The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Tour of the Moon and Beyond

September 26th to October 3rd

Ride Director: Huey Hurst
Ride Co-Director: Twain Berg
Report by: Guy Neenan

Monumental Adventure on the Bicycle Adventure Club 2022 Tour of the Moon

Reports by Leslie Tuggle, Diane Sanchez Costello, Dan Crandall, Leo Hartung, and Guy Neenan

Leslie Tuggle

Photos show the magnificent ride we did. We started climbing from Grand Junction along the Colorado River valley floor. We continued slowly, up and up 3000 feet to the Rim Rock Road. Every view to our left changed dramatically as we circled around the top. The fun part came as we swooped and snaked down to the valley floor. Exhilarating! Wish I could do this once a week.

Diane Sanchez Costello
In late September, nine of my adventure-seeking friends from the Almaden Cycle Touring Club of San Jose, CA set out for a fixed base cycling tour in Grand Junction, Colorado. Guy traveled by train, and had an awesome adventure. Connie took the fast track and flew. Tina enjoyed a 9-day adventure that included solo hikes in Utah. The rest of us settled in for a long two day drive. I must say that I think Connie made the best choice.

We joined the rest of our BAC team and enjoyed five days of cycling in and around the Colorado National Monument and one day of hiking. As can always happen when you leave California, the weather threw us some curve balls and we had to watch the radar and wait for the window of clear skies before heading out for our ride. A group of four cyclists from Davis, California failed to check the radar and headed out straight into the storm, only to return after getting stuck in the mud at mile 2, oops!

We enjoyed the color of the red rock canyons, vast views from the mesa, and we even met up with big horn sheep. Great routes, fun friends, and delicious food! Check out BAC and join a tour soon.

Dan Crandall

Wow, what a great trip! The Colorado National Monument is a must ride for anyone that has the chance. Truly spectacular views. The other rides that were offered were well worth riding. We had everything from fruit orchards to witnessing the fall changing of the colors at 11,000 feet.

Leo Hartung

I never anticipated such a variety of rides possible riding out of the same town, Grand Junction, where every corner of the downtown area had a beautiful piece of art, but I was pleasantly surprised. We climbed to the Grand Mesa at an elevation of 10,800 ft, we climbed the colorful "Monument" mountain in the Colorado National Monument park, with its big horn sheep; we rode through the vineyards and orchards of Palisades tasting the Palisade peaches and fresh baked pies; and rode the beautiful and well maintained bike trails to the gorgeous little town of Fruita with its unique art works scattered throughout the town.  A fun and challenging week of riding with 20 new friends from the western US but the best part was riding with my sister who lives in the area.

Guy Neenan

At the suggestion of Diane Sanchez Costello, nine Almaden Cycle Touring Club members joined the fabulous Bicycle Adventure Club fixed-base tour of Western Colorado from lodging in Grand Junction in late September. The nine met and rode with four tourists from Davis, CA and four riders from elsewhere. Stars of the group include our co-leader, Twain Berg of Gardnerville, CA who has climbed every paved pass in Colorado from both sides and the venerable Leslie Tuggle of Gardnerville, CA who has competed in ten Kona Ironwoman Triathlons and is the current senior womens’ World Triathlon Champion.

Among the available routes are trips along the Colorado River Bicycle Trail, west to Fruita and east to Palisade, to Reeder Mesa, and to the 10,800-foot Grand Mesa, itself. There are three routes up to the fabulous Rim Rock Road in the Colorado National Monument. These 40-to 50-mile Rim Rock loops include the classic Tour of the Moon race route passed the impressive Independence Monument sandstone tower formation and its fantastically crenulated red rock plateau.

“It is nice to have a big turnout from your club,” says our BAC ride leader, Huey Hurst. “You guys are not cliquey at all. Sometimes a group will come, tour among themselves, and not mix with the others. You guys are not like that.” Huey’s compliments belong to the very compatible Diane Sanchez Costello, Connie Jorgensen, Dan Crandall, Gary Schaps, Tina Shaner, Leo Hartung, and Susan and Scott Franks.

The landscape of the Colorado National Monument is probably more scenic than what you’d find touring our satellite on a mooncycle.  The fabulous Rim Rock Road takes us through a redrock fantasy land of sculpted sandstone formations including the iconic Independence Monument tower standing tall, isolated from the surrounding mesas.  Unlike the Monument Valley, where you look up to the towering formations, at the Colorado National Monument, you get to climb 2400 feet to the rim of the canyons and look over and down at the pedestals, towers, balanced rocks, and cavitating red-gold sandstone walls. The vast vision from Grand View Point across the wide Colorado River Valley to the Book Cliffs and Grand Mesa is got-yer-moneysworth stunning. Mount Garfield resembles a gigantic layered wedding cake with the massive bottom layer of purplish shale melting into fluted palisades.

 Our BAC tour Co-leader, Twain Berg assisted Huey by designing the route choices.  Huey needed no assistance to select the best lodging and gourmet dining restaurants for the group in downtown Grand Junction.  The outgoing and avuncular Huey has been leading BAC tours around his home in Carbondale, CO and elsewhere in western Colorado since 2018. His enthusiasm was not worn after leading the BAC Fall colors of Carbondale, CO for the week preceding our tour.  Huey conducts daily very happy hours, arranges succulent meals at special restaurants, and regales the group with his unique adventure stories and humor.

This year’s Moon Tour is dappled with morning showers. Most riders seem to be happy with late-start and early finish, half-day rides.  Our accommodations at the Marriot Inn and the    sight-seeing in the lovely downtown district invite us to have fun together, even when our bicycles are dry and idle. The time comes for us to part with new and old friends and split by plane, train, and motor vehicle after a fairly vigorous, very scenic, tasty and adventuresome tour. We join Diane to recommend that you consider this Tour of the Moon option for your next BAC tour. You are bound to be amazed with the scenery of the Western Slope of the Colorado Plateau and to enjoy the excellent organization and support.