ROAD TRIP 09-First riding day, FRUITA, CO.

I left camp at approximately 8 am and headed west on I70 just for one exit to head to the trailhead for Kokopelli's Trail, which is also the same area where Mary's Loop/ Horsethief Bench spear off of. The first parking lot you come to is right off the frontage road, but if you plan on riding Mary's Loop, you're better off driving up the adjacent hill and going to a secondary parking lot. There is a gate there that leads onto Mary's Loop. I saw another trail called "Rustler's Loop". I remembered reading that this was a good warmup loop. I took Rustler's, which was a nice loopy singletrack across some rolling hills, and even some slickrock. This was an interesting time for me- I realized what living at sea level does to you- it makes it much harder to operate at elevation, for sure-in this case, about 6000 feet up.
Rustler's dumped back out at the main gate after a gravel descent, and then I jumped on Mary's Loop. I was nicely warmed up now!

Mary's Loop weaves alongside a cliff that overlooks the Colorado River as it snakes it's way down toward Lake Powell. There were some awesome overlooks, and the trail was relatively tame- no major drops or anything, and some challenging uphills. I ran into a nice couple from Canada-Calgary, to be exact. They were doing a similar trip as I was, and they were heading to Moab after this stop as well. Very nice people. The female half rode with me as I returned to the parking lot, since her hubby wanted to finish up on Steve's Trail. She was a road biker, so she pretty much left me in the dust once I hit the frontage road trail back to the first parking lot.

I was starved to death after this ride, which according to my GPS put me in at approximately 10 miles. I drove into Grand Junction and found something I hadn't seen in YEARS...a Carl's Jr. Now, any southern hick may tell you that Carl's is just like Hardee's, what's the big deal? Lemme tell you they don't know shit. There isn't fried zucchini at Hardee's. The onion rings aren't the same, and the burgers at Hardee's blow. Not to mention, most of the Hardee's around my hometown have gone out of business. So I ordered my tried and true: A Famous Star with cheese and a side order of fried zucchini. I had to refuel before going to my next riding spot.