Category Archives: MTB

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Slickrock Trail & Magnificent 7 (well, three of them)

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Today was my opportunity to ride what is arguably the most famous mountain-bike trail in the world – the Slickrock Trail. Just as I was driving up there, I got a text from Miles & it turned out that I’d meet him afterwards for another ride. Not in the best shape of my life (but hopefully getting closer), I tried to get around the trail as quickly as possible while still taking enough time to take pictures & appreciate the scenery & trail. At nine o’clock on a Monday morning, the trailhead wasn’t too busy & I probably only saw about twenty people on the whole loop – more reinforcement of planning to avoid the weekend. The rock itself was mostly super smooth & grippy. The trail was about ninety-five percent rock & the rest a little bit of sand. Peppered with a lot of sharp descents & then tough pinch climbs, it’s not a complete walk in the park but great fun all the same. I started off the ride looking at big thunderstorms off in the distance, but they avoided me & I spent time in direct sunlight, cloud & a stiff cooling breeze.

The views were out over the Colorado River towards Arches NP & east to the La Sal mountains (nice to see these not capped in cloud, unlike yesterday). Picking the route across the rock was made pretty easy by following the big white dashes painted on the rock. Enough of that, here are a few pictures.

The outskirts of Moab

After a quick dash back to the motel, refilling the Camelbak & making & consuming a wrap, we were off to meet Miles & Diyora (sp?) at the other end of town. Driving north towards Canyonlands NP, Miles & I were dropped off at top of Gemini Bridges Rd with ominous looking storm clouds sending bolts of lightning down not too far away. We rode down the road for a mile & eventually found the unsignposted trail off the 4WD road. The Magnificent 7 is a group of now more than seven trails that lead from where we started back towards Moab. We rode the first three of them (Bull Run, Arth’s Corner & Little Canyon) before meeting our pick-up back on Highway 161. We had a big net descent & the riding was more of the type I prefer – getting away from town, getting a bit of distance in & seeing less seen views. The big black clouds avoided us as we made our way down Bull Run. The scenery was once again spectacular, but as Miles & Diyora had to hustle back to Denver (six hours away) for Diyora to catch a red-eye back to NYC, I wasn’t stopping as much for photos. Also, the trail was really fun & with plenty of canyon-side riding, drops & step-ups. Half way through we walked off the road a little to have a look at the Gemini Bridges – it’s not until you are standing on top of them that you realise that there are two parallel bridges separated by a metre gap.

Riding 30 miles/48 km today (the most I’ve done in one day since a Lake Minnewanka epic with Alex last July) with 850m of climbing was possibly a little optimistic, but I’m still alive – but may pay for it tomorrow on Porcupine Rim. It also means, I don’t remember many of the singletrack details from this afternoon – except it was brilliant with beautiful views. More storms blew in, but we were fortunate to only be showered on for ten minutes or so. With a bit more dodgy route finding & a big long climb & then even longer descent to the highway we were back at the cars & I was somewhat worn out. Another great ride, I eagerly await riding a lot in Bend, Oregon with Miles in July.

Back towards Moab & the La Sal mountains

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

No headless chicken & Fruita riding redeems itself

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After a nice leisurely start to Saturday we headed off down the freeway to Fruita to check out the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival – but mainly because it was on the way to more riding & the sun was out.  There was a big car show on part of the main street – a lot of very shiny American classics & hot rods.  Many, many beautiful cars; in amongst all the American muscle there some nice examples of Austin Healeys & Volkswagens.  Some in the family may appreciate this picture, it had two big recliners in the back instead of a bench & also a suped-up 8 Track player.

Most of the festivities were at the other end of main street, so we checked them out briefly. I was hugely disappointed that I didn’t see someone wandering around aimlessly in a large headless-chicken suit. There were, however, some show chickens – very odd seeing chickens dressed up in little costumes! Of course, it wouldn’t be a small town around these parts without a statue welded up out of miscellaneous items.

Feeling a bit peckish, we found a park on a map & headed out there to eat our grain. We stumbled across a couple of games of little league baseball so amused ourselves briefly trying to work out what was happening – but being baseball, not much was happening.

