White Rim: The granddaddy bike trail

MOAB — Things you need to ride the White Rim:

A mountain bike that works.

A mountain bike seat that works.

Plenty of water. Sunscreen. Sunglasses. Camera. Helmet. Camping gear. Support vehicle.

But most important, you need to know a guy who plans ahead and gets the permit.

Riding the granddaddy of mountain bike trails as it meanders over, around and through the remote grandeur of Canyonlands National Park is a lot more complicated than turning the pedals.

First you've got to get the approval of the National Park Service, and while that may sound easy, it's not.

There are just 10 designated campsites along the 110-mile circumference of the White Rim, and no one is allowed to camp anywhere but these campsites.

And since an average of only two permits are issued per campsite per night, the primo riding times of spring and fall are in incredibly high demand.

To allocate the permits as fairly as possible, the NPS designates one day every year — the second Monday in July — when people may begin faxing or mailing in applications for reservations for the following year. All requests received that day are placed into a lottery.

Either you're the kind of person who plans a year ahead and sends in that application, or you've got to know someone who is.

In my case, that would be my neighbor across the street, Kent Johnson.

Kent has it together. Kent plans ahead. You know the guy. Garage is clean. Car is clean. Has cool stuff. Does cool things. Takes in strays. Helps old ladies cross the street. (The week before we went to White Rim, Kent, a dentist, flew to Guatemala and fixed teeth, for free.)

Way last July, when the rest of us were letting the weeds grow, Kent faxed in his application and scored camping permits for mid-May of this year. Then, along about February, he called up seven of his deadbeat friends and neighbors — Scott Doughman, Andy Sipple, Bruce Cummings, Walt Chudleigh, his son-in-law Nick Summers, Paul Gillespie and me — and invited them to join him to ride the White Rim and share the cost of the permit.

The permit is $30. How could we say no?