Quite a few mountain bikers travel to both Utah and Colorado each year to ride Moab and Fruita simply because the riding in both states is world class. What most people miss when they get to into either town are the true gems spending most of their time on the over hyped, overridden, and least interesting trails. Each of us made the same mistakes when we were rookies riding in the west but we have learned…This past week was the absolute best I have had on a mountain bike in the past 12 years. 6 rides in 3 days with no rest except for food and beer.
We flew into SLC where Justin picked us up and we immediately headed into the Wasatch with a full moon. Got into Fruita at about 3 am mountain time where Matt and his buddy Richard were waiting with some serious IPA’s. The next morning we got up and hit some of the favorites in Fruita which were pretty good but the wind was blowing us off the ridges. ‘Moore Fun’ is pretty rad and advertised as the ‘most technical trail in Fruita’, well it’s pretty technical but we smoked it, worked out the cob webs and got ready for the next day.
The second day was spent in Grand Junction which is littered with great trails with big exposures and some pretty epic steeps. After calling some buds who had run the trail system out here before we found the trails and took off. Matt, Justin, and I found some great steeps that were a blast I felt like I was in the original Kranked movie when ‘skiing’ your bike down cinder steeps was cool.
After finishing up our loop at junction we jumped in the car and headed west for Moab. Getting into town rather late we decided it was a ‘good idea’ to sprint to the top of amasa back (about a 3 mile climb) so we could hit one of our Moab favorites ‘Jackson’s’. I had serious reservations about the amount of light we had getting on the trail at about 6:30 but in matt’s cool and collect manner he said ‘dude we are fine’. Well with dark looming I stepped up the pace and got us to the top at about 7:15 when we started heading down. If you haven’t ridden Jackson’s you need to it is one of the best trails in Moab but you need to be on your game. It contains some technical and exposed sections that are only feet from a 500 ft plummet into the Colorado river below. That said we finished the trail brail style with the last half mile in complete darkness. Jackson’s is best ridden at sun down with the low light reflecting off of the red walls of the canyons that line the Colorado can only be described as ‘epic’.
Once we got back to the car, my gimmick ‘glow in the dark’ pedals were actually glowing, never thought I would get to use that feature but hey whatever. Justin powered up his stereo with a metal band called ‘the sword’, Bob proceeded to throw running start metal fists at the silhouettes of the giant cliffs above Cane Creek road, you would have had to have been there.
The next day we woke up, fired down some pancakes and headed up to porcupine rim. Probably one of the most ridden trails in Moab, the best portion lies above the normal drop point. Due to heavy rain and snow pack we couldn’t ride the descent into porcy proper. It’s pretty funny to think back to our first time on porcupine rim, we all almost died due to exhaustion which im sure the 30 hour drive the day before didn’t have anything to do with but regardless it’s a great ride. Back to town for pizza and beer and a quick rest, then back to the bikes.
I really wish I could talk about the final trail we rode in Utah but I can’t. Started out riding high desert bermed corners with ledge drops scattered through out. It was the kind of trail that had me laughing while carving turns and roosting desert dust. Took a break halfway down with a few PBR’s which was probably a mistake. The remaining few miles were some of the most technical of the entire trip. Massive rock step downs, exposures, and drops.
Each year we seem to find more to ride and push the envelope in Moab. Is it North Shore style gnar? Absolutely not but make no mistake there is some challenging stuff in Moab that forces you to be on it. I guess I’ll have to wait until the fall to get my next Utah fill. Justin, see you then.
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