USA - White Rim Road
Back in Moab. We hand over our speedster and make our bikes fit for the White Rim Road. A 160 km long loop on very rough terrain in Canyonlands National Park. From Moab it is 260 km for us. Weeks ago, we already dealt with the elaborate registration procedure and answered several e-mails about how we planned the round by bike and, above all, how we plan not to die of thirst there.
The plan was: 3 days for the loop, 4 liters of water per day makes 12 liters per person - but things turned out differently…
Passing the Dead Horse Point, from where you have a great view of the Colorado River, we headed to the visitor center for the latest weather forecast and how these impressive canyons were created.
Of course, the continental displacement of the Pacific plate under the North American plate as well as the Green and Colorado rivers, which cut their way through the different sand rock layers.
We started in the late afternoon. However, before we reach the striking, white-eminent "White Rim", it first goes steeply downhill over several other layers - but no problem with such serpentines.
We have skillfully ignored that with a loop you have to pedal the same altitude meters uphill that you go downhill. Once at the bottom, it was like in an oven with top-bottom heat. The deep red rock stores and reflects the heat so strongly that it was all of the sudden 10 degrees Celsius warmer. If a short breeze blows, it feels like a sauna infusion.
The first night was cruel, it was so hot - we stuck on our sleeping mats like the geckos on the rock. During our lunch break the next day in the shady spa area, at 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) and tortillas with Nutella in liqueur consistency, we quickly overtuned our butts and decided to change the order of our sleeping places and ride the upcoming 185 km back to Moab in just two days - giving up was not an option.
We knew it was going to be hard, but we won't stay here longer than necessary. We were still thinking about how we could get the bikes a little lighter and we both killed a liter of water.
The ground was still gravelled the first kilometers after the serpentines and easy to ride, but later we were only on the rock of the White Rim layer, it was like on a washboard and with all the extra weight through the lot of water, it was also not particularly comfortable on our rigid steel frames. As soon as you drove a little faster, you were immediately punished and got a proper slap on the butt - we longed for a Fox 36 and a Float X2.
To the landscape: it was incredible. It felt like we had landed on Geonosis with our Starfighters - we experienced our own Star Wars episode.
We rode until late into the night and shortly after we set up our camp, a violent thunderstorm swept over us. We held the tent poles in position with all our strength, the rain came under the tent from all directions and countless lightning stood like forks for several seconds right next to the tent. The thunder was so loud that we got frightened every time - the weatherman in the Visitor Center had predicted bright sunshine for the next few days.
The next day we started early, we had something to drive out. It was scorching hot again and our fear that the path would become muddy dissolved into dust - there was nothing left from the shower last night.
First we rode even deeper into the canyon. Down at the Green River it became quite sandy, before we started the long climb out of the canyon - we had to push a lot.
On the climb, we then met one of a total of only two off-roaders that we saw on the entire route. Marius from Innsbruck is on the Panamericana with his off-road vehicle converted into a camper. We almost cried as he pulled out an ice-cold energy drink from his solar-powered refrigerator.
After twelve exhausting hours, we sat quite marked but very happy by the many impressions in Moab in a restaurant. We must have been quite stinking, as the waiter sat us at a table far away from the other guests. The advantage after all this - it just tastes good.
Well over 40 degrees Celsius were predicted again for the next few days, of course without cooling down at night. We looked for a small cabin to relax - the only criterion: "with air conditioning"!