Kokopelli Solo Ride

I spent Saturday night preparing the moto bike for a solo Kokopelli trail adventure. I strapped on my sleeping pad, tube, tools, and xtra gas. My pack had three meals in it, an ultra light (worthless) sleeping bag, and all the usual provisions. This would be the bikes first trip with new handlebars, oil change, suspension set-up, and exhuast and air-box un-corking.

I started the trip riding Zion Curtain, not a good choice. The trail is hacked, one big ditch with loose rocks everywhere. Some poor soul on a mtnbike had ridden it before me and by the looks of their tracks it was a struggle. Towards the end I bobbled on a climb and fell over. For some reason, my un-breakable Nalgene gas bottle cracked. I lost about 1/4 of the bottle before I found the leak and then poured the rest in the tank.

From there I found the Koko trail for a short bit before finding the West Water singletrack. This should be a fun mtn bike ride, but it was hard on the moto as I no longer have moto boots. The weight of the pack and the deep whoops were killing my feet. I got off the single track as soon as I could and took the rest of the Koko to the Westwater pavement. By this time it was almost dark. I re-packed so I could use my headlight. I road about 10 miles in the dark looking for a camp site.

I ended up just shutting down in a sandy spot and camping right in the middle of the trail. When your 70 miles from no-where what are the chances of getting run over in the night? I ate dinner and read the Mountain Gazette by moonlight. I stayed up until about 11:30 and watched the half moon sink below the horizon. I awoke about 3:30 shivering. The wind had come up and my 40degree bag was telling me it was about that cold. I shivered until morning, waking periodicly to 'run' in my sleeping bag to get my heart rate up.

The sun was glorious at 7am. I began to pack up, this time putting the sleeping bag on the rear fender to keep the weight off of my back.

I had also found some singletrack off to the left and was itching to ride it. I got going and about a mile in on the singletrack, at near full speed, the motor just stopped and skidded to a stop. Oh yea, the sleeping bag was wound around the rear wheel! Good thing I hated it anyway. It survived with some holes and some good chain marks. A little more exploring and my tripometer said 40 miles, so I turned around and came back. A good tail rack system would make this kind of trip more enjoyable, allowing more weight on the motorcycle than on me. Pretty fun though.

Landon