Midnight Rider

I like to put a couple of my favorite things together: PB&Bananas. Coffee and chia seeds. On this occasion I went with mountain biking and photography. As I was packing the car, I decided to throw my bike up top. Spur of the moment decision. Turned out to be a good choice, if not out of necessity. I have a little coupe that simply won’t make it down some of these roads, but somehow, someway I’ve always managed.

A most divine glory hole.

This particular trailhead starts after a steep and rocky 4x4 road. Much of the road is good for quite a ways, so I drove a decent ways in until I lucked upon some excellent dispersed camping. Shady and secluded with phenomenal views and a nice fire pit. I was sold.

So, I set up camp in this most beautiful location. Actually, no, I didn’t set up camp. I parked my car and pulled my bike off the rack. Now when I’ve spent way, way too much of my life away from the wild and in front of a screen, I get a tad bit itchy to check things out immediately when I arrive. Plus it was already nearing the golden hour around sunset. Without a plan, I hopped on my bike and decided to get the lay of the land. Maybe bike to the trailhead to see how early I needed to wake up. I’d say I was a good seven or eight miles away. This area is full of roads that lead to nowhere. You can easily get going in the wrong direction. Which is of course what I did. After the first big fork in the road, I went to the left. Since the road was on a steady decline I was having a blast... until it came to a dead end. Then I was turning around and heading back from where I came. Oh well. Chalk it up to some learning.

When I was back on the right road, it was smooth sailing. Until those last couple of miles. Serious declines. Big obstacles in the way of rocks and boulders. Not that there was anything wrong with that. I was catching a lot of speed, but losing light quickly. All in all, on the way down only one Jeep nearly wiped me off the planet. I found the trailhead. Knew where to go. I was ready to rock and roll for tomorrow. Only one more obstacle: getting back.

With the full moon out, I was looking forward to the experience. But I was admittedly pooped after a long travel day.  I knew the way back wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. Although I did walk a lot. I didn’t bother paying attention - maybe because I didn’t really want to know, but it was something between two and three hours coming back up. Needless to say it was late and I was ready for some shut eye. I started an uninspiring fire, set up camp, and packed for the next day. I took enough water and food in case I’d be out all day. Kind of. I half expected to be coming back to this kick-ass spot to nap and hang during the day.

I went to bed well after midnight. I woke up mere hours later. 3:30 am. With the full moon and a headlamp, I hit the road. I’m not gonna lie, it was a bit sketch biking down a steep road under the moonlight. Under the low light, there were more than a few occasions of simply holding on and hoping for the best. Of course at these hours, I needn’t worry about oncoming traffic - just the locals. I knew what these large black shapes shifting along the side of the road were, but it didn’t always ease the nerves. The cow may have jumped over the moon, but I nearly scared myself out of my saddle when the local grazers made sudden movements from their resting positions as I sped past.

I made it to the trailhead with plenty of time to spare before sunrise and stashed my bike behind some trees. Since this was my first time on the trail, I didn’t know exactly how long of a hike I’d have until I hit something inspiring. It didn’t take long. Maybe 45 minutes in and there it was. Quite possibly the prettiest arch I’ve ever laid my eyes on. My bag went down quick. I had way more than enough time before the light would start popping off. I stopped. I patiently waited. I walked across the arch. I fully enjoyed.

Afterwards, I knew I wanted to shoot sunset here. I also knew I wasn’t about to huff it back to my campsite under the midday sun only to bike back down. It was a hot, cloudless day only getting hotter. So I did a whole lot of nothing. I didn’t bother exploring much other than to find various shady spots hidden amongst the canyon shelf. From there, I went with naps and meditation. Same, same but different. Sometimes one led to the other. I conserved water and energy, although I would deplete both over the course of the day.

At some point I found this huge round rock at the edge of the canyon near one of the many breathtaking arches. Up to that point, I hadn’t seen anybody all day long. I spread out on my belly. Let my arms and legs hang. I found myself in complete relaxation and on the way to dreamland.

Half asleep, I heard from behind me, “Hey man, are you OK?!!” It was a group of three friends trail running and I’m fairly certain the thought went through their minds that they had just come upon a corpse. Thankfully for them this zombie woke up and stumbled around to offer a tad bit of light conversation as I knocked loose the cobwebs. Turns out I met a really interesting author named Aaron McHugh. Would have loved to talk with him more but he was running and I was sleep walking. Regardless, I felt grateful that I had the chance to be in his presence that day.

Sunset came and didn’t disappoint. It rarely does. With ten miles and a couple of looming climbs ahead of me, I took my time. Hike out was great. Similar to the night before, bike ride/push back up was pretty devastating - although it still had its special moments after the road relented. Got back around midnight.

Even though I knew the full moon would be setting right in front of this arch the following morning, I couldn’t do it. Probably was epic. But ain’t no way was I about to put myself through the grinder for the third day in a row. I slept in and enjoyed the heck out of my camping spot the next day. Equally as epic.

Now, I used to research the bejesus out of stuff. Have it all planned out. These days I like to think less and trust my intuition more. I’m enjoying the surprises around the corner. It all added up to one hell of an adventure. All from a trip that originally was going to take me to Utah, but kept me in Colorado. I quickly learned a lot about this new land and terrain. Does this make me want to get rid of my car and finally get that 4x4? Yup. But would I do any of it differently? Nope. I look back at this fondly. Even if it didn’t seem like it, I was alive out there.