Las Vegas : March 2001
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Thursday March 22nd:
- Leave Monument(my home) around 6:00am and head to Fruita, CO. One of the top ten mountain bike destinations. Do a 13 mile ride in about two hours. Very, very cool trails. Two flat tires. Did I say cool trails? Weather was 70 degrees and sunny. Packed up and headed to Boulder City -- just south of Vegas. Arrive around 10:00pm.
- Rise around 7:00am and ride out of hotel room and into the mountains. Do about a three hour ride and about 17 miles on the mountain bike. Very fast downhills and some very cool climbs. Do a double slalom. Jumps and high burm corners. Very cool. Afternoon went to tour hoover dam. Did the hard hat tour so we were in the heart of the dam. Got to keep the hard hat. I recommend to everyone to take the hard hat tour. Early evening went to the Vegas strip and took in the sites. Rode the roller coaster at New York, New York, saw the pirate ship battle at Treasure Island and the fountain show at the Belagio(sp). Did a little gambling. Vegas is a very fun town at night. Lots of stuff to do. It has everything my mom warned me about.
- Rise around 7:00am with about 4 hours sleep. Do another three hours and 17 miles on the mountain bike. Same area but different trails. In the afternoon, took the Suzuki out in the desert and did some riding. Crashed pretty hard trying to get up a 9 inch high rock shelf. Not sure what happen but the bike flipped and went sideways and I went with it right into a 20 foot rock wall next to the rock shelf. Anyway, ended up spraining my thumb pretty bad. Puffed up like a balloon. It was hard to throttle and brake with the right hand. Went back to trailer and packed up so I could get ice on it. That night went to the Vegas strip again and ate as well people watched. Very cool.
- Rise about 6:00am after about 4 hours of sleep and head west of Vegas into the mountains. Ride about 3 hours and 21 miles on the mountain bike. I could not shift the rear derailler because of my thumb so I just used the front. It hurt like hell, but I came to ride and thats what I did. In the afternoon went down to the lake with some beers and watched all the nice sunbathers. Very relaxing. I would have rather been riding the Suzuki but the thumb was pretty bad and I thought I should take the afternoon off. That night we went and had mexican and went to bed early -- around midnight.
- Packed up and headed back. Got out of bed around 4:30am. Another 4 hours of sleep. Stopped in Moab, UT. Tempature around 70 and sunny. Do a 10 mile loop at slick rock. This is some of the coolest mountain biking around. You will have to experience it for yourself. The thumb was getting better so I could at least take the pain of shifting. Packed up, ate in Moab and headed for Monument. Ran into some pretty bad weather going over Vail pass. Finally got in around midnight. Up the next morning for work. Man am I tired today.
- Mountain Bike Miles Ridden: Around 70
- Motorcycle Miles Ridden: Around 20 -- cut short because of injury
- Money lost gambling: 20 bucks -- I do not like to gamble
- Miles Driven in car: Around 1600
- Hours of sleep: 18 hours over five days
- Weather: Perfect every day