WRIAD
White Rim In A Day biking
September 2020

COVID-19 ruined our April 2020 plans to ride the White Rim Trail’s 100 miles in a day.

So when, on Sunday night, Chris Burkard invited me for a revenge ride on it in September, I couldn’t say no.

Brian, who was supposed to join us in April, was given 18 hours to commit, get ready, and make the 12-hour drive to SLC. Of course he made it happen. After 5 minutes stretching his legs at my house in SLC, we loaded up my bike and finished the last 5 hours of driving to Canylonlands National Park.

From there, we woke up at 5am, rode the hot, dry 100 miles with our friends Matt, Chris, JM, and Dimo in about 9 hours. Even carrying as much as 6 liters of water per person, we were still so thirsty all day. My rigid bike—which, in case you’re wondering, is not the right bike for this route—felt about as you’d expect a rigid bike to feel on bumpy slrickrock for 9 hours after its owner rode a bike only 4 days all year.
At around 7pm we drove back to SLC. Brian slept in my driveway (it’s 2020, we isolate. We also wore masks for the entire drive to/from Canylonlands NP) and left to finish driving to Portland at 7am. I think his driving marathon is way more impressive than our ride (which I heard was beautiful, but I was never able to pick my head up to enjoy).