January of 2009 was the first time I'd heard about the Tabeguache. A friend had given me a National Geographic Adventure Magazine within which an author described a fabulous 4-day, Colorado Hut to Hut mountain bike trip. I checked out the website they listed at the end of of the article. It took me 10 seconds to decide I wanted to go. The nightly price for the Tabeguache was a little more than I would spend on a hotel ... but all my food was provided ... plus we were also given a $50 voucher to spend at the Gateway Hotel. Doing this trip was a "No-Brainer".

My school year ended two weeks before Cindy's, so the timing was perfect. I asked around to find someone ... anyone who might want to go with me. None of my brothers or friends were into biking very much, at least not enough to take the time and spend the money to go. I called the "Contact Us" number on the website and spoke with some nice guy named Kevin, (who I later found out is the owner, shuttle driver, menu planner, food buyer, and everything else for the trips). He described the details of the trips and how most trips are booked by groups.

I wanted to know if I could sign-up as a single person or if I had to bring a group. Kevin told me there were a couple of groups leaving around my time and gave me their email addresses ... to see if I could join them for the trip. I sent the same email to both groups telling them I was a fit 53 year-old, considered myself an intermediate level rider, and a really competitive guy. Nate e-mailed me back immediately, the other person never did.

Nate told me I was welcome to join them. He said there were three of them going: him, his brother Drew, and their brother-in-law Caleb. He said Drew and Caleb were 28 years old while he was the old man at 29, and they liked to "let the trail dictate" how they rode.

I called Kevin back and booked the Tabeguache.

Click Tabeguache for a larger map, the back-button to return here.

He then sent me the specific information about my adventure. We were going on the Tabeguache (tab-a-watch) Trip, which Kevin described as "a 4-day cross country adventure which includes a variety of biking terrain." His literature explained that Tabeguache was a Ute Indian word which meant "place where snow melts first." He gave detailed descriptions for each day's ride including maps and waypoints. Single and double track, jeep trails, dirt roads and the "option of pavement". We would be riding on the Uncompahgre (un-com-pah-gray) Plateau, an uplifted piece of earth in western Colorado (Uncompahgre is another Ute word which means something like "rocks that make water red").

Everything sounded great to me. It would cost me $645. I gladly paid.

They did no riding in Denver

Nate and Drew were brothers, and Caleb had married their sister. They all lived in Pensylvania until Nate got a job in Florida. So Drew and Caleb traveled from Pennsylvania while Nate came from Florida. They had flown into Denver and rented a minivan for the drive to Fruita. Drew rented a bike locally, Caleb had his shipped, and Nate brought his $9,000 bike in a suitcase. They had gotten there a few days early and gone on some of the local rides to get acclimated to the higher elevation. That had been my plan too (Lakeside is only at 400 feet elevation) except, the baseball team I help coach (El Capitan High) kept on winning.

County Champs!

We won the CIF championship game on Saturday night, the day after school was over. I had the car already packed and left for Las Vegas immediately after the game, then drove to Fruita the next day (Sunday). I checked into the Super 8 on Jurrasic Drive ... then rushed back down the freeway to do a ride called Rustler's Loop, a fun 3.5 mile rolling single track overlooking the Colorado River. I hoped that this ride along with the couple of weeks of training in our local mountains (4000-6000 feet) would keep me from being an "Anchor" for the boys. We met at the Single Tracks Bike Shop in Fruita the next morning, the morning of the ride.

Three guys were in here too!

They drove into the parking lot with all three bikes (and the 3 "boys") jammed into a mini-van. I was worried when they hopped out. All three looked athletic ... real fit, and had high quality bikes. We introduced ourselves, then went into the shop to meet Kevin. I felt better when the boys broke into a friendly banter between themselves, the kind my brothers and I get into. Nate and Caleb were getting on Drew about something he had eaten and also about some fall he had recently taken which resulted in a huge strawberry on his butt.

Getting ready to ride.

After Kevin had gone over some details, we put our bikes on his rack and he drove us (about a half hour) to the drop site. We immediately jumped out, took our bikes off the rack, and got ready to ride.

The Tabeguache rides would procede as follows: Smith Point first, then Divide Forks, followed by Leonard's Ridge, and then Ute Creek (we didn't know at that time). Links to each day are provided below.

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