TandemHearts

The only major biking stop on our Work is Over Rated Tour 2007 was Moab, UT. Moab is famous for its mountain biking opportunities. We have been to the area twice before, but never had the chance to ride the trails in and around Moab. Generally, the riding is on jeep trails, rocky single track or slickrock. Unfortunately, we found that Moab doesn’t really fit our style of riding. Jeep trails are fine, but many trails are best done as point-to-point rides, using a shuttle to get there. We didn’t want to do this, so that ruled out a bunch of trails. We don’t ride many rocky areas, and we ride hard tail mountain bikes, so the rocky single track was at the limit of our abilities and very uncomfortable to ride. Slickrock is anything but slick - it is like riding on 120 grit sandpaper. This is plenty of traction so you can go pretty fast. It also gives the rider the chance to do jumps off of ledges. We don’t do that very much either. (more…)

We drove to Glacier National Park as part of our Work is Over Rated Tour 2007 for 5 days of camping and hiking. This park has some of the most jaw dropping views (and tamest animals) we’ve ever seen.

Glacier National Park is in Montana, on the Canadian border. The park is tied to Waterton National Park in Canada, so if you go, take you passport so you can visit “the other side”. We didn’t have time for that, so saved the Canadian side for our next visit. The park is named not for the glaciers that it has, but for the ancient glaciers that carved the dramatic landscape. Even so, the glaciers are a rare treat. Global warming threatens these glaciers, with some sources estimating that there will be no more glaciers in the park by 2030. In 1850 there were 150 glaciers in the park; today there are 35. There is some irony in lamenting the loss of the glaciers and then driving 1,000 miles to see them. The park has added a shuttle bus system to limit crowding and pollution, but if you are going to visit the park, leave the gas hog at home.

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