Desert Trip 1

In the middle of october I went on a stellar girls trip to the desert. My friend Jamie from work and Jen and I went down to moab specifically to mountain bike and climb. Jen is our resident expert female mountain biker so she chose two mountain biking trails to take us on. Jamie and I are not so expert mountain bikers, but we gave it a lot of effort! The views were incredibly beautiful from the trails, even if i did have to walk parts of them! we spent two days mountain biking in Moab and two days rock climbing in Indian Creek (just south of Moab). This was the girls first time to go crack climbing, and they gave it a lot of effort. I was pretty worked after this trip though- it felt like 4 days of a jane fonda total body work out! but it was great time spent in my favorite ecosystem(the desert) with even better friendships and conversations enjoyed.



At the end of the trip we all demonstrated our climbing ability. except Jamie who had a bad attitude about how painful crack climbing can be...



Jamie and I were psyched that our wag bag was attached to the outside of the car... Wag bags are basically ziplocked bags that you must use to pooh in when camping in the desert. As you can imagine, they don't smell very good. But they are helping protect the fragile desert environment, one pooh at a time. :)



The girls at the base of Coyne Crack in Indian Creek. Jodi (on the left) was our token canadian that we met while climbing the crack (indian creek is such a popular place that we almost always meet foreigners climbing there. Jodi was great- she was on a trip with a couple of guys and was so happy to climb a bit with girls. she said she had forgotten how great it was to climb with just girls!) Next is Jamie, then Jen, then I.



This is me climbing Coyne Crack, 5.11. I remember struggling on this climb just 1 year ago, and this time around it was just simple, pure FUN!



This our explosion of mountain biking gear in the parking lot after riding the classic slick rock trail in Moab.


Jamie and I on the slick rock trail.



Jen and I goofing around during the lunch break on the slick rock. you can just see the snow covered La Sal Mountain range in the back ground.


Shadow Fun!


Jen and I jumping for joy at the top of Amasa Back, another classic Moab mountain bike trail.