Mountain Bike Mike: 2012 Epic Family Race-cation (Part 3)

Breckenridge

Breckenridge is one of my family's favorite places, and since my Mema and Grampa had never been there, we thought that would be a great excuse to spend a couple of days there. My dad really wanted to take me on the Firecracker 50 loop, and since I will finally be old enough to race in the Firecracker next summer, I was looking forward to going. It was my first time riding there and both my parents were sure I would love it.

Well, I really did like it a lot until we got to Little French Gulch. Apparently, some heavy snow/rain last year had washed away much of the two-mile trail. The bottom part wasn't too bad, and I was having fun motoring up it. Mom's not much of a climber, and after about a 1/2 mile, she was off the bike pushing. Unfortunately, not too long after that, the trail disappeared, it started raining, and we were all pushing. Mom was a trooper, but it was pretty obvious she was not having fun. To top it off, we took a wrong turn at the top of the mountain and ended up on this very steep, very rocky, very fast bombing downhill that scared my parents to death (I thought it was fun). What we thought was going to be a 2-3 hour ride turned into 4. We came back very tired and hungry, but with a good story to share with the rest of the family.

Mom hiking up Little French Gulch

From Breckenridge we continued west toward Moab, Utah. It was like going from one planet to another. The scenery changed from green mountains to red rock and the temperature went from warm to oh-my-gosh-this-is-hot!!

When we got to Moab, we took a drive through Arches National Park. We got out a couple of times for short hikes to see some of the formations, but it was so hot and dry that none of us really felt like doing any of the longer hikes, especially since we were getting low on water.

The next day I chose to sleep in, while my parents got up early to ride at Slickrock Park. (I know, I'm a slacker.) My mom rode 2 miles of the trail and decided that she had done enough to get a feel for it. My dad did the whole loop.

Mom riding at Slickrock park in Moab

Dad out on the trail

After showers and breakfast, we moved on to our next destination, Salt Lake City, Utah, where we would be staying with family for a few days. We had a great time getting to know cousins we had either never met or rarely see. We played a wicked game of Ultimate Frisbee in the back yard after dinner one night, which was really fun (and dangerous too, since Mandy and my mom both got hit in the face).

My crazy family in Salt Lake City, Utah

One morning, Kim's husband Pablo hooked us up with some local mountain bikers who took us on a group ride. Pablo just started riding a year or so ago and has even done some racing.