North out of Fruita are some riding trails at the end of 18 Road & the base of the Bookcliffs (the longest range running east to west apparently in the USA). A sidenote on the road names around here. The north-south roads out in the country (mostly, you get some in town) are numbered for the number of miles from the Utah border. Hence, 18 Road – things get more interesting with the roads in between the whole miles; you end up with things like 33 1/2 Rd or 15 3/10 Rd – as if you could have a part road. Then the east-west roads are letttered from A up from some base line. So we had to take N 3/10 Rd to get to the trails. I was following a Cayenne with bikes on the top, if I had have been a bit closer I would have seen the Oregon plates & not followed. After a wrong turn & back track we were all bumping up the most corrugated road I’ve been on – it went for miles & was just awful.

On the upside, the guy in the Cayenne was actually from Boulder, CO & I had a riding buddy to show me around & take photos. I had originally planned to ride up the road from the trail head & come down on progressively harder trails (Kessel Run, Chutes & Ladders, Zippity Do Da). Miles had limited time as he & his girlfriend were off to Moab, so we did Zippity first. After cruising up the road there was a bit of climbig to get west & on to another ridge. It’s a great name for this trail as there are plenty of whoop-de-dos to swoop down & then get up the other side. It was a bit of a change riding with someone much fitter than me, but I coped & the trail wasn’t too technical. It flowed really well, there were great views & some nasty pinch climbs to keep me on my toes.

There was some gorgeous ridge riding (copped a gale on this edge) & at places one had to be pretty careful to make a turn & not go flying off.

We got back to the car to find Valerie had gone off on her own little ride & Diyora (Miles’s girlfriend) wasn’t back from her ride. So we headed up Kessel Run & found Valerie, but not Diyora. At the top we split & Miles went back to the car & I continued on Chutes & Ladders on the east side of the area. This riding was quite different, a little techy at the start & then it opened up in to big meadows. With the views & all the different shades of green, grey & purple it was beautiful.

Back at the car, exchanging details & intentions to meet again in Moab (where we’re going today!!!) & later in Bend, Oregon we said goodbyes & I headed back up the road to get a few extra miles in. The beginner level Kessel Run is great fun – not much pedalling involved, it swoops & ducks & dives & has a real flow to it. A most excellent way to end the day somewhat tired. For only just over two hours of riding I managed to get some good climbing in & some fantastic trails.

bikes, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

A Proper Fruita Ride

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Woken well too early & really struggling to get back to sleep, there was a bit of a sleep-in until eight. Poking my head out of the window eventually, there were less dark clouds hanging around than yesterday morning. With quick organisation, I was off out the door by myself (nice to have a bit of independence back & go off for a ride solo) & back at the Kokopelli trail head & riding by 9.15. With a bit of prior research, it looked like Mary’s Loop, Horsethief Bench & Moore Fun trails were the ones to string together for a good introduction to the trails proper. More showers & then thunderstorms were forecast so I was keeping one eye on the trails & scenery & the other on the large black clouds gathering ominously over the river.

Mary’s Loop started off with a nice climb up on to the bluffs above the river. It wasn’t a particularly difficult climb – in fact this was quite good, as this was to be my longest ride of the season so far. In spite of the gloom the views aren’t for scoffing at.

After riding the bluff for a while, Horsethief Bench loop cuts off down to the left – that’s it down there.

The route down (dropping 25m in a hurry) was rideable to start with & then the rocks just got too big for me.

Yes, there’s a trail down there; no, I couldn’t ride it all.

This side loop was OK & there were enough rocks to make things interesting & technically challenging in a few places. In some of the shadier parts, the sand was still a little wet from yesterday’s rain. I was pleased with some of the trickier step-ups & -downs I was able to clear.

While I remember, I’m going to digress to comment on my switch to tubeless. I went for a standard Stan’s setup a month or two ago. I had a few problems getting the rear standard Maxxis Crossmark to seal, but mainly because I was trying to do it with a floor pump (it’s a lot easier to get the bead to seat with a compressor). The front UST Kenda Nevegal went on easily with just a floor pump. Now that the tires are reliably inflated, I’m loving them. On all these rocks I’ve been running a much lower pressure that tubes would allow. In the last few days there have been five or six incidences where I’ve hit rocks that I’m sure would have given a tube a snakebite puncture. Actually, after my first rocky ride at Tabeguache I went to inflate my tires a bit & found they were running at 18 psi!

After the Horsebench, unfortunately I had to go back up all those rocks – nothing like a bit of hike-a-bike – to get back on to Mary’s Loop to ride around the bluffs once more on more double-track. All the while, the clouds were getting closer but I still wasn’t wet.

