Last weekend Shannon and I traveled to Las Vegas. For Shannon it was part work/part play. For me, it was all play. How did I chose to spend my time in Vegas? Mountain biking of course!
The trip started in standard Shannon and Jen fashion. We left Wednesday night after work and stopped in St. George, Utah for a quick night ride on Prospector. We soon realized that we left the key for the Rocket Box (our rooftop storage) back in Salt Lake City. No worries, all of our bike stuff was in the car so we proceeded with a fun spin on Prospector. Once we were done with our ride we started scheming how to get the Rocket Box open. I had a personal interest in this because it was all of my clothes that were up there. To make a long story short, Plan A panned out; we made it to the Las Vegas REI just before closing and they were able to get us a key to open our box. Phew.
We then drove over to the Wynn hotel right on the Las Vegas strip. Not typical lodging for a mountain bike trip, but Shannon's conference was at the hotel, so it was convenient and free. It was pretty comical hauling our bikes through the casino everyday.
My bike hanging out in the room
Fancy hotel on the strip
Thursday, Shannon was in conference all day, so I was on my own. Never one to have any difficulty entertaining myself, I cruised down to Bootleg Canyon with both my bikes. Yep, the BMX bike made the trip to Vegas as well. An hour on the pump track at Bootleg was worth it! Friday and Saturday Shannon was able to do some afternoon riding with me. We rode Bootleg Canyon and Blue Diamond and while the riding was fantastic, I'm pretty sure our lack of trail knowledge resulted in us missing some epic singletrack.
Bootleg Canyon. We rode till dusk everyday.
Sunday's plan was to meet friends and ride in St. George. Ride time 10:30 AM. I woke up plenty early however we got on the road admittedly a few minutes late. About an hour into our drive I looked at the clock in the car and it said 10:30. Damn. St. George is in a different time zone than Vegas. Because all of our electronic devices automatically switch times, we overlooked this minor detail. Oops. We were now running more than a few minutes late and speeding up I-15 wasn't going to make up for this! Luckily, the planned ride had a few different trailheads so I met the group about an hour into the ride and didn't hold them up too much. Lucky for me too as the riding and company were fantastic. I rode hard and felt great which was especially pleasing since it was my 5th consecutive day on the bike.
A lot of girl power in this photo!
Never one to want me to miss a ride (or a good time for that matter), Shannon waited patiently in the car, feeling like dirt, while I rode for 3 hours. He didn't complain once. I guess I'm on cooking duty this week!
Sounds like you are on cooking duty this week! I am glad you had a good time and got in some great rides!
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