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bikes, GPS, history, MTB, national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

Mesa Verde & Phil’s World

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Mesa Verde came recommended by Alex as a completely different national park experience. She wasn’t wrong. Only about ten minutes’ drive east of Cortez, we started a beautiful drive up to the top of Mesa Verde. The Visitor Centre was a good half an hour in to the park, we stopped here to purchase tickets for two ranger guided tours around some of the cliff dwellings. For Mesa Verde was home to a large number of dwellings (some 4700 separate sites have been found so far) since the sixth century. On the top of mesa (which is not actually a proper mesa due to its sloping sides) we were up around 7000ft/2500m – what possessed ancients to come & live up here is beyond me. Still, it must have been sustainable, as they stayed until about 1300 & then packed up & left leaving a lot of houses.

Our first tour was of the Cliff Palaces – not really a palace as they had no king or queen, but about 450 little dwellings perched in an alcove near the top of the cliff. We had to climb down some pretty steep steps (some metal, some set in to the cliff side) & gradually got to walk across the front of the area while listening to the ranger explain it all. I’ve absorbed a lot of history today, so don’t feel like repeating much of it here. There was a lot of grain storage areas, little houses for families, & sunken circular family meeting areas. It was pretty neat seeing the progression of their building skills from the bottom (early) layers to the top (later) layers – there were a lot of square edges & some of the towers went right up to the alcove ceiling.

After lunch was the more difficult drop down to Balcony House on another ranger-guided tour. I have no idea how the original residents got in – maybe they had a massive ladder too.

This area was smaller than the Cliff Palaces, but no less intruiging. There were a lot of balconies (in various states of disrepair) & some of the tiny rooms were still intact.

To get out, we had to crawl twelve feet or so through a skinny little tunnel on our hands & knees & then up another ladder & scramble up a steep rockface – good fun. Above the tunnel on the internal side, there were various staggered platforms for defending the area by throwing things at invaders (cows, ducks & so on I expect – prompting cries of “crawl away, crawl away!”).

We spent another hour or so driving around other sites before heading back to Cortez rather historied-out.

But that didn’t matter as I had another ride planned. A rather nice mountain-bike guide I was chatting to during the walk down from Delicate Arch on Sunday insisted that I ride Phil’s World if I was going to Cortez. I duly obliged – the trail is only four miles east of town. It was fantastic. I did all of the loop options, save one last five mile one at the end as sunset was fast approaching. It’s all purpose built singletrack (unlike most of what I’ve ridden recently) & it’s a super smooth surface, with the odd rock feature thrown in. I managed 24 km in an hour & forty & it was all at a beginner-intermediate level. There was nothing technically challenging in it for an intermediate rider like me – it was just plain fun, flowing trail. It was all easily done in the middle ring – as they didn’t have a lot of altitude gain to play with. I was surprised when I checked that I was over 2000m – but my lungs weren’t screaming, so that was good. Dusk was a great time to ride – I didn’t see another rider on my trail – the light was good & I was joined by a lot of singing birds, lizards & some big jack-rabbits (they have ridiculously large ears – to help cope with the heat). A very pleasant evening ride – if I had this on my doorstep, I’d feel like Postman Pat (a really happy man). I got my trip up to 32 km with a nice big-ring ride into town towards a blustery wind & the setting sun.

Rib Cage was the best section of the loop – many, many steep downs followed by short ups & then little jumps with nice landings at the top. The trail was in fact so smooth & well made that I didn’t notice my rear shock was locked out fully until the end of the ride – oops.

bikes, GPS, MTB, national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

Porcupine Rim & Needles

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Up much too early to fit yesterday’s rained off ride in before leaving Moab & heading down towards the Four Corners area. Porcupine Rim is another one of those classic Moab rides that one must do – apparently. I was awake a lot of the night with nervous excitement – I probably shouldn’t read too many reviews of trails that are beside the top of big cliffs & really technical. I managed to get Valerie out of bed to shuttle me up past the Slickrock Trail & further to LPS – an extra bit of singletrack that cuts out a three mile climb. The drive up in the dawn was absolutely beautiful & the road was quite interesting. As I’d only heard about LPS the day before & there wasn’t anything to be readily found on the interwebs as to the trailhead (well not all that accurate) it was a bit of a mission. We gave up eventually, but then met a F-150 loaded with six bikes coming the other way – these guys showed me where to go. (For the record, the LPS trail head is directly to the left [NE-ish] of the cattle-guard that is the boundary of the state park & is signposted about five metres back from the road.)

It was a perfect morning for a ride, crisp & clear. Hitting the singletrack it was level & through trees for a while & eventually came out near the canyon edge. There was a few steep tight switchbacks that I walked for a little while, & then it was back to quite manageable trail near the top of the canyon. This wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been led to believe – mostly the trail went towards the edge & then turned back, you were never riding along the side of the big precipice.  The views out to the east were good, but I’ve been a little spoilt the last few days so I wasn’t overawed.

Heck, what am I saying?  Look at that

When LPS joined back with Porcupine Rim proper, it was on to rocky doubletrack that descended gradually.  Most of this was rideable for someone of my intermediate skill level – was glad to have a soft-tail, that’s for sure.  I managed to bash my rear derailleur on a rock & lost most of my rear gear options – but nothing looked damaged, so I just pulled the cable through a bit more & that seemed to solve the problem.  At least I got ten minutes of strength building in pushing too-high gears while I worked that out.

Like that shirt, Chip?

Most of the rest of the trail was more of the same rocky doubletrack that was quite manageable.  Only when the final descent to the Colorado River began did some singletrack appear.  This was for the most part rideable by me, with the odd bit of walking – I’m still conscious of not wrecking myself with only three weeks of a three month riding vacation over.   The final plunge to the Colorado looked like it would be steep & gnarly, but it wasn’t really.  I got through the 21 km distance & 1000m descent in about ninety minutes of riding time with no real risk & not really pushing it.  All that was left was a pleasant big-ring push back to the motel at the other end of town.  I wasn’t overwhelmed – I’m still rating the Magnificent 7 ride I did two days ago as my Moab riding highlight, for scenery & singletrack.

Packed up, we headed south to check out another part of Canyonlands NP – the Needles area. The drive between the highway & the park was through a neat canyon with some good sights.

In the Needles area, there wasn’t a lot you could see of the needles without a big hike or 4WD. Not quite as spectacular as some of the other grand vistas we have seen, the area nonetheless had its own charms. The variety & breadth of the mushroom formations was bewildering & we enjoyed a few short hikes around looking at these.

The La Sal mountains were also mostly visible (they looked stunning this morning when I was out riding) & Island in the Sky (where we had been yesterday in a thunderstorm) was also clear on the horizon.

Occasionally we could catch a glimpse of some needles off in the distance.

We spent the rest of our time looking at old cowboy camps & then grain storage that people eons ago had built. With only a couple hours’ drive to Cortez (back in Colorado), it’s been a relaxing evening planning tomorrow’s trip to Mesa Verde NP & a bit of riding – I hear good things about the riding here in Cortez & nearby Dolores.

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.