Day 47: Moab, UT to Green River, UT

• Distance: 0 mi
• Elevation: 13,500 ft
• Max speed: ~120 mph
• Plane group: Maggie, Bailey, Dan, Briana, and Eli
• Host: Green River PACT Center

Daily summary looks a little different today… because we traded our bikes for parachutes! It’s an unofficial 4K tradition for members of the team to go skydiving on the rest day on Moab. Unfortunately Skydive Moab was closed yesterday on our actual rest day, but Eli (an avid skydiver) was able to set us up with a group reservation for this morning. I normally would feel very badly about skipping a ride day to essentially have another rest day, but we were told by many Moab locals and 4K alum that the route to Green River was less than ideal and at times very unsafe. We put it to a vote and ended up with 20 people who wanted to skydive!

Skydivers rolled out a little after 7 to get to Skydive Moab by 8 and get checked in. It took quite a while to get all of us registered and we ended up being grouped up into 5 different flights. My group, of course, went last, so we were just sitting around anxiously for a few hours. It was somewhat reassuring to see everyone come down alright, though!

We got strapped into harnesses on the ground and before we knew it were being loaded into the plane. I had never been in such a small plane before and it was a little sketchy, especially when the door was open, but the views were incredible. We basically had national parks on both sides and could see the town of Moab as well. All of our skydiving instructors had great senses of humor and did a great job of keeping us calm and laughing as we climbed to 13,500 feet.

Things were pretty laid back until it was time to go, and then it was time. to. go. We really didn’t have to do anything as our instructors strapped us up and got us ready. My teammate Eli is an experienced skydiver and got us set up with Skydive Moab; he did his second solo jump of the day with our group. I had seen videos of him base jumping before but I was not prepared for him to just throw himself out of the plane. While I was trying to recover from the shock of that, Maggie and her instructor were already up at the door and then gone. I was honestly so afraid for Maggie (who is afraid of heights) that I didn’t even see Bailey go, and then found myself hanging out of the side of the plane.

Freefalling out of a plane was genuinely the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. It was disorienting, exhilarating, and terrifying all at once. The freefall didn’t actually last that long, maybe a minute max, and then my instructor, Kai, pulled our parachute. That transition was a little abrupt but then we were pleasantly sailing through the sky. I got to wave to Bailey as she soared by me which was so funny in the moment, but honestly most of the time I couldn’t stop thinking about how dry my mouth was from the freefall. At one point Kai had us doing some spins that I was not a fan of, but then we were getting closer to the ground and preparing for landing.

I was most afraid of getting back on the ground but it was seamless! One moment it felt like we were way, way above the ground and then suddenly we were there. We didn’t even have to slide on our butts, Kai got us on the ground on our feet. After freaking out and celebrating with Bailey and Maggie for a few seconds our whole group walked back to the hangar, where our teammates took some Top Gun-esque walk-up photos (like I said before, that movie has a chokehold on our team).

After driving back to town we got lunch and shopped around a little. I’ve decided way, way too late in the trip that I want to sticker my bike so I stocked up on some stickers at a bookshop. We then drove to Green River and I think everyone in the van was dead asleep as our adrenaline wore off. We’re staying at a Positive Action Community Team center, which has plenty of space for us but no AC and no showers. I kind of understood not having AC up in the mountains but I do not understand how people in the literal desert don’t have air conditioning!!! Thankfully there was a fan inside and it cooled down a bit at night.

We grabbed dinner at a nearby taco truck and then a few of us went out with Eli to a canyon where he wanted to do a base jump. We had a short hike to his jump spot while he hiked up to the top and watched him jump off– still jarring, even after seeing him leap out of a plane this morning. The sound of his parachute opening in the canyon was so loud! Once he was back on the ground we hiked up a short but steep incline to check out a cave. There were a lot of bats so I opted to peek in from the outside but a few people braver than I ventured in.

Once we were back to the van we were out much later than we expected and had to hurry back to the host. Most people were already asleep when we got back to rest up before our century tomorrow. I definitely hoped to go to bed a little earlier but had a great time out at the canyon!

Until tomorrow,

Lauren