WRIAD

...White Rim in a Day

Knocked out my 3rd White Rim in a Day tour yesterday. We finished before dark for the first time ever. Awesome.

I did it with two other WRIAD veterans and one rookie.

First time I did the WRIAD was 5 years ago and it was in Fall after a good season of riding. Even though it was very hot out, and we stopped a lot to gawk, take pictures, and hide behind the rare shady rock like a lizard, I think I finished the 103 miles in somewhere under 13 hours.

We skipped a couple years, but we always kept mentioning the White Rim. Last year, the high country was melting out months before schedule. I had gotten into decent riding shape by March already, so I talked a couple buddies into an April 10 WRIAD. On this trip, our rookie buddy wasn't feeling it and we got way back into the point-of-no-return before realizing that he wasn't gonna make it all the way back to camp. After much deliberation, my WRIAD-vet buddy and I carried on to camp and promised we'd be back to rescue him in the truck, whenever that might be. We finally rolled back into Mineral Bottoms camp after 15.5 hours, and then had to drive back, over Hardscrabble, and 10 more miles before we found him lying next to the trail and sleeping under a space blanket.

So even as it has snowed A LOT this Spring, I've been thinking that an April WRIAD needed to go down. And to kick the zero-preparation theme up a notch, my three buddies (2-2x vets & 1-rookie) decided they would make it their first bike ride of any kind in five months, since the snow first covered the high country last Fall.

We left at 6am from Mineral Bottoms and made solid time all the way to the top of Murphy's Hogback. I think I got up there in 8 hours. We had to wait a bit for our rookie bud, because he made an unintentional side-trip out to White Crack and needed some time to ponder and regroup before making his way back to us.

Our pace slowed dramatically as we needed to regroup every 7-10 miles. We made it back before dark though! I rolled back in right at 8pm for a 14-hour ride.

I wonder how fast I could WRIAD. I think the fastest ever is around 6hr30min. Well, that is just ridiculous. But I would bet I could break 10 hours if I was solo and had limited mechanicals. Maybe quite a bit lower.

I have a weird thing in my brain trying to convince myself to go find out next Tuesday. Hmmm. Let's see...