We had tried six times to get to the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands.  Once it was snowing: not a good thing for riding in Chinle clay.  A couple of times there was a family crisis.  Once the last part of the trail at Horsethief was washed out.  The June we finally managed to get onto the trail, Potato Bottom was flooded and we could not do the whole loop, so we rode to Hogback and out.

June 2013, the fates finally aligned.  The permit came through.  No one was in the hospital.  The road was not flooded.  We even had a designated driver to haul the supplies and the water (no water for the 100 mile route).

So Brad and Coop rode down the Shafer Trail a couple of thousand feet.  The "trail" is a dirt road.  Good enough for a high clearance car, but rough enough and steep enough that 4X4 is recommended. I walked maybe a third of it.

The Shafer Trail, no place to skid off the road.

I do love rocks.  The White Rim is all rocks.  Most of the ride is along the Permian White Rim Sandstone on a massive shelf just above the drop-off down to the Green River.  There is approximately one tree along the 100 mile trail.  

So it was hot.  Moving on a bike, one makes a breeze, but stopping is always hot.  The breeze is also dehydrating, which is an issue.  First night's camp at Airport was open but scenic.  I was on my way back from the outhouse when I heard a funny noise.  It sounded almost familiar, but not quite right.  I stopped to look carefully and found that I had just stepped over a pigmy rattlesnake. It was totally torqued off, so I didn't get a good picture.  Our Grand Canyon rattlers are much more mellow.  Coop had a nice freak-out.  "If you hadn't told me I would be blissfully ignorant!"

Second night was at the White Crack. This is THE premier campsite on the entire route.  There is only one group allowed, and it is at the end of a long isthmus of sandstone surrounded by cliffs.  We got a great sunset, and enough of a breeze to keep the gnats at bay.  Lots of worked shards of rock scattered about.  It is possible that this was a ceremonial area in which to work on rock tools.  It certainly wasn't a convenient area to work on rock tools.

White Crack

Now, I love the desert.  I was born and raised in the desert.  One thing I really love about the desert is that there are no bugs.  Canyonlands is a desert, and every time I have visited there have been bugs.  Gnats or deer flies or biting black flies.  Some seasons the bugs are so bad that mountain bikers talk about riding with one hand and swatting frantically with the other.  I am told that the area is not that buggy, that I just hit it at the wrong time, but, in any case, there were bugs.

We wanted to camp at Candlestick the next night, but it was full so we had a longer ride on day three.  We passed through Candlestick and it was exposed and hot and dry with no shade.  Sometimes things do happen for the best.  Rode all the way down to Potato Bottom right next to the Green River.

Coop decided he would swim, so we thrashed our way through the invasive Tamarisks until we reached the water.  Which was about 6 feet down a sheer bank.  Nothing loath, Coop and Brad took off upstream to find a place they could get in.  They did manage to find a muddy bank, but by the time they struggled in and out of the mud, they weren't very clean or refreshed.

Along the next day's route there is a site called Fort Bottom.  Brad and I decided that we would check it out that evening, so we drove up Hardscrabble Hill.  Part of the way, anyhow.  These roads are narrow and steep and there is no place to turn around or pull over.  We finally parked at a "wide" spot and walked the rest of the way.

The site is on a little peninsula of land in a gooseneck of the Green River.  It is approached by a trail which descends, then ascends, then crosses a dramatic causeway of sandstone stepping stones on top of hoo doos. It is thought that it might have been ceremonial.  The approach would suggest so to me.  We had to rush to beat the sunset.  We hadn't brought flashlights, because it was only a short three mile hike.  That has gotten me into trouble before.  "Oh, it's only a short hike.  We don't need a flashlight/map/lunch".  That's before we parked the truck and walked another two or so.  We were told upon our return that we missed the onslaught of ravenous riparian insects.

Causeway to Fort Bottom Ruin

Up and over Hardscrabble hill and then along the Green River.  We were supposed to spend a night at Taylor, which would set us us to hike to Upheaval Dome, but we were all pretty tired of setting up camp early afternoon and then sitting in what little shade we could find, waiting for the bugs to go away and the sun to go down, which in June was not until about ten at night.  This is why Arizona does not go on Daylight Savings Time.  When we reached the turnoff for Taylor, Coop just kept riding, and we tacitly agreed.

What goes down must come up, and we climbed back out of the trail back onto the plateau.  I managed to ride all the way up Horsethief with only a few stops when I fell off the bike from riding too slowly.  Coop and Brad wanted to ride all the way back to the car, about 12 miles.  We were going on a long bike trip in a few weeks, so I tried to ride as well.  They, of course, were far out of sight.  I kept saying, "Okay, up this hill and then it is downhill the rest of the way.  Well, that wasn't the top, so up the next hill.  Well, that wasn't it either..."  I kept this up for about an hour and called it quits.  I flagged down the truck to ride in style.  As it turned out, there was no top to the hill.  It went uphill all the way to the highway.

The road was narrow enough that we carried two-way radios so we could signal to our driver if another vehicle was coming up or down. Uphill has the right of way, but that does no good if you meet another car that is halfway down a hill with no place to turn around or pull over.  Most drivers were gracious and understanding.  One pair of dirt bikers, when I told them that they would have to wait at the top of the Hogback, snarled,  "What's the issue?"  "Well, our Yukon is about halfway up the hill."  "So?"
"So you won't both fit, and believe me, between a Yukon and a dirt bike, you are going to lose the argument."

The Yukon tops out the Hogback: no room for dirt bikes

So I did like it.  If I went again, it would be in spring or fall when the weather is a little more forgiving. And maybe no bugs.  But I've heard that in spring, the winds can blow gale force for a week.

One thing I couldn't get used to was no hiking off the road.  I fully understand.  The area is all cryptobiotic soil.  One does not bust the crust.  But it would be nice to be able to wander a bit.