Eventually the trail turned away from the river & climbed up for a while to the start of Moore Fun. This was the option to get back to the car with the most singletrack & least road, so it was a no-brainer to take it. It turned out it was a double black, the first part was where a fair chunk of my six hundred metres of climbing for the day came from. Finally there was a decent amount of singletrack (as opposed to wide double-track), & it was rocky – there were plenty of bits where I had to walk. The rain had started by now (I’d got off remarkably well so far) & any dirt/sand quickly turned to awful mud that just stuck to everything. The views of the big black cloud were pretty good from the top.

The trail marking on the way down left a bit to be desired & I had a map & a GPS to follow (marking at intersections was great, but on the rocks in the wet it was sometimes hard to find the trail)! But I made it down off the ridge & in to more of that nasty sticky stuff. I made it back to the car (2.40 & about 23km) & was disappointed to see that there was no hose at the trailhead – it seems a bit odd (Have you got a hose? I need to get wet asep), considering how poorly the trails stand up to just a little bit of rain.

Great to get out for a decent ride & I didn’t get too wet. Perhaps it because was I missed out on the views in the sun, but I can’t quite see what all the fuss is about at Fruita – I’ve ridden much better trails with better views all around the place. None of the trails seemed to flow particularly well & quite a bit of the ride was spent on relatively tame double-track. Maybe I’ll find something more interesting on Saturday (when we also mean to check out the Mike the Headless Chicken festival as the story behind it is interesting).

We had a great Nepalese meal downtown Grand Junction this evening – I even managed to remember my huge Nepalese vocabulary of four words & it brought back many great memories, I must get back to Nepal one day. Best statues of the day are Chrome on the Range II:

and a single-speeding dinosaur.

bikes, family, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

Tastes – first Fruita ride & many fruit wines

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There weren’t quite enough clouds to dissuade me from dragging us fifteen miles down the freeway to Fruita to check out the Kokopelli trails this morning.  However, there were enough to get us significantly wet after an hour.  The plan was for me to take Valerie around the beginner Rustler Loop & then go off & attack some of the more well-known trails.  The loop started off with a nice long (for a beginner trail) climb & then proceeded to go around the outside the top of a small mesa above the Colorado.  Near the trailhead was a bit of private land – these people have their house in the side of a big rock!

The trail was mostly nice, but there were some interesting switchback & short sharp rises that induced a bit of walking on Valerie’s part. There some quite tricky little features in the rocks that had me thinking too, but at least I managed to clear the whole trail – that would have been a dent to my confidence, not making it around a beginners’ trail. Posted around the trail were lots of little signs with riding tips – I stopped to read these while waiting, I also looked at the river a lot & pondered just how close & dark the clouds were getting. Half way around it started drizzling & slowly the rain set in – we made it back to the car quite wet. I deliberated for sometime & then decided to come back another day soon when it wasn’t so wet & the trails wouldn’t be that awful red mud.

I’m not sure Valerie appreciates that she is mountain-biking in Fruita, Colorado & the significance of that!

The original idea with the Palisade wineries was to bike between them in the sun one afternoon, lack of sunshine meant we went for the driving option. The area, as well as having many vineyards, is also a very strong fruit growing area. Consequently, many of the wines we tasted were fruit flavoured – they were great. Being mid-week before the summer break it was pretty quiet & we spent a good few hours chatting aimlessly with friendly Coloradans over many small glasses of wine & mead. It was the most time we’ve tracked out the “she’s my aunt from Australia, I’m from New Zealand & have just finished living in Canada near Banff for a year & we’re doing a three-month roadtrip” story in a row. It was a delightful afternoon – somehow Valerie couldn’t resist six bottles of wine, I’m not too sure how they are going to survive the back of the car with two bikes (“,the greyhounds…”). I resisted the wine, but not getting Kristy another fridge magnet – wine-touring in France is starting to sound like a good idea.

I may have mentioned before that quite a few of the towns we’ve been through have many statues & sculptures lining their main streets – Grand Junction has plenty. The much smaller Palisade has this beauty, from a distance it just looked like a lot of fire plugs (incidentally many of the plugs around GJ are not red but blue & yellow or green & yellow) on a stand.

Appropriately named Rusty was made entirely of bolts