It was the first Tuesday in November, 1980 and Tim Pearson and I had just cast our votes and wanted to get out of Dodge fast before we learned who won. I thought it would be nice to roam around in the desert not knowing who the president of the United States was. We loaded up our homemade mountain bikes and headed to the far western reaches of Candylands N.P., the Maze. We had heard rumors of the Maze but knew precious little about it. At that time the trail head to the Maze was a circular patch of sand at the end of a lonely 55 mile long dirt road that looked like it saw traffic about once a month. From the parking lot, such as it was, we descended down this snotty little single track trail into the middle levels of the Maze. The weather was unusually warm for November ad we were comfortable in T’s and jeans. As was typical of our mtn bike adventures at that time, our bikes were home-brews and we carried our gear on our backs. On this occasion we rode on a series of white sandstone benches, eventually dropping down to the White Rim Sandstone, finding a beautiful camping spot from which to continue our explorations of the deeper levels of the maze on foot. I don’t know if this was actually the first time anyone had bicycled into the Maze, but in those days it was visited so seldom that I imagine we probably were the first (we didn’t even know of anyone from our group of Gunnison adventurers who had been to the Maze).
Once we had set up our base camp for the weekend we had several hours of absolutely stupendous November weather to fritter away, and wisely spent it just noodling around on our bikes. There were some many cool places to ride so long as one didn’t ride off a cliff, which were everywhere. Tim had the standard Schwinn paper bike upgraded to Mtn bike specs with the usual over-the-counter parts whereas I was riding the original “Mayfield” the first multispeed mountain bike to be constructed in Gunnison County. Jim Mayfield had originally constructed this bike in 1974 as an upgraded version of the “beaters” we rode around campus on. It proved to be such a popular bike that soon enough we were all building our own versions of it. By 1980 I had purchased Jim’s original as a kind of living bit of history, plus it was a hoot to ride.

About Jim Mayfield, who was one of the most remarkable human beings I had ever met. Jim arrived in Gunnison around 1972 or so, having cleaned himself up and completely reinventing himself from some extremely challenging circumstances in New Orleans. Jim started working at the Tune-up Bike shop, building bikes and tuning skis. He launched the mountain bike craze and would go on to be a bike racer, Zappa aficionado, and start the boomerang revival that swept through places like Gunnison, Crested Butte, Telluride, and who knows where else, building it into a viable boomerang business, marry well, and raise a beautiful family. Alas, Jim was taken from us much too early by a motorcycle accident. Rest in Peace, Jim, you were well loved and fondly remembered by all.
For those who care about such things, Tim is either sitting upon the red mudstone of the Moekopi Formation overlying the White Rim Sandstone, or on the mudstone of the Organ Rock Formation overlying the white Cedar Mesa Sandstone, it’s kinda hard to tell from this vantage point. However, I’m voting for the Organ Rock/Cedar Mesa interpretation myself.
For the next two days Tim and I found ways that we could scramble down into the interior canyons of the Maze and go exploring. Navigation really is a challenge in the Maze, and we had no topographic maps of the place so were encouraged to exhibit exquisite situational awareness. We found great panels of rock art – mostly pictographs- and big cottonwood trees in the fullness of autumn foliage, and even discovered occasional seeps and springs. Whilst walking down one particular side canyon we encountered a couple walking up from the Green River, where they had been floating down Labyrinth Canyon for several weeks. They were on a month-long float from Green River Utah down through Labyrinth and Cataract Canyons and taking out on Lake Powell. For as adventurous as Tim and I felt, these folks adventure made ours pale in comparison. Ever since encountering them I have wanted to repeat their journey. Perhaps I yet shall. On the fourth day Tim and I road and pushed our way back up the switchbacks, and returned to a world as mundane as the Maze is magical.
Postscript. Tim and I would over the years share some incredible multi-day adventures in the backcountry on skis and mtn bikes, including a remarkable 4 day ride from his front porch in Ft Collins to Steamboat Springs, 75 % of which was on dirt roads and single track trails across the Front Range and North Park. Adventures like these shared with friends like Tim are wealth beyond measure, and I have been a very rich man indeed.