Day 20 Moab

Meet fellow bikers Ellen and Randy Price along with their son Liam. I passed Liam on his first mountain bike outing this afternoon with Dad Randy and then met Ellen and their dog "Ginger" further on in the great Klondike Bluff trail. I was so impressed with how Ginger paid proper care to rehydrating by scrounging off Ellen. So much so I asked Ellen if I could take a photo of said Ginger hydrating and from that we got talking. Mainly about some Scottish guitarist whose name I forget. Randy and Ellen are big fans though and I made a note to get the name from them and check it out. Ellen kindly asked me to join them for supper as they had done a fair bit of travelling themselves and would be interested in my own trip.

I'm getting ahed of myself here so lets rewind back to earlier in the day where I had my first ever "Stacker" for breakfast in a groovy coffee shop called "Mondo". With free wi-fi and a smashing attitude that said "you stay here all day dude if you wants to" I felt quite at home. For anyone out there like me who did not know what a Stacker was then picture toasted bagel, swiss cheese and scrambled eggs seasoned to taste. All washed down with fresh coffee.

Fully fuelled up I set about the Klondike Bluff trail which after eight miles out into the desert promised a short walk into the far end of the arches national park to see Klondike Bluffs. It was a real "Wow" moment as I crested the hill on foot to see the Bluffs. Only to be interupted by a huge stramash going on to my left by a rock. These tiny wee animals were having a right argument. Three of them to be exact and I've no idea what one of the them had done to upset the others. Hog the remote control perhaps. Randy told me later they were most likely "Desert Squirrels". They were tiny. I need to get away from squirrels I thought..."surely there will not be any in Fiji"?

I was so taken in by the view and having the place to myself (advantage of USA in late fall) I lost track of time and to my concern realised I had eight miles ahead of me with sunset racing in. Fearing mountain lions at my heels I teared back in with dust clouds billowing from my wheels.

Oh I should also mention the dinosaur footprints on the trail. Uncanny to see these close up and it required little imagination to visualise Mt T Rex bounding across the great expanse.
In the evening Randy, Ellen and Liam watched on as I did my best at the all you can eat pizza buffet suitably washed down with one of Moab's locally brewed micro beers. Thanks for the treat guys!!

I should also point out that impressively Randy back in 83 was one of the original mountain bike builders. Randy watched a couple of other kids customise by taking standard paper boy bikes, adding ten gear cranks and fat tires. Following suit.....Hey presto the mountain bike is born !!