Needling

We spent another languid morning at the Lazy Lizard Hostel and chatted to friends and family back home. We then drove the hour and a half to an area called The Needles in the southern end of the Canyonlands NP. We had a little stop at Newspaper Rock which has been used as a notepad for many different cultures over 1500 years. We set up camp nice and early just outside the park and cooked scones (aka biscuits in the native tongue) in our dutch oven. Around 8pm the campsite erupted with howling as the full moon rose over the surrounding ridge.

In the morning we drove to the trailhead at the end of a bumpy, dusty road and immediately had to climb up through steps built into a narrow crack in the rocks. The scenery was incredible with mushroom rocks, stacks, spires, and narrow cracks through massive chunks of rock. After a couple of hours we came to the Joint Trail, which was thought meant shared, but in fact referred to a half mike long crack in the rock a few feet wide but just enough to squeeze the trail through. It was pretty amazing and way tighter than anything we had navigated before. We headed back to the hostel for a well needed shower (as its still drippingly hot in the day).

Moab is a mecca for mountain bikers and I had little choice but to hire a full suspension bike (as my wheel was still tacoed). I've only ever ridden a front suspension before (mine must be pushing 20 years old too) so it was a bit of a revelation to be completely off balance and going to fast towards a scary looking obstacle, only to bump over it almost as if it wasn't there. It does take a lot of the skill out of technical riding but the hands/arse definitely appreciated the softer ride and boy was it fun to thrash around on the slick rock and single track. We returned to town utterly spent, but did manage to stagger down to the brewery and had a fascinating night talking to a guy called Richard who runs 34 miles FOR FUN!Read more