January 10, 2023
River Mountains Loop, Las Vegas
Desert = Rain and 30 mph winds
A few months of planning, a ton of expectation, years of touring experience … and the weather still won the battle. Where to begin …
TrailLink states the following …
“The River Mountains Loop Trail runs for more than 35 miles on a loop around the River Mountains, which form the backdrop of Las Vegas and Henderson. The trail is 12 feet wide and paved, with an adjacent trail for equestrians for about 15 miles of its length. The surrounding River Mountains are home to one of the largest bighorn sheep populations in Nevada, which you may encounter on this trail.“
… which sounded like a great first ride of this trip. Our experience was a bit different however.
We started at the Mountain Lake Park trailhead, took about an hour to unbox the trikes, reassemble them, and get our stuff together to ride. I checked the weather app which gave us about 2-3 hours before a 30% chance of light rains. Winds were listed at 5-10 mph out of the south.
What we experienced was quite a bit different as within 15 minutes of riding the winds were closer to 15-20 mph with stronger gusts. Dark skies were building to the north. The trail, at least the northern section, was in moderate to good condition with some washout debris and periodic cracks in the surface.
An hour later the skies began to darken and we noticed we were only making 7-8 miles of progress but, I figured, once we reach the halfway mark, it’s tailwinds all the way back. But … at the 14 mile mark we were now encountering 20-30 mph headwinds and the rain decided to just come down, torrents of it.
Fortunately we had reached the Ranger Station and Safe Water building that had an overhang and buffeted the wind slightly. A ranger saw us, stopped and apologized that we couldn’t use the building even as he went inside. 20 minutes later, as he was leaving, he smiled and told us that he wasn’t sure how the door got slightly opened and with a wink, told us to simply close it behind us.
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Clock ticks forward … rain and wind has stayed steady, 2 hours until sunset, 20 miles to ride … time for Plan B.
Plan B had me walking into the adjoining campground where I found the camp hosts. Tedi, a former IT manager for several local casinos, instantly offered to take the truck and get us back to our rental. We then loaded the trikes in back, jumped in the cab and 15 minutes later we were back at the rental attempting to stuff the trikes and all our gear inside while the wind did it’s best to slam the doors on us and whisk any loose objects away.
In the end, we won or at least we got out of the wind and the rain. The rental shock a bit on the way back to our nights lodging and the forecast looks much better for tomorrow’s ride.
Today's ride: 14 miles (23 km)
Total: 14 miles (23 km)
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