After that clear night shown in the previous post, it was rather chilly and a little grey when we rose Tuesday morning.   We spent a fair bit of the morning in the large RV of Chad & Michelle while Jackie did her best to cook pancakes that didn’t taste like garlic – & despite much analysis of all the ingredients, failed utterly.  It wasn’t raining much & looked, to the optimist, as if it might clear; consequently, it wasn’t long before I started itching for a ride.  As the Slickrock Trail was so close & I hadn’t done a whole loop after almost a week in Moab – it was about time.  Eventually we ended up a group of five heading out – I’m not sure how that happened, everyone else looked pretty happily ensconced in the RV.

What to say?  I’ve said it before I’m sure; it was rocky, up, down & around steep gradients; grippy and a lot of fun.  With a large group there was ample opportunity for photos.

Jacket weather for the first part of the lollipop stick

I’d avoided this the previous time; after Porcupine Rim it wasn’t a problem. Then pretty much everyone rode it

In our intermittent attempts to get a photo of Megan & me with bikes for our families & posterity, it’s unfortunate that the best one is when we aren’t looking at the camera

Off I go, down & back up again

Trying to remember to look at the trail

Megan riding up things

across things

and even down things – what a well rounded talent for riding, well, things

I clearly had plenty of time to take photos

At about the furtherest point from the trailhead, Megan & I for some reason decided that we should get back a bit faster than we were going to at the current pace (probably mindful of Alex watching Finn & not being able to ride), so we split off.  There are no more photos after that, as Megan took off & I struggled to keep up for a solid forty minutes back to camp.  I’ll just go with the excuse that I’d been riding ahead quickly & then trying to snap photos, so was a little tired; yip, that sounds plausible – let’s run with that.

Late afternoon I strangely found myself going on a ride that I hadn’t really thought of to do or instigated. Just the other side of camp is Fins ‘n Things – where you follow stegosaurus markers painted on the rocks. It’s mostly a Jeep trail, but you can ride it. Alex, Jackie & I rode off in the prevening sun looking at the storm clouds rolling in across Castle Valley. I remember a strong wind (which had revealed itself on the last few miles of Slickrock), large sandtraps, some steep climbs that were longer than those on Slickrock and some fun lines down various drops.

Outrageously, rain had set in come rising time on Monday morning. The edge of the storm we’d been hearing about for a few days seemed to have come to visit. We settled for a morning of doing things that people living out normal lives do as a matter of course – laundry, using a shower & not smelling mank, sitting in cafes and so on. By mid-afternoon I was tired of that nonsense & wanted to go ride bikes – even if it was still raining a bit. Somehow I suckered Megan into joining me – it was riding bikes, it wasn’t hard.

We headed back out to Klondike Bluffs as there were a few trails there that I wanted explore. At least the sand had dampened the big sand trap near the start of the trail system – about all it was good for. I think I was pretty wet very quickly. We had intended to stay relatively low & ride Dino-Flow out & EKG back; however, we were duped by friendly moto-x riders that Baby Steps (a much larger loop, up & over the ridge) would be awesome. Dino-Flow was pleasant & holding up well in the rain – on account of all the rock; we climbed up on the Baby Steps loop & proved that the rock is still really grippy in the wet before doing a little bit of singletrack.

The second bit of singletrack was more slippery – I think I had my first little spill of the trip. Lost my front wheel at low speed balanced on a slick small boulder and had a good go of jumping over the bars before I was catapulted over them. We rode under a rock too – really the only photo opportunity of the ride.

Shortly after the soil changed slightly & as it was wet this stuff became really awful mud; not only did it stick to tyres, it stuck just as well to itself.  Soon our bikes had doubled in weight and we couldn’t even push our bikes there was so much mud rubbing between the wheels and fork & frame.  Mercifully there wasn’t more than a few hundred metres of this awfulness; with the rain still falling, we turned & headed for home.  It stopped raining as we got closer to the car.  So a bit of a trial that ride – but it has to be pretty awful for me to dislike a ride, so I was still pleased we’d made the effort to get out.

It was sunny & quite warm back in town as we gave our bikes a good wash at the bike shop, grrr.  Our small riding group doubled in size that day as Jackie (a friend of Megan & Alex from Melbourne in the country on a climbing trip) arrived from Nevada, as did Chad & Michelle (friends of Jackie’s) from Colorado.

