![]() |
|||
WHY IT'S BETTER WITH A GUIDE
WHAT WE DO Each year between March and October we run
hundreds of cycling trips throughout the US, and in the winter
we go to Mexico and Costa Rica. Many of our guests return
year after year, and to keep them happy we are constantly adding
new itineraries. "The whole entire experience was a pleasure." Kirstin Wortley October 2004 THE HISTORY OF WESTERN SPIRIT ...
"Back in the day", as our oldest guides
say, Western Spirit Cycling was founded by a charismatic mad
bike rider named Lu Warner. It was 1989, Lu couldn't get enough
of riding his bike and decided he should impart some of his
joy on the masses. He acquired a Suburban, dubbed "the burb",
and a couple of guides and started taking people around the
White Rim. Now Lu can be found in some semi-state of retirement
in Crested Butte, CO, but his vision was just the beginning.
... THEN THE MID '90s ...
Ashley Korenblat bought Western Spirit in 1997 and since then has spent many days riding unknown trails (with a headlamp in her backpack, just incase) creating the plethora of trips that Western Spirit now offers. Ashley is a graduate of Dartmouth and Tuck Business School, a former bike racer, former wall street captive and possesser of entrepreneurial spirit. She was president of Merlin during the Titanium mountain bike heyday and served as the IMBA President working to sustain trail availability to everyone. Combine all that with the desire for a Moab lifestyle and an alternative view of a fulfilling career path, and you have the perfect recipe for the owner of a cycling tour company. Enter Mark. Mark is our charming, wicked-fit,
voice of reason, miraculously lured from his ski town tradition
to live in the desert. Ashley and Mark got married in 1999 in
Moab and now run the company together. ... MODERN TIMES AT WESTERN SPIRIT
Well, actually Kip runs the place. Kip
is Ashley and Mark's young boy and he has his own bike helmet and chariot. He is also beginning to tear it up on the dirt with his training wheels. Our Guides
At Western Spirit, the staff is the heart of our company. Our guides love what they do and are dedicated to providing you with a memorable vacation. Each of them has received extensive training in backcountry travel, cooking, natural history, and first aid, not to mention their cycling and mechanical skills. They are committed to the outdoors and have a great deal of knowledge and experience. Their attention to every detail leaves you free to enjoy the riding. "You have excellent people. As long as you have these types of people guiding for you, your company will be the best." Geoff Martin, August
2005 Our Philosophy
In our busy world, we often don't get to be outside enough. Even
if you do, there's some phenomenon that just makes you want more.
Nothing like going somewhere to make you realize all the other
places you still need to go! Traveling outside makes you see Mars
when it's the closest to earth it'll ever be, makes you smell
the fragrant lupine covering the mountain slope, makes you feel
the wind, see the perfect sunset, catch an eclipse of the moon,
experience the herd of elk in the alpine meadow, and start to
tell time by the location of the moon in the night sky.
IMBA
Photo Thanks
Permits Western Spirit Cycling, Inc. operates under special use permits from the USDA Forest Service in the Boise, Coronado, Dixie, Grand Mesa, Gunnison, Kaibab, Manti La Sal (Moab and Monticello Ranger Districts), San Juan, Sawtooth, Sierra Vista, Uncompahgre, Challis, Clearwater, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Caribou-Targhee, Black Hills, Mount Hood, Umpqua, Nantahala, White Mountain, Monongahela, and Pisgah National Forests and by Dakota Prairie Grasslands. As well as under permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management in the San Juan Resource Area; Henry Mountain Field Station; Moab, Arizona Strip and Grand Junction Field Offices; Grand Staircase National Monument; and by Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake and Blue Ridge Parkway National Parks. Western Spirit is a concessionaire in Canyonlands National Park. USDA Non Discrimination Statement Western Spirit Cycling - The Best Cycling Tour Company In The United States |
|
|
|||||||