Long story short, my daughter had a soccer tournament in Grand Junction. It got canceled cause of Super El Niño drowning the SW US causing flooding all over the place. We couldn’t cancel the Airbnb so my wife said go do something
Saw this route on FKT and decided to go for it. Expected it to be dry until 3. Instead I woke up to a drizzle. Went for it anyway hoping it didn’t pick up too much. I started from Fruita at 7:44a. Got poured on a little throughout the day but it was manageable. Traversing sandstone cliffs on wet rock is sketchy though. Took me awhile to figure out how to get through a short friction sequence above Otto’s staircase. And “No Thoroughfare Canyon” is wild and rough: entailed splashing off trail through the creek and scrambling around waterfalls over strewn boulders while dodging ubiquitous cacti. I hope to never kick another cactus.
I crested the switchbacks where I had locked my bike the previous night at 3:42p for a time of 7:58. Came in about half an hour under the current fkt. Then biked back to my car in Fruita.
It’s an amazing route if you like running with occasional hands on rock and routefinding. Since it was the Super El Niño edition I was able to go unsupported refilling water in potholes, puddles and streams.
Of note, the start is tricky. I parked at the Dinosaur Hill day use area then jumped the fence to get on the trail because Tower court is marked Private.