders, with sweeping views that stretch from the Colorado River to distance mesas and peaks. From the plateau, home to coyotes, coyotes, and desert bighorn sheep, we connect briefly to the White Rim Trail, an unpaved road popular with mountain bikers, before heading back up to the trailhead. In the springtime, the desert landscape is enlivened by brilliant red cactus flowers.

Remarkably, except for several cyclists on the White Rim Trail, we've only seen two other people today. Despite all the talk about overcrowding in American's national parks, those willing to walk more than five minutes from the parking lot can still enjoy a sense of uncrowded grandeur. Like Edward Abbey, you'll remember Island in the Sky for "the splendor of the landscape, the perfection of the silence."

Canyonlands has a few arches of its own. Our favorite is Mesa Arch, offering an unexpectedly sweeping vista. The less said about Mesa Arch in advance, the better. This is one that you have to experience in person.

For our last evening's dinner, we picked the best spot in town: Center Cafe.

8: Departure Day

Our trip officially ends after breakfast, but if you've got early connections, you can rise and depart as early as you need to.

An experience as intense as this creates strong bonds, and it's sad to say goodbye to new friends. But if the past is any guide, we'll see each other again on future adventures. And if you've got a few extra days, Utah is full of other appealing destinations. Natural Bridges National Monument is just to the south, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks in the southwest, as well as Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Our pre-trip newsletter makes it easy to plan a trip to one of these spots with others in the group.

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