Immediately after launching VeloBellUSA, I headed off on a promotional tour of sorts. Three very long days of driving with stops at bicycle shops and outfitters along the way in trail riding destinations: Moab, UT and Grand Junction Colorado! As always a trip of this magnitude has some ups and downs, and this one has been no exception! Before I go into the details, at the risk of sounding a bit cliche, wow, what an expansive and vast country this is! I am always amazed by the sheer scale of this land of ours despite several similar trips including one just a few months ago. So far on this adventure I have already covered about a thousand miles, and 5 states and I am just getting started! I have already seen some incredible landscapes, some new and others revisited. The transit through the Monument Valley of AZ was particularly striking due to the lighting effects with a partly cloudy sky. A desolate yet stunning landscape, and so incredibly huge, there are no words to do it justice.

The first stop on my route was the Mecca of American mountain biking, Moab Utah. The beauty of the location, in close proximity to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks is hard to overstate and impossible to capture in photos. From a cycling perspective, Moab is rather unique in that the famous mountain bike trails are dedicated to bikes, and not mixed use. That said, the folks I spoke to about swisstrailbell were very positive about it's unique qualities!

As I set up the rooftop tent for the night the skies started to darken and the distinct rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance. I am pretty sure that the protection from electrocution the Faraday Cage that a vehicle provides occupants in the case of a lightning strike or downed power line does not extend to an aluminum-framed tent on top, with a ladder to ground to boot. Thankfully the folks at Field Station Moab were able to accommodate an upgrade from camper van post to indoor room while the thunderstorms moved by throughout the night!

The next morning brought clear skies and a lot of mud puddles as I continued on to Colorado, stopping in Grand Junction to meet with other shop owners. Again, some good discussions and feedback was received as I pushed north up the I-70 corridor towards the Mile High City. As I passed Vail and the bike path that runs along side the highway up to Vail Pass and a peak elevation at 10,662 feet along the Gore Range of the Rockies, my mind drifted back to July of 2016. I had the privilege of riding that year’s iteration of the Triple Bypass with a great group of my closest riding buddies. We did the Sunday ride (after riding Independence Pass from Leadville on the Friday before), the Vail to Evergreen route. The Vail Pass climb on the bike path, the first of three significant climbs on the route that day, with its views, challenging grades and above 10K finish is a real experience. Reliving it while driving up the route provided a bit of an energizing effect as I continued on to a campsite on the Pawnee National Grassland in the northeast corner of the state. The shortgrass prairie, land of hope and heartbreak, has been occupied by humans for over twelve thousand years including the prehistoric mammoth hunters thought to be the first inhabitants of North America. After a night's rest in the tent in the grasslands, the route took me through the bottom southeast corner of Wyoming before crossing into South Dakota. Again just an amazingly vast and very sparsely populated corner of this great land.

The plan to get from my home in AZ to the Black Hills of South Dakota to ride the George S. Mickelson Trail came to fruition with my arrival at the southernmost trailhead in Edgemont SD on the 25th of August. The Mickelson (https://bikemickelson.com/) is among the first and considered among the finest of the cycling trails emerging from the rails-to-trails movement in the US. I immediately began preparation of the bike and gear for what was sure to be a great riding experience and unique opportunity to spread the word about VeloBellUSA and swisstrailbell!