When your day starts with campfire cast iron skillet tossed breakfast burritos, and only gets better from there, it’s saying something. Thoroughly nourished, we loaded the bikes into and onto Snow White and made our way over to Sand Flats Recreation Area
The recent rain had left the place low on visitors but the rock was already dry, except for awesome splashing pools caught in the aberrant but shallow pools in the plain of rock. Pulling into the first major parking lot, we rode the practice loop on Slickrock Bike Trail. And got schooled. It was hard to trust the undulating acclivities of skin scabbing sandpaper rock. Only by accident did I find that bike tires actually do stick to the denuded slabs, even at impossibly steep angles. A white dashed line suggested the course as we dipped and climbed. Shifting was a constant consideration.
Thoroughly practiced up, we loaded everything back into Snow White and made our way into the back-country on Sand Flats Road and up to where long lips of bare rock protruded, crowning cliff edges which plummeted hundreds of feet down to the desert plains. Ahead of us, the La Sal Mountains waited patiently. Technical and titillating, the trail would pull you to within inches of the precipice then offer a wide, safe slab allowing for all level of hopping, jumping, spinning, or just plain pedaling and practicing. Crypto did most of the first three, we girls mostly did the latter. Along with fair spurts of walking, climbing, and cursing (when necessary).
The views and sense of splendour were intoxicating. 
By the time we headed back to the trail head I had noticed a vast improvement in my riding and was pleased. Then Crypto rode past me, out onto a ledge, jumped his bike off a cliff and faded into the distance on a hang glider. Well, not actually quite. But he did bounce his bike off of cliff things like it was no big deal.
Back at Snow White we realized it really only takes one person to drive a car, and this was 10 miles of awesome dirt road downhill. We bombed down out of the wedged rock fairyland and hooted and cheered as we soared down through the canyons and out onto sunset clad flats. Exhilaration Exemplar.
Back at camp we cooked burgers, toasted buns, melted cheese, re-warmed beans, grilled corn on the cob and mixed dip; all while snacking on chips which were apparently supposed to have gone with the dip. For Florida Birthday Girl’s dessert, we tested out Campfire Cake in orange peels. Messy to make, delicious to eat.
It was impossible to wrap our minds around such an incredibly vitalizing day, instead it wrapped itself around us. The Milky Way draped across the sky like a scarf. We climbed back up to the bench above camp. It was a a completely different undertaking in the dark, but we made it. Laying on the sandstone as daylight warmth bled out of it, we drifted eternally into the heavens while compressing ever deeper into layers of sediment.
Comments (1)
Great closing line. It summarizes the whole tale very well.