Hi All,
I just got back from 7 days of riding in Moab Utah, with some mountain
bike friends. Keeping up with 7 ultra-motivated riders and riding
every day for 7 days straight was totally exhausting and really intense
(we rode 4 to 10 hours/day every day) but ultimately awesome as we got a
chance to explore a lot of terrain.
Anyone interested in the trails we did, feel free to send me an email
(kris at krisholm.com).
In brief, here's some info:
Bartlett Wash: Really fun, like a lower-committment slickrock trail. We
did this the same afternoon we arrived.
Moab Rim: Highly recommended. Starts with a hike-a-uni ascent to the
top of a Mesa, and then a beautiful singletrack across and down the
other side. There's a little slickrock and even a North Shore
ladderbridge at one location. This is the opposite direction described
in the guidebook; if you did it the other direction the hike-a-uni would
be a super technical but doable descent.
Amasa Back: Where whe went on the Moab MUni weekend was only the start
of the true Amasa Back. Most of it extends out a long spine thats
bounded on both sides by the Colorado river. This was a long ride (7
hours) but is remote and rarely visited. Probably the my favorite ride
here.
Fisher Mesa: Located at the top of Castle Valley across from Porcupine
Rim, this is a 10 km out-and back (20km round trip). It's a beautiful
singletrack, but a bit of a grunt as you drop 1500' on the way out, and
have to climb back up to get out the way you came.
Upper Porcupine Rim. This descends the Kokapelli Trail from the top of
the La Salle mountain loop road at over 8000' elevation. The
singletrack is awesome and descends to the top of the Porcupine Rim
trail, making this a good all-day ride. We did it once as a combination
with Fisher Mesa for a really long day, and once on it's own for a solid
but not epic day)
Fins & Things: This is a 4wd road that makes for a fun intermediate
level MUni ride, starting downhill of the main Porcupine Rim parking
lot, ending at the Moab slickrock Trail parking lot. We combined this
with a ride around the slickrock practice loop for a medium day.
Gemini Bridges: The entire route is easy doubletrack on a 4wd road and
would make a great Coker ride if you drove to the top and rode down to
the end at lower elevation, or a good workout and longer day if you
started at the bottom. We combined the top half with Gold Bar Rim and
the Portal Trail for a good day (about 40 km of technical singletrack)
Gold Bar Rim: Awesome super-technical 4wd road (amazing what 4wd
vehicles can drive over in Moab) and technical singletrack towards and
along the edge of a high mesa. Lots of big views over a very large
cliff. If you know where you are going you can avoid most of the 4wd
road with a more aesthetic but quite difficult singletrack along the
edge of the mesa.
Portal Trail: Short but technically difficult descent, lots of rocks
and steep sections. Part of the trail is death-consequence and several
people have died trying to ride it (if you screw up you can easily fall
over a 200' cliff). However this section is walkable, quite safely as
long as you pay attention.
Cheers,
Kris
--
danger_uni - Kris Holm
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