Saved by shuttle driver after thrill Behind the Rocks

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Taylor:
I am writing so that the community of Moab can recognize a local hero. My daughter, Kari Weiss, and I were rescued late at night after getting lost in the Behind the Rocks region by Jim Ryan. We are deeply indebted to Jim and would like to share our story with the residents of Moab.
Kari and I were in Moab May 13-18. 1 have biked the area twice before and fell in love with its wonderful trails and natural beauty. I wanted to share this experience with Kari who has done some biking in California, but has never been to the Mecca of mountain biking (Moab).
Looking back on our experience, I feel it was fate that we met Jim Ryan on our first day of biking at Klondike Bluffs. We were amazed to see a dog so far out on the trail. The dog belonged to Jim. We struck up a conversation and learned how Jim had trained his dog to ride on his mountain bike. Kari happens to be a professional photographer in Los Angeles. She wanted to take a picture of Jim's amazing dog in action but did not have her camera at the time. Jim mentioned that he was the proprietor of the Roadrunner Shuttle. As chance would have it, we required a shuttle on our last day in Moab. We naturally called Jim.
We decided to take the Back of Behind trail for our last ride. We left our car on Kane Creek Road. Jim picked us up there on the morning of May 17, where our adventure began. First, Kari took some nice pictures of Jim and his Kari and Chuck Weiss wonder dog. Jim then shuttled us to the trailhead on Route 191. I was surprised when Jim suggested that we call him when we finished. Nobody had ever taken that much interest in our safety. I had confidence in my ability and told him not to worry. Am I glad he didn't listen to me!
Kari and I began our ride at about 11 a.m. We were having a wonderful day. The weather was nice and the trail was beautiful. There was nobody else on the trail the entire day.
Unknowingly, we had lost track of time and space. By about 5 p.m. we realized something was wrong. By the description on our trail map we should have been home already. We came to the horrifying conclusion that two city slickers were lost in a vast wilderness and there were only two to three hours of daylight left. We were way out of our element and began to panic. We did have enough sense to start conserving our water and begin following our tire tracks back the way we came. We surmised that if anybody was going to look for us it would probably be on the Back of Behind trail where we were supposed to be.
By 8 p.m. we were back on the right trail but sunlight was almost gone and it began getting cold. Kari was wearing a tank top and I was wearing a T-shirt. After 9 hours of biking, with little rest, We were getting tired and the elements were beginning to take their toll. We knew we still had a long way to go to our car. It was at that point that Kari heard the sound of a motorcycle. She started to scream to get his attention and our knight in shining armor came to our rescue.
Jim Ryan, on his own initiative and with nothing to gain personally, checked to see if our car had been picked up. When he saw it was still there, he set out on a mission to rescue us from our own self-imposed disaster. He found us and stayed with us for the next 3 hours that it took us to finally walk out of Pritchett Canyon to safety. By that time, 12 hours into this adventure, Kari was showing signs of hypothermia and was barely able to put one foot in front of the other I don't want to even think about what would have happened if Jim had not come to help us.
In my mind Jim Ryan is a hero and I would like to share this with the people of Moab so that he may be properly recognized. I do this in gratitude, for he certainly deserves it.

Gratefully yours,
Chuck Weiss
Sarasota, FL