Slickrock Bike Trail

Corey and I had a much better night of sleep last night than we did Wednesday night. The Bowen Hotel was good, we took Owen and Peter with us. Everyone else was plenty warm and comfortable in their tents (46 last night compared to the 23 on Wednesday night! Much better!) Corey worked for a little bit in the morning - they are having a hard deadline today. I went to camp and made sure everyone got breakfast, then back to get Corey so we could have some more fun today. Corey was really looking forward to taking the kids biking during this little trip to Moab, and we went to Slickrock today to fulfill that desire. He wanted all of us to go. Hyrum, Lily, and Natalie didn't want to. After a bit of bickering and back and forth, we decided to let them stay. Hyrum was going to start packing up and would have the girls help him. Daniel was going to stay with them, too, but then at the last second Daniel wanted to come. We didn't have a bike for him, but it's just a short ride away, we'll figure it out. Off we go. Unload all the bikes - Corey thought it was funny all the comments he got on his 7 bike VelociRax. "Next time I plan to get more comments on my biking than my bike rack..."

Corey with Peter riding Shotgun, Wes, Abi, Sophi and Owen... Off they go to try out the practice loop.

I was going to stay with Daniel in the car, but he wanted to go back, so I took him back to the campground and tried to trade him for Lily and Natalie. Natalie still refused, but Lily obediently followed me. I begged her to just humor me and let's try to bike this thing, Dad will be happy if we try. On our drive over, we could see all of them riding not very far from where they had started 10 minutes ago. I thought maybe we could catch up to them. We tried. And it was dang hard. I guess that is why they hadn't gotten very far - I don't think any of us are up for this level of difficulty. As we started up the hills, we saw that Corey and the kids had turned around and were coming back to the trailhead...

"The trail app I looked at said that the practice loop was a green. It's not... that's a black diamond..." Where are Wes and Sophi? Did they already die trying?!?! No, they had gone on ahead. Lily was already done, so she went back with COP, Abi followed me to try to catch up with Sophi and Wes. They hadn't gotten very far. Wes was ahead waiting for Sophi to try and catch up to him, but she was walking her bike. She looked a little overwhelmed. We decided for Abi and Sophi to go back, and I thought I'd try to explore this thing with Wes. Off we go.

 

It was thoroughly difficult, and we got off our bikes many times and we tried to navigate the hills and turns and slopes and sandpits. BUT WE DID IT!!! WE BIKED THE PRACTIE LOOP ON SLICKROCK!

There was a lady ahead of us walking. Wes said that he started before her but she passed them. I guess he did some small talk with her and she said she was walking it to see if she would be able to bike it. We probably shoulda done that. It was fun though. Wasn't too hot. I got a better workout than I've had in a long while. I even made it up like 3 of hills without getting off my bike. Two times I made it further up than Wesley. Go Moms! Near the end of the trail, we saw Corey and Peter coming to greet us.

No way I'd be brave enough to do any of this with Peter on my bike. Good job Corey, that's impressive. I took a pic of them, Corey took a pic of us.

After all that fun and hard work, we went back to the campground and packed up the cars. Peter explored his little sand hill. 

Cutie.

Then headed to Corey's parents hotel so the kids could take a swim. 

Ya gotta love Marriotts. Corey said he's realized once again, that he's not a camping person. He's a Marriott person.

The kids played there for 2 hours and then we headed home. We made a plan and followed our plan pretty well! 

We were on the road by 5:15 and were able to drive in the daylight, which was a priority for me. I do not like driving on dark roads when there are no lights to show the way, only the lights of the traffic coming straight at you... It gets me a little dizzy. So we made it to Provo before dark, and decided to stop for dinner at Chuck A Rama. 

We like Chuck a Rama cause everyone is happy to be able to find plenty of foods they like. 

Joseph met up with us there. He was coming back from Beaver with the Fiesta. He had a friend (Emily) that was going down to St. George and she was able to drop him off there to get the car. The Fiesta broke down while J and Hyrum were on their way to a Moxie thing two weeks ago. Hyrum is glad to have it back. Although it worked out nicely having it gone during spring break (we didn't have to take them to school)

All the kids were teasing Joseph about his girl friend Emily and putting pressure on him to give details about his intentions and the deadlines of those intentions. It was a good trip, I'm glad we're home, it was fun, we'll probably do it again sometime!