Saturday, 3/21/2009. Riders: Ted & Tamara. 49 miles, 4.2 hours

Since Dad was out of commission, Tamara decided to join me on a ride. We planned on going to the old new St. George airport, then going across so Tamara could see the gypsum mine that Dad and I went to yesterday.

After some brief clutch lever repairs, we zipped down the freeway and onto River Road. I immediately saw a fun area to play on, so we went and explored for a while. Tamara liked running on the easy low roads, so I'd tear up to the higher (and rockier) roads. Eventually we realized the dirt paths either didn't go through, or they were beyond the skill level of Tamara, so we turned around and took the pavement around.

We then spent some time playing at the west side of the mesa, as there are a bunch of quad trails through there. We explored, and Tamara tried to take video of my riding- unfortunately it didn't turn out. That's too bad, as I was having a lot of fun on a tiny little jump.

We then continued on top of the mesa. The airport has been closed off and completely excavated, so we tried exploring along the edges of it to see if we could make it to the other side. It used to be that we could ride through the old airport property and to the other side- now that is completely fenced off, so it wasn't possible to cross the mesa. Too bad.

The rest of the ride consisted of exploring on dirt and then returning via paved road to have lunch at In-N-Out. It was completely packed with people, even though it was about two hours past noon. We got our food and shared an outside table with some other people, then gave up the table before we had finished eating.

Tamara and I then ran some errands: we needed to find some replacement pinch bolts, and we needed vent tubes with valves for the Clarke tanks (we are losing them at a rate of one per day, grr). We then took a back way home, avoiding the freeway and finding some very fun dirt to connect an area that isn't connected by pavement.

Overall, it was a nice day. I especially liked being able to ride with Tamara; her dirt skills are improving, and we are learning ways to ride in dirt together that make it work for both of us.