APRIL 24, 2025 | FEATURES | By Max Mckee
I was never planning on going to Moab.
When I heard people talking about it early in the semester, I thought to myself, “That’s a stupid idea.”
And when my friends told me their plans to go to Moab during Block 7, I let them know, “That’s a stupid idea.”
And when my housemates were packing up and getting ready to go during Fourth Week, I was there again, reminding them that “That is a stupid idea.”
Why?
Because Moab stinks.
Because I went to Moab four years ago already, and all that’s there is a bunch of rocks in the middle of the desert. When you’ve seen it once, you don’t need to see it again.
And yet, on Thursday afternoon, April 17, I inexplicably found myself loading all of my things into a car and getting ready to drive out to Moab.
It turns out, Moab isn’t all that bad. It’s actually kind of fun.
Part of what makes Moab such a great place to camp is all the open space. Camping on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land means that you have lots of ground to cover, and lots to separate you from your neighbors.
Miles and miles of rocky trails are perfect for the city’s annual Jeep Week, a festival that regularly draws 20,000 people. They’re also perfect if you and your two friends decide to buy dirt bikes off of Facebook Marketplace for $250 each.
It turns out that for the same price as a brand-new car battery, you can buy a child’s motorcycle and spend a couple of days having the most fun of your life.
The first problem with our new biker lifestyle came with figuring out how to get our dirt bikes to Moab and back. After taking the wheels and handlebars off of all three, we found that we could just barely fit them into the back of a Toyota Rav4, with just enough space to tie tents and sleeping bags to the roof.
Moab, Utah, is 420 miles away from Colorado College along I-70, making it a six-to-seven-hour drive depending on traffic. After spending all of Thursday morning packing, we realized that we wouldn’t arrive in Moab until well after midnight.
We ran into heavy rains on the drive out, forcing us to stop to waterproof our roof luggage. Thursday night in Moab had seen rainstorms and 30 mph winds, and the temperature would later drop to as low as 27 degrees early on Saturday morning.
The rain and cold were enough to turn a good number of students away from visiting Moab this Block Break. Henry Beers Shenk ‘25, a History-Political Science major, had been planning on going to Moab for months with his friends before the weather changed his plans.
“Moab was the plan. Moab was absolutely the plan,” Shenk said. “I had been pitching to basically everybody I talked to.” He had planned a whole weekend of swimming, exploring and “whimsy.”
Shenk had gone to Moab for a Block Break in the fall of last year and loved it.
“It’s an incredibly pretty place,” he said. Finding somewhere that was still temperate, even in late October during ski season, was a huge draw.
But the weather hadn’t held up. That and the thought of 20,000 jeeps swarming the city had been enough to change his plans.
As we arrived at camp, however, a break in the storm made it feel almost peaceful. We unloaded the bikes and curled up in the back of the car, ready for the next day.
As the sun rose, we were greeted by our first glimpse at the landscape around us. Sand, boulders and trees stretched out for miles, and plateaus, rock spires and canyons surrounded us.
We got to work reassembling our bikes and greeted our friends who were camping nearby. Some planned to explore the town, while others planned on making their way to Arches National Park, located right to the northeast of the city.
A good number of Colorado College students had made their way to Moab the day before, many of whom were returning to the same campsite from Block Breaks in years past.
Caroline Jones ‘25 went to Moab for the first time with friends during the final Block Break of last year.
“It ended up being actually the best Block Break I’ve ever gone on,” she said. She had spent the time hiking deep into the canyons around Moab and lounging in the sun, and “didn’t even think about what time it was.”
Returning to Moab for this year’s break, she spent her time exploring the town, walking through the canyons, and swimming in the Colorado River while watching the cacti in bloom.
As friends departed for town, and we set out on our first day’s ride, we had adventure in our hearts, the wind at our backs, and were sure that nothing could stop us.
It turns out that $250 for a dirt bike doesn’t get you that much.
After just a few miles of riding, we already had one bike that refused to start. What we thought would be a simple fix turned out to be much worse. Julian Wiseman ‘25 discovered that the rattling sound coming from the bike had turned out to be a key piece of the ignition electronics that had now sheared itself fully off the engine block and was flying around inside the casing.
To make matters worse, a second bike had lost the master link to its chain, rendering it similarly unrideable.
As we returned to camp, we did what we could to diagnose the problems before setting up tents and getting ready for the night.
Despite temperatures dropping rapidly, friends and classmates from nearby began showing up at the campsite. Some impressive food was whipped up, along with s’mores and hot dogs, and fires were thrown together to keep warm.
Bluegrass was played on guitar, blankets were brought out and a chorus of students gave their best rendition of Coldplay’s “The Scientist,” before the Bluetooth speaker died halfway through in the wind.
As the night got colder, people began to retire to their shelters and fires were extinguished. Some last few snacks were grabbed before the cold became too much for even the heartiest campers to bear.
Waking up the next morning, we set about fixing our bikes. A quick trip to a local bike shop provided a new master link, and a heavy amount of superglue and JB Weld was somehow able to reattach the electronics back onto the engine. A previously undiscovered hole in the engine cover was fixed with duct tape and we were off.
As we set out, we were overjoyed. Saturday was the hottest and sunniest day of the trip, and there was nothing else we would rather be doing. Despite the bike’s questionable performance earlier, that day, they flew across the desert roads with ease.
After reaching Balanced Rock, we turned onto a side trail and rode out to see what we could find. The terrain here was much wilder, with sharp rocks that threatened to puncture our already bald tires, and hills so steep and sandy that we had to get off our bikes and push them to the top.
As we reached the Eye of the Whale Arch, however, we made another discovery. The chain on my bike had bumped itself to the side, and now the edge was riding along the top of the sprocket, wearing a channel into the very tops of the teeth.
Nine miles away from camp, and with minimal tools around us, we were forced to work out a solution on our own. If we didn’t fix this issue, we risked the teeth breaking off or the chain snapping.
Daon Hatzigiannis ‘25 discovered that cutting bits of plastic off the bike and jamming them into the chain guide was just enough to keep the whole thing centered. With our makeshift bike back in working order, we flew back down the trail.
After another 10 miles down a dried riverbed and some sketchy traversals over massive boulders, we arrived at Tower Arches at the end of the trail. The massive stone pillars towered over the landscape and provided a lasting reward for our journey.
We rode the 20 miles back to camp with ease, making it back just in time for sunset. We then ate tinned fish and hot dogs for dinner around the camp and fell asleep after a game of contact around the fire.
When we woke up the next morning, cars were already packed and starting the long journey back to campus. We took one last early-morning ride before packing up and heading back as well.
Despite the rough weather, everyone pushed through. Spirits remained high, and there were never moments when anyone called it quits. “No block break will ever be completely perfect,” said Jones. “Even though our tent got profoundly bent and all of our belongings got wet and we were freezing for two of the nights, it was still really fun.” For a lot of the students there, this was their last block break at CC. Many had gone knowing just how bad the weather might be, but decided it was worth it to be around friends. “And it was,” Jones said. “We had one beautiful, glorious day of 70-degree weather, and it was honestly worth it, just for that day. So that was a really lovely day. It was perfect.”