The Kokpelli Trail: Part 1
By Andrew Zimmerman
What better way to celebrate a man’s passage into marriage than a four-day ride down the 145-mile Kokopelli Trail from Fruita to Moab. That’s 
our plan anyway. Check in here to see how this cast of dudes survive.
The Players:
Mike: The Bachelor/Groom to be – Evolution was good to this caveman . . . riding a brand new carbom Specialized full suspension, this thing has carbon wheels !
Andrew: The best man – Known as “Z” to his close friends and quite possibly the most intense man in the world, Andrew is pursing his dreams as a hockey agent/nutritionist/personal trainer. Be careful engaging in conversation with him as his presence may make you cower. (not my words!) Riding his custom all-white Yeti AZR-7, the most travel of any of the team bikes (hehehe).
Doug: the man’s man, can do will do anything so be careful what you dare him to do! Riding a Pivot full suspension carbon, he’s not intent on riding the entire trail as he’s still a beginner, BUT, my money’s on him to surprise us all . . .
Chris: This hairy German can be found yodeling from the tops of the highest most challenging mountain ascents when not modeling lederhosen or working as a part time chemical engineer, this guy is ridding Mikes hammered Turner, I mean seriously, this bike has been through it, hoping it’s got one more big ride and many big drops left in it . . .
Robb: A genuine Philly tough guy, tatted out and in your face – going to ride the 9’er hard tail this trip, we’ll see how that goes . . .
Mark: A pilot by trade, smart and tactical by nature, he’s wondering how he got involved with all of these other nut jobs, going to go for it on one of the first “full” suspension mountain bikes ever made, with 12 inch wide bars (OK, maybe 20 inches, but damn!) . . . good luck with that!
The Plan: Six friends/mountain bike riders riders (well, some of us), one RV driver, and the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, CO. to Moab, UT. As a bachelor party??? Whose idea was this anyway? Oh yeah, mine? As best man, for the first and most honorable time in my life, and being avid mountain bikers, this seemed like a good idea. Training was to begin about 3 months ago . . . Best laid plans . . . No one really has been able to train, due to life, travel, and weather. I myself spent 12 nights of April on hotels in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, and Minneapolis.
Oh well, we’re going for it anyway – and now a week out, we go on our longest training ride, the Betasso loops from my home . . . About 23 miles and 2500 vertical, a good test. On the trail, we’ll do that 2x per day for 4 days – uh oh. Well things went OK for us, we had fun, no major issues, until . . . The dreaded sodium pump in Doug’s legs ran dry . . . Crippling him in the middle of the street with locked quads, been there done that – so we dragged him to the side of the road, and Mike raced to my house to get his truck and pick up the road kill. This ought to be interesting, eh???
