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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.

national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

Canyonlands – Island in the Sky

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Awoken by quite a bit of rain at five o’clock, I was kept awake as it fell for a couple of hours.  Morning riding plans of Porcupine Rim were consequently forgone & we eventually headed north out of Moab to the northern part of Canyonlands NP.  The park is separated in to three distinct areas by the confluence of the Colorado & Green Rivers.  Island in the Sky is the north section – a large mesa that lets you look down on canyons below.  We drove around the twenty-odd miles of road stopping at various view points & doing some small (best part of an hour).

The first area we spent any time was overlooking Upheavel Dome – set in a crater about two miles across, there is still speculation where this came from.  Was it from salt rising up from under the ground or a meteor crashing to earth?  Either way, the green colour was neat to look at.

We then waited around at the viewpoint over the Green River as the mist was taking a while to clear.

I amused myself by looking over the edge of the cliff & the interesting patterns on the floor.

Eventually, the clouds moved enough to shed some light on most of the canyon below. It wasn’t too hard waiting, even in the mist it was one of the best views we’ve had yet (as evidenced by the compulsion to keep taking photos before sitting back & just admiring it all).

A little further down the road, things still looked insanely big.

At the east end of the road, we had good views down to the Colorado & the White Rim Canyon surrounding it (there is a 100 mile 4WD/MTB trail that follows the canyon around – that would be an epic ride).

We took a walk to the end of the point & watched as storm clouds rolled in – on the way back we got decidedley hailed on before getting caught up in another (albeit much closer) impressive thunder & lightning show.

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

national park, roadtrip, travel, USA

Arches

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Our wonderful, albeit wet, week in Grand Junction concluding, it was time to hit the road again for Moab.  The easy two hour drive was beautiful as we made our way through some rather barren land beside I-70, although it has a bit of green tinge to it at the moment.  Glad to have waited a few more days to miss the weekend, I continued to watch the stream of traffic heading out of town.  It’s so good to be back in Utah, with only three days in the state two years ago, it was definitely one of my favourites.  But we are clearly on the tourist trail now as this afternoon we heard & saw many different nationalities, not to mention a fair percentage of the rental car fleets from California & Nevada.  We haven’t really had too many crowds to deal with in our first five states, but as summer vacation & California approaches I don’t imagine it’s going to get much better.

All afternoon was spent at Arches National Park, which is just north of Moab. We saw many arches, mesas, spires & fans. It was incredible & you’ll quickly get sick of my superlatives – so I’ll just post a few photos (one day I’ll get a better camera, I promise).

The Three Gossips

Balanced Rock – it looks small with no perspective, about 39 metres high

Double Arch

North Window

We took a small hike over a lot of rock to Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch – that’s me at the bottom

Fins, from which arches form