White Rim Trail, Canyonlands National Park - May 3-5, 2002

If you succeed in downloading all the huge pictures in this trip report, then you may want to point your mouse here to download a huge video (don't even bother if you don't have a highspeed connection): Here is a 16MB Windows Media clip
or here to get a smaller one (still don't bother): Here is a low quality 7MB version

Delta Airlines

I arrived at Sea Tac airport 1h15m before my flight Thursday afternoon. Perhaps a little tight in the aftermath of 9-11, but I had been slowed by unexpected traffic. When I got to the Delta checkin counters 15 minutes later, there were only about a dozen people in line in front of me - no problem. I waited a few minutes. The line didn't move. Some other people were using the express checkin machines. What's the deal with those - can I use them? Last time the only requirement was that you bought your ticket with a credit card, which seems really weird to me. What's with all these different ways to checkin? Sky Cap, Express... it's disturbing, a entire little airport caste system.

A view of Mt Adams from the plane. Pretty obvious east/west difference in weather here.

I accost a Delta employee, who tells me in broken English that, yes, I can use the express checkin. It start the process, and the machine tells me that I must see a Delta representative in order to checkin. Uh... ok.

Back in line, I wait another 25 minutes. It's now one half hour before my departure time. There are only one or two employees serving customers. My turn comes. As I approach the counter, I hear the representative speak into a phone "okay, anyone on flight 542 is now going to miss their flight". I immediately slap my ticket down on the counter and say "I'm on flight 542".

Kathie, Damion and G at the trailhead.

There is tension in the air. I mention that I've been in line for half an hour. She looks at me with disgust: "You have *not* been here for half an hour" (but I have). She begrudgingly begins handling my ticket, before asking me "How do you want to pay for that?", pointing to my bike box. I am charged an $80 over-size baggage fee for my bike. Some airlines make exceptions for bikes, but not Delta. I make my opinions known, and the conversation with the representative ends with her rudely agreeing that I should choose another airline next time. Uh, yup!

The security is way more intense than it was over Christmas. There's about 30 people at the checkpoint, searching people. They don't like my shoes, so I have to take them off and they put them in an X-ray machine to make sure they are bomb-free. However, they allow me to take my sharp ski-crampons in my carry-on (somehow they were forgotten there from last weekend). Interesting.

The White Rim trail starts at around 6000ft on top of the Island In The Sky, and winds down through cliffs to the actual White Rim

Putting my bike back together

I had to remove my fork to get my bike to fit in the box. Now I had to reassemble it in G and Damion's garage in SLC. When I disassembled it in Seattle, little pieces went flying everywhere (spacers, ball bearing housings, little washer things) so I figured I'd better make a diagram of how they fit together. In the garage, my diagram isn't making any sense. Finally after almost an hour of advice and attempts, I get my fork solidly back on. I didn't assemble it quite correctly though, and I'll discover a few days later that I seem to have permanently affixed my fork to my frame.

G rounds a switchback next to huge canyon walls on the Shafer descent

Ben's

Ben's is a little diner in Green River, on the way to Canyonlands N.P. The doors on the stalls in both the men's and women's restrooms, when shut, lie about 4 inches behind where your knees would be. And their first attempt at a vegeterian omelet had ham in it. But they had some tasty chocolate and coconut pie.

Further down the Shafer.

The Shafer Trail

Going clockwise on the White Rim, you start down the Shafer Trail (actually a road), which drops about 1400ft off the plateau. It's slightly technical on a bike, because of a few soft sandy sections - we weren't used to riding sand (at least me), and it takes a little getting used to. We passed lots of riders and cars, huffin and puffin their way back up. Damion was the designated driver for our sag (Rob's truck) today, so he stood at a lookout near The Neck (with a good view of the Shafer) and took video. Gambrelli was sure he'd be napping as we biked into view, but nope, he actually got some great footage. We biked down the steep switchbacks between vertical mesa walls, passed some prayer group, and finally emerged onto the flats... the White Rim itself!

Rob rides across Musselman arch. There are about a million pictures of this on the internet. Pretty cliche, but also pretty dramatic

Musselman Arch

Damion and the truck finally caught up to us just before Musselman. This is a spectacular long thin arch suspended way above the floor of the canyon. Well, nothing to say except it's pretty cool. Rob was the only one gutsy enough to ride across it. Kathie said she'd divorce him if he did it again. It didn't seem to deter him, but then she said she'd get to keep the truck.

A view of our camp, in the shadow of Airport Tower. The outhouse is prominently visible just above the shadow.

Airport Camp

Our first camp. It had taken us about 4 hours to travel 20 miles today. And Damion said he'd had trouble keeping up with the bikes in the truck. We had some Sangria and beer and other stuff, and relaxed and ate until night fell. It was a windy night, almost sleepless for me in my flappy tent. I rotated the tent 90 degrees halfway through the night, so the wind would stop blowing the side wall in my face. A few minutes later, the wind shifted by 90 degrees for the rest of the night.

I have no recollection of where this is, but I think that's the Colorado River down there. G and Kathie engaging in some girl talk.

