3 days, 2 nights, 165 miles, and 9,000 ft of elevation gain, and one epic bike ride from Grand Junction, Colorado to Moab, Utah!
Ever since the NY Times wrote this article about the Gravel Grinder Tour of the Canyons, Tedd and Steve have been obsessed with trying to go.
It is run by a company called San Juan Huts which has set up a collection of huts across Colorado and the San Juan Mountains for various mountain biking, hiking, and ski touring trips. The idea is that they’re for 2-3 night overnight trips and instead of having to carry food and camp, you stay at these huts and they’re fully stocked with food, supplies, water, whatever you need so that you don’t have to carry the stuff yourself.
However, because there are only a handful of these huts (it’s a pretty small operation) and the limited times of year they are available (they’re only open ~2 months out of the whole year), they book up super quickly. After securing a spot at long last, and then a couple Covid cancellations, it was finally happening!
We met up with our crew the night before at an Airbnb in Grand Junction. There, we tuned up our bikes, ate a big pizza dinner, and got ready to head off.
Day 1: 55 miles, 3173′ elevation gain
Day one was really no joke and we pretty much kicked off the day with one very long and extended hill climb: 30 miles and ~3000 ft of elevation gain straight uphill, before finishing the day with 25 miles of downhill:
Most of the day, we biked along (pretty empty) highways.
After a full day of biking, we arrived in Gateway at the first hut with tired legs and very hungry bellies. There was truly no greater feeling than arriving at the hut and seeing the fully-stocked pantry of all the food, drinks, and snacks we could ever imagine. It was like being a kid in a candy store – except you’re starving from having biked all day and can eat whatever you want.
After getting settled in, we made tacos for dinner and then went for a post-dinner stroll
The huts were outfitted with bunk beds for sleeping (we had to bring our own sleeping bags, but I think in normal non-Covid times, sleeping bags are sometimes provided).
Day 2: 55 miles, 2510′ elevation gain
After a hearty breakfast, we set off the next morning!
After departing our hut, the views started to transform from what we saw day one. A lot of the green grassy mountainous views from day one turned into red canyon-y landscapes.
Overall day two was the most “chill,” featuring probably the nicest and most varied views of the whole trip.
We started the day off with a huge climb where we got to see some really beautiful views of the Dolores River from above.
After lunch, we started descending down into the gorge and spent the afternoon biking along the Dolores/San Miguel River.
After a pretty long day of biking, we came across the only sign of civilization we had encountered all day: an old general store along the side of the road, the Historic Bedrock Store, which was used in the filming of Thelma and Louise!
We were feeling pretty good after a fun and not too intense day when we arrived at our hut, so we were a bit more ambitious for dinner tonight and decided to make a Thai coconut curry with the coconut milk, spices, shredded chicken, various veggies, and rice available at the hut.
Feeling a bit more “fun” tonight, I decided to have a canned chardonnay (the huts are outfitted with coolers with ice cold beers and drinks). But I didn’t even get half way through my canned wine before I realized I was extremely dehydrated. Tedd checked my Camelback pouch and realized I hadn’t actually had that much water that day and promptly put me down and made me drink from my Camelback “IV”:
Day 3: 60 miles, 3983′ elevation gain
I woke up the next morning feeling hydrated and ready to go. I made myself a ramen breakfast with grilled spam and hard boiled eggs (which I had marinated in soy sauce the night before), Steve made everyone bacon (which we made into breakfast burritos for lunch) and we were off once more!
Day three was pretty exciting because we officially crossed the state line from Colorado to Utah:
It also had the most intense hill climb: we did almost 4000 ft of elevation gain in the first half of the day, and by the top of the hill we were TIRED.
After descending the hill, we were all thrilled to find another general store. Steve made himself a cup of noodles as a reward:
At this point we were in the home stretch, and we knew the rest of the way was going to be mostly downhill. As we got closer to Moab, we had some fun en-cow-nters.
With just a few miles left to Moab, we got a bit lost, but thankfully we got back on track and made it! All smiles post bike ride:
