Good Water Canyon Rim Trail, San Rafael Swell, September 24, 2021

Stunning! The continuous, overwhelming view in these few photos does not begin to convey the deep sense of Divinity experienced today. I’m told that God can only be found in a church, but men can’t replicate this. The Segrada Familia in Barcelona comes the closest, but still, a large gap of separation remains.  

The ride footprint. The outer-ring are the roads ridden counter-clockwise, the jagged inner-ring is the rim trail single-track, which was ridden clockwise.

Main Trailhead, we parked here then rode/biked westward (left) on the road to ride the Rim trail in a clockwise direction. (Roads ridden counter-clockwise, single-track ridden clockwise).

Statistics
                                                                                                                                                
Lap                                                                                                        Time        Miles     Ascent   Descent
                                                                                                                                                  (ft)     (ft)
Main TH to Wedge Overlook, 2-track                                                 19:56         2.82         305        30
Wedge Overlook to Good Water Rim Trail                                           8:36           .93           36        39
Rim trail to Main TH                                                                        1:15:10         8.23         190      479
Lunch at truck                                                                                      12:39            -                -           -
From truck at Main TH to East TH on Rim Trail                             1:11:28           7.1         322      118
From East TH on road back to truck at Main TH                                12:58           2.87         59      243   

                                                            Totals                                     3:20:49         22.02       912      909
                                                            Moving Time                        2:19:18
Average Speed     9.5mph
Max Speed         22.6mph
Max Elevation     6,219 ft
Min Elevation     5,904 ft

We parked here at the Main Trailhead, which is in the middle of the rim trail, starting from here rather than at either end of the rim trail only to shorten the road commutes at the start and end of our ride. We’re seen here dressing and gearing-up before starting the ride. To start, we pedaled west from on the the road to the west trailhead, a quick 3.75 mile ride (per Garmin) on a wide, smooth, rolling double-track to the west to start the single-track at the Wedge Overlook. Midway through the Rim Trail we stopped here for a few minutes to reload water, eat some sugar, drop unneeded layers, then back to the single track, continuing our eastward (clockwise) loop.

View at the Wedge Overlook, where the single-track Rim Trail starts.

The Little Grand Canyon looks pretty damn huge to me. 

Brett, a month away from retirement, and always game for anything outdoors and he never quits anything first. When back-country skiing he keeps doing laps until everyone else has pulled out headlamps and  started down to the trailhead. It was the same when we were younger and really into climbing and alpinism. Snowing and slippery rock at 13,000 feet, and Brett was still climbing upwards when I’d be making excuses about going home because I was cold and all my clothes were soaked. It’s aggravating to  ALWAYS be the quitter on the team. 

It’s called the Little Grand Canyon for good reason. It is one of those places that you hear about with too many adjectives, but given the source of most cyclists, the blather is quickly dismissed. But when you go, you are shocked, the real thing is absolutely stunning, expectations are completely annihilated because no photos or sappy-writing comes close to conveying the beauty.  

It’s not called the Little Grand Canyon without reason. Man-made structures all fail to inspire me like our natural world does, contrary to what I’m told at church. If God does dwell in a man-made structure, my vote goes to the Bascilica de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Espana, designed by Antoni Gaudi. An immense forrest of stone, light and color.