Many many canyons

Today's 35 miles would take us down the east side of the mesa, and halfway back up the west side. The morning was beautiful and peaceful, with no other people in sight. We passed by Airport Tower, Monster Tower, and a bunch of cool big ampitheaters.

Gambrelli at side canyon "apex".

The road takes a very indirect route, forced to weave back and forth to circumvent all the side canyons indenting the White Rim plateau from the Colorado River. This is cool though, because at each canyon's "apex", you get to ride right next to the rim and look down into the starkly overhanging headwall.

Here you can clearly see the White Rim Trail rounding the indented canyon. Such raw terrain.

After four of these large canyons, we arrived at a long flat sandy stretch around the south end of the mesa. Here we had views into the maze of columns in Monument Basin.

Phil looking into Monument Basin.

Kathie doing some friction climbing in Rob's truck.

Chad and Buffy's

By this time, traffic had increased. Bikers were out in force, and most of them seemed to be coming the opposite direction (of course). Every one of them was decked out in slick-looking matching lycra. We made fun of them, but actually, they were much faster than us. Too bad for them, I think we got to see more stuff. As it was, we certainly could have used more time to explore... next time, a 5 day trip! There were side trails and ruins and artifacts and natural features we never got to see.

Damion unleashed!

Damion, pent up from driving the truck all day yesterday, only rode with us for the first 5 miles or so, then disappeared and got ahead of us by several hours. The other big question for today was - when would Jeff (Damion's dad) and Milan meet up with us? They were vehicle-only, but they'd need to do some serious driving to catch up.

The dreaded Murphy Hogback

We didn't really know too much about the route. All we had was a topo map. It looked like it was a little climb over a 5200ft pass. The White Rim road became more and more hilly as it climbed back north on the west side of the mesa. A few moderate hill climbs led to the final steep climb up the Hogback. So far I had been impressed with the road. It's just a road, so kind of boring terrain, right? Not really, there was a good mixture of steep, rocky, sandy sections, and flat smooth sections. Murphy Hogback did not disappoint. Rob went up first. Next was Kathie in the truck, then G and me, both walking our bikes. I have no shame! Definitely not a trivial uphill. A big drop off to the left too, if you veer off the road. At the bottom of the road were some people milling around a truck that had lost its brakes, and the emergency brake was quickly losing its effectiveness too. Their camp was on top of Murphy, but they couldn't bring the truck up (imagine what would happen if it began slipping on the steep climb!). I read somewhere that you can expect to pay in excess of $1000 in towing fees to get a vehicle driving the White Rim back to civilization.

G walking her bike up Murphy Hogback. The White Rim Trail shown with red dots.

The road was so steep and slick (sandy dust on rock) that Gambrelli even took a fall on foot! Imagine then how it was for Kathie doing the scariest driving of her life in Rob's truck. The truck stalled a short distance from the top in a rocky section, and she had to back up to get going again, with people watching from on top.

After a rest on top, time to go down. The first 50 feet were steep hard rock topped with sand, and I elected to walk that section before getting on my bike and enjoying one long downhill.

Winding roadway on the other side of Murphy's

Endless canyons

The remainder of the ride to our second camp, Candlestick, was deceptive. You keep seeing the next stretch of road 100 yards in front of you, but it's like a mile away, because you keep winding around these little side canyons and washes. There's not a single bridge on the entire 100 mile trail - you either drop down into the canyons if possible, or go around them. In general, this section was slightly downhill though, so it was sweet. G arrived at camp first, followed by me and Kathie. The camps are most prominently identified by the outhouses, visible in the flat desert from miles away. They are beacons of light, drawing you near. The lifeblood of the White Rim.

The view towards the Green River from near Candlestick Camp

Rob soon arrived in the truck, with Damion in tow (Damion had fallen asleep under a shady rock atop Murphy Hogback, it was only by chance that Rob had noticed him before heading back down the other side in the truck). It was 4 o'clock, we had 4 hours of daylight left. Four hours in the hot sun.

Jeff and Milan arrive

They arrived about an hour before dark, beating all our time estimates. It was Milan's first time ever camping outside. Right on! Jeff said they met a south-african guy with his 2 wheel drive car stuck somewhere around airport camp. What was he thinking bringing a 2wd vehicle here? They hauled him out of his sticky situation, after which he pondered: "Now I don't know whether to continue, or head back!". Back!

For dinner, my canister stove proved it's total awesomeness when used in the hot desert. It seemed to be able to boil a litre of water in 30 seconds! For dessert, Rob and Kathie treated us to another pot of chocolate pudding. Yum!

G on the rim near Holeman Slot. The Green River does a big oxbow here and penetrates far into the plateau. Candlestick Tower in the background. (This is the picture I took after you see me hopping along some rocks, camera in hand, in the video).

Day 3

Our last day began with a long, generally downhill 10 mile section. We passed by the Holeman slot canyon, but I don't think any of us new what lay down in the depths, so we didn't explorer it. Gradually, the road dropped lower and lower, getting closer to the Green River. Finally at Beaver Bottom we were right next to it. Some flattish riding brought us to our next uphill. There was a name for it, but I forget. It was a side ridge of Bighorn Mesa.