It must have cleared up that night, as someone took this

Somewhere in amongst waiting for Megan’s bike to be finished at the workshop, our Sunday plan of a family ride higher up the La Sals was scuppered when we were told there was still snow up there.  Rather hastily,  Megan & I decided it was time for our daytrip to Fruita (across the border in Colorado); Alex didn’t have too much choice but to agree – unfortunate, as he had to drive the hundred-odd miles each way.  The original plan was to stay a night or two in Fruita to get more of the riding in. But a combination of the weather being slightly poorer than Moab, loving Moab too much and a lethargy when it came to decamping & recamping twice (not to mention not wanting to give up our prime tent site) meant it was just a daytrip for Fruita.  I didn’t mind too much, as I was having too much fun exploring Moab.

I don’t think we started riding until after one o’clock – but I rather stupidly declared I wanted to ride every trail there.  That never worked out as Megan & I went out & did Western Zippity downhill fighting quite a wind – that would have been better (comparatively) as an uphill I think.  I next did a lap with Alex on Zippity Do Dah & decided I had to do it again as Megan couldn’t miss out.  So that was the end of my scheme, but I got to do Zippity twice & it was great fun – I pleased myself by riding a couple of steep downhills with sketchy entries.

Good fun, well made singletrack – & it was so smooth compared to the rocks of Moab; that was a nice respite as my arms had taken a bit of a pounding on Porcupine Rim, not to mention a grimace forming every time I sat on my saddle.  It turned out to be my biggest day of riding for distance & climbing (but a lot of that was just riding up the gravel road to the top of the trail centre) of the trip – but by no means the most rewarding.  I did get to do all the western trails, & I’m pretty sure I did most of the eastern ones on my previous visit.  Not sure about Alex, but Megan & I were pretty tired by the end of the afternoon.

Look at all that singletrack winding its way down

What you can’t see is the almighty wind trying to blow me off the ridge; it got a bit hairy in more exposed places

We headed into Fruita to feed the ravenous; unfortunately Jeremy’s pizza recommendation was closed on a Sunday so we hit the brewpub – of which Finn was having none.  He seemed to like Mike the Headless Chicken though, perhaps just because he got to climb things to stand next to it.

With the spill the previous day, Jeremy proved to us that he is in fact mortal by having a rather tedious, I imagine, strained elbow & having to opt out of the day’s ride. We were intending to go & ride Captain Ahab, on Jeremy’s exhortation; his ailment meant that we would save it for another day & instead go out & do a family ride at Dead Horse Point State Park (so-called because the point well above the Colorado used to be used to corral horses & once they got left there without any water, the rest is rather obvious) and then Alex & I would ride the top part of Magnificent Seven – this being my favourite ride on my last trip to Moab (I think mostly because I had a riding buddy).

Good views as I expected down to the Colorado River, the trail was rather flat – but as I was still on a high from yesterday’s ride I had to keep reigning myself in so as to not get too far ahead of others. I remember there being enough on the trail to keep me interested provided I rode fast enough. A few breaks/catch-ups were provided by numerous viewpoints.

Feeling smaller than usual

We desperately tried to time jump-shots with the self-timer; we met with resounding failure, but at least entertained Finn (& ourselves for that matter)

After that pleasant little ride, we lunched at the point & admired the views a little more – managing not to lose Finn over the edge.

Serendipitously, the Magnificent Seven theme song was playing on the radio as we pulled into the parking lot at the top of Gemini Bridges Rd – reminding me of Dad, as it’s one of his favourite westerns. Megan had managed to blow the seal in her forks and had next to no brake pads left (always handy to discover in the middle of Porcupine Rim), so after dropping Alex & me off she headed to the bike shop for repairs. We trundled down the gravel road, me all too aware that last time the trailhead was very difficult to find. Not any more – there was a parking lot, map boards & signs and everything. An opportune time to say that all the trails around Moab we were on are extremely well signposted & marked – I was most impressed.

I think I enjoyed the ride more the previous time, at least that’s the impression my last ride report gives me; so I’m not going to spend too much more time on the ride details. Suffice to say, it was still a great ride out (& probably better than most I’ve done over England way recently); maybe a bit of Moab complacency was setting in already – at least the views were still worthy.  Bull Run is probably my favourite part of that which we did; I think there were still plenty of nice technical step-ups, as well as nice downhill parts & enough cliff-side exposure to keep us on our toes.

More canyonside riding

We weren’t ambushed by marauding Boy Scouts

Gemini Bridges

The gap between the two bridges above

Alex on a typical piece of trail

The ride out on the bottom of Gemini Bridges Rd to the Highway 191

The 191 leading south in to Moab, the La Sals hiding in the cloud in the background