I am beyond thrilled to have biked the famous Canyonlands National Park (Utah) "White Rim" Trail! We rode from the top of Shafer Trail, all along the White Rim Trail, to the top of Mineral Bottom - 80+ miles! It's a 4WD road, not single track. We did this in 2.5 days while camping two nights on the White Rim (you have to reserve backcountry campsites well in advance). The campsites were booked just 76 days before the trip. Often these sites are booked for months in advance. We really lucked out with the exceptional weather! Mid 50s F for the high, low 30s F at night. Sunny blue skies, short sleeves and shorts by day, bundled up a night, barely a breeze. I even got a tan line from my bike shorts. The clocks had just changed the day prior so we had sun shining on us after 7am. Let's back up a bit because this trip would not have been possible just a few months earlier. I booked these backcountry campsites on August 21. I was in the middle of a flare up - an 18 day long flare up. I was really unsure if I was going to be ready in 76 days. Would I have another flare up? Could I get my mileage up enough to finish one day? It was unknown! I invited another couple to join me who were already down in the Moab area that week, but I was upfront about my concerns and they were OK with it. The knee still needed time to adapt to higher loads. I was already doing very gradual load management with biking and my rehab weights, always trying to stay at the "safe but sore" line. At the end of June, my longest ride was 15 miles which was big enough to cause a flare up. I scaled back to 10-12 mile rides for a while which was a safe range for me (this was trail riding so add some vert). I started riding two days in a row if I felt OK. In early September, I tried three riding days in a row, but kept the mileage low. In late September, I tried a couple big rides (27 and 23 miles) a week apart to see how the knee would handle longer distances. Still good so far! My physical therapist suggested I try three days of riding with higher mileages (didn't have to be the same mileage as the trip). I did it and it worked! Tired, a little sore, but not flared up. The rest of October I stayed active. We did the Capitol Reef trip, so my rehab weights and biking were interrupted but I was active everyday. I tried to get a few more rides in before White Rim to keep my biking legs. I had a good rest period before White Rim (a trip to see family - and my first plane ride post surgery!) which had some easy activity. Then the trip was finally here! I was pretty giddy and felt confident! Our first day was close to 30 miles or about 4 hours of riding, plus another 1.5 hours for hikes and stops. There was a net downhill, but still that was a lot of time in the saddle. Next day was bigger with 37+ miles and a few technical sections and steep climbs. We started at 9:30am and got to the next camp at 4:30pm. Overall we were pedaling bikes for 5 hours, with an additional 2 hours of stops and hikes. That was a long day! Midday I felt a little sore in the knee, like I needed my bandage to make it feel better. But the truck was pretty far behind so I had to keep going. The feeling got better eventually. For the last day we had 14 miles, but a very long steep section to exit the canyon. This took me 2.25 hours of riding. Summary: 80+ miles, 6000+ vertical feet, 11.75 hours in the saddle for 2.5 days This wasn't a casual ride! While there were many easier pedaling sections, it does take some good mountain biking skills, good general fitness (the part that amazed me) to bike for hours and to climb steep rocky sections, and a well conditioned butt (and good bike shorts) to deal with saddle soreness. My husband drove the truck with all our food, water, gear, and he was always behind us a ways. It was pretty slow going for a truck.
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AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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