G biking up out of Potato Bottom. Suprisingly, the column in the background doesn't have a name on any of the maps. Call it "column 5050". The road passes right beneath it.

Rob on bike, and Kathie the truck driver

The road seemed to vanish into cliffs. Where did it go? Another few hundred yards of riding brought us through a little trench where the climb began. Cool stuff, this would be the perfect place to plan an ambush from the cliffs above.

View back down to Potato Bottom from the ridge. The road can clearly be seen alongside the river, then climbing up towards the bottom right of the photo, then back to the left-center.

The road became a series of steep rocky switchbacks. Finally it flattened out and continued on an exposed traverse to the beginning of the descent. We could see the road 400ft below us, and Hardscrabble Camp. It disappeared amongst the cliffs, and reappeared in the sandy flats below. Time for some fun downhill! An up and down traverse across the cliffs brought us to a long sandy downhill. Little patches of soft sand are annoying/dangerous on the descent, but when its continuous sand, it becomes an altogether different affair, and had kind of a cool skiing feel. I ran for shade of a lone tree (hot and windless today) near the bottom, while G waited for the others to arrive.

G under a tree in Hardscrabble Bottom

After eating lunch we continued on the often sandy valley bottom road. Jeff and Milan took off ahead of us to try to catch to Damion, who had disappeared again, just like yesterday.

The river canyon narrows here. It was mostly peaceful, except when a guy on a motorbike passed through. Everytime he shifted gears, it sounded a series of echoes one after the other down the canyon.

The day's car and motorcycle traffic increased the closer we got to civilization. There was talk of a swim in the river to cool off from the heat, but I had gotten into a good pace, and was enjoying my solitary ride ahead of the others. The river canyon became more narrow and cliffbound. I passed a little rock overhang on the right, that had an old wooden fence around it. Some kind of old hangout?? It made me want to know more about the history of this place.

Finally I pulled up to the junction with the Mineral Bottom road, and the steep climb back up to the mesa. Still no sign of Damion or Jeff and Milan. I figured I'd better wait for the others before heading up. Little did I know that they had found a good spot to swim, and were cooling themselves off, while I sat in the hot windless sun, being covered in dust from passing vehicles. My only shelter from the oppressive sun was the trail sign, which I was able to use to shade the bottom half of my legs!

Another photo of the Shafer trail at the beginning of the trip.

After about an hour, the others arrived. Gambrelli ended up driving the truck, while Rob, Kathie and me biked up. This meant that I would be the only one to bike the whole trail - lucky me!

The 1000ft climb turned out to be easier than it looked: the road was smooth and fairly firm (not sandy), so it was a straightforward, though tiring, plod up in the lowest gear. But oh the heat! I was going through so much water!

Once on top, only 13 miles on a good dirt road remained, with another (obviously very gradual) 1000ft of climbing. This was definitely a slog, only Kathie and I were left on bikes at this point. You'd crest a hill, and see a straight line extending for miles and miles in front of you. More food, more water, ass getting really sore, slog slog slog.

A few miles from the end, Damion showed up driving his truck back from the highway. This made room for Kathie in a vehicle, so now it was down to just me on bike! I couldn't give up now, only a few miles left!

G and Kathy (I think) in front of Monster Tower on the east side of the mesa (and some other tower whose name I forget).

McStiff's and the Tamarisk Toilet and LCGSCFE

We ate an early dinner at McStiff's, where the waitress gave me a leaky un-covered half box for my un-eaten tortellini with marinara sauce, and a paper bag to put it in. WTF?

Then it was off to Potash road to find a campsite to spend the night. But first a dip in the river! Rob found an underwater ledge he could walk on, and was able to wade, chest deep, out to a sandbar in the middle of the river. Nearby campers must have wondered about the speedo underwear man wandering around in the middle of the river. Look like he was a Terminator just arrived in 2002, ready to kick some ass.

Felt great to get the omnipresent red dust off of us!

Okay, now time to look for a campsite. Kathie spotted a narrow road heading up a side canyon. The road was about 6 feet wide with stiff brush and trees on either side. Rob drove the truck down it a few hundred yards, but eventually it became evident that this was a bad idea. The road got worse and worse, and there was no place to turn around. So now he had to back up a long ways on a road that was exactly as wide as the truck. The branches kept scraping the sideview mirrors into a forward position, but finally, after 15 minutes or so, we backed up back onto the highway.

We drank homemade Sangria (trying to ignore the chunks of decaying fruit), and Rob smeared fragrant lotion all over himself which got him exciteed cause it smelled just like grandma, and then we watched the video that people had taken on the trip, and then we went to sleep and got up really early the next morning to get back to Salt Lake City where I discovered the fork on my bike is fixed to the frame now, and I tried to fed-ex my bike back to Seattle instead of getting absolutely gouged by Delta, but the only difference was I got absolutely gouged by lying cheating greedy scum-sucking Fed-ex people.

But it was all worth it!