Perigee Full Moon

A view from Hard Scrabble on the White Rim Trail

Once in a Blue Moon

Since I work 12 to 16 hours a day 6 days a week, it is hard to get out and do a long bike ride, especially one that isn't close to home. We wanted to do the White Rim, and I was trying to figure out how I can do this and not be gone from the store for 2 days. And so we decided to try and do a night ride during a full moon. August 2012 had two full moons, the second full moon commonly called a blue moon. So we planned on doing a once in a blue moon ride of the White Rim Trail in a night. Well, sometimes things do work out like you want and we didn't do the night ride last year.

Here is the GPS data from an White Rim in a day unsupported, unaided trip we did a few years ago.

Fast forward to 2013

We have now been planing on doing this White Rim in a night for about a year. I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it and keep the store open on the critical weekend, but Greg and Mike are stepping up and are covering for me so we can do the trip.

The cool thing is that June 21 is the Summer Solstice and June 22 is the full moon. Not only is it a full moon, it is the perigee full moon, meaning the moon is at its closest to the earth it will get in 2013. So we get a bigger, brighter full moon and the shortest night of the year, making this a great time to do the White Rim Trail in a night.

From the first time I did the White Rim in a day, 2004

A First

Jake called to secure the permits to do the White Rim trail and the National Park ranger told him he thought this was a great idea and said that nobody had done this before. It is possible that someone has done it and didn't get the required permit, or they got the permit and the park ranger just doesn't know about it, but it is also possible that this will be the first anyone has done the White Rim in one night.

Dawn at the tip of White Crack at Canyonlands National Park 
© jaovandelagemaat All rights reserved.

Fat Bike

Hey, there is a lot of sandy sections on this ride, and 100 miles on a fat bike would be a great training ride. So, the plan is to start riding at 6pm on a fat bike and ride the White Rim trail in a counter-clockwise direction and hopefully finish by 6am, so I can get back to the store and only miss Friday evening and the first couple of hours Saturday morning. I figure by Saturday night I will be more than ready to get some sleep!