The other will follow in a van that carries gear, food, water and beer-chilling ice for four dry days in the desert. He offers safety tips. Use rear brakes going downhill. If you lock your front wheel, you'll fly head over handlebars. I coast down squeezing brake handles, struggling to remember which controls the front and which the rear.
Ruts jerk the bike.
Rocks and gravel threaten to topple it. Bouncing, skidding and pitching downward, I throttle the handlebars with a Vulcan death grip. Finally, to the delight of my health insurer, I reach the bottom without mishap. We pedal to Musselman Arch, a nearby sandstone span. Bluffs, mesas, plateaux, chasms, canyons and valleys stretch into the distance.