Grand Canyon 2010

As always we had a blast riding the Grand Canyon this year. We didn't take as many pictures this year, but it was a lot of fun. We did the same ride as before - the full Rainbow Rim day one, Arizona Trail day two.

Brad's younger brother Ben joined us this year, as did my brother-in-law Alan. Brad, Ben, and Alan all left the rest of us in the dust for most of the two days of riding, and just stormed up the trail both days.

The Arizona Trail was a lot tougher this year than I remembered it - it seemed like it was mostly uphill, and that every downhill was too short and delivered you right back into an uphill. There was one hill I seemed to forget about from previous years that I think claimed the title of toughest hill climb this year.

One of my favorite moments from this year's ride came when my cousin Brad wrecked, then I wrecked, and in the process Alan passed both of us, and next thing we knew Alan was racing out of sight ahead of us. When we finally started catching up he was working his way up that monster hill, and Dad turned to me and said, "What got into Alan?!"

Grand Canyon Reruns: 2009 Rainbow Rim Trail

Learning from my unpreparedness of last year, I made doubly sure that I was in shape for this year's ride - I think I went on a two to three rides a week from April on, yet when all was said and done I think I was just as tired.

We had a few new people join us this year - my cousins Cade and Brad joined us, and Uncle Kerry rejoined us again this year. Brad and Cade left us all in the dust for most of the two days of riding. This was also only a couple weeks before Chet would leave for his mission to Canada.

This year the ride was unusually cold - a lot of us wore long sleeve shirts, and the wind was going hard enough that we didn't even sleep on the rim this year - we went down into the forest a bit deeper where the wind wasn't as bad, and we were still freezing. You either huddled around the fire, or you went to bed early and snuggled down.

We also had an odd amount of flat tires - one of the truck tires started going flat, and then quite a few of us, including myself, ended up with flat tires along the way. However, none of this put a damper on the riding and we had an absolute blast!


Shot heading down one of the really green spots on the trail. You do a lot of weaving in and out of green forest and then back out to incredible vistas of the rim.

Grand Canyon: 2008 Day 1 - Becoming an Annual Tradition

As much fun as it was to go to the Grand Canyon for the first time in 2007, it was possibly even better to go back the next. At this point taking an annual biking trip in the first weekend of June to the Grand Canyon became somewhat of an annual tradition. My Uncle Brad has done a great job of organizing everyone, getting everything together to make this a real fun trip for everyone.

I'll admit to being a bit apprehensive to start this trip - physically I was not prepared and had only been on one or two rides in preparation for this. My circumstances as they were led me to be somewhat distracted and preoccupied (I got engaged about a month prior to the ride and was having a wonderful time spending quality time with Mallorie) so that I didn't get out for much riding that entire year.

As it turned out though, my endurance held up quite well and it turned out to be a very pleasant ride on both days.We lost a few from the group this year, and gained my cousins Brock and Jason and five new St. Georgians. A few of the riders spent quite a bit of time driving the vehicles from point to point this year as well.

The first day we did a somewhat shorter version of the Rainbow Rim Trail again on the first day. We also continued the tradition of having a camp cooked meal of spaghetti, with french bread smothered in some of Uncle Brad's garlic spread, followed by another beautiful night under the stars out on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Ride

The Grand Canyon had always been one of those places that I had heard about, thought it would be neat to visit, but never seriously contemplated going to nor did I really expect to ever make a trip there. Which made it all the more fun when my dad called me up in the middle of a semester and asked if I wanted to go for a couple day bike ride down there with my cousins and uncles at the beginning of the summer!

This would end up being a two day ride on two separate trails, with a night of camping in between on the north rim of the Grand Canyon under the stars. Attendees on this inaugural visit were myself, my dad, my Uncle Kerry, Uncle Scott, Uncle Brad, and my cousin Chet, as well as some of my Uncle Brad's friends (Ray, John, John's son, Bert, Joyce, among several others).


Day one we ride the Rainbow Rim Trail, located on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. This is filled lots of steady climbing, several more pronounced ups and downs, and a lot of relatively flat cruising through the woods. There are some absolutely breathtaking vistas on this ride.


Day two I don't recall the trail we rode on this year, but I believe it was a portion of the Arizona Trail and had a lot of downhills, and at this point one tired set of legs trying to make the bike continue forward.

As I recall we also got lost a time or two on this last day of riding. That or I may have been slow enough that I lost the main group and struggled to know which trails to take at various forks!

All in all though we had an absolute blast!

We also got to celebrate my dad and my Uncle Kerry's birthdays on the ride that year - two of the best men I know and two of my role models.

This was one of the highlights of Ray's first day of riding - I didn't get to see it myself, but the aftermath looks pretty exciting!