Fall Moab

Fall Moab in Fruita, CO was a blast!


Aaron and I could only make it down for the Saturday rides during the weekend.


Friday night as we were planning our day trip we realized if we got up a little bit earlier and left at 4:30am we could get another ride in before meeting up with the group.


Not sure if you are like me, but I was trying to spend as much time as I could with my family on Friday and I didn't even start getting ready until 9pm. That led to me actually getting to bed at around 11pm. For some reason I couldn't remember if Aaron said 4am or 4:30am that he would be at my house so 3:30am wake up it was.


In all reality, Fruita is only about 20 minutes longer to drive compared to driving to Moab. Totally worth the extra 20 minutes. I had never ridden in Fruita before.


Thanks to the Internet on my phone while Aaron was driving (and some trail guide help from Mark) we ended up at the Kokopelli trail head at around 8am. I was amazed at how well constructed the trail head was with the parking facilities, bathrooms, etc.

Fall Moab Ride One (The Saturday edition)

Horse Thief was our trail of choice and it didn't disappoint. In fact it was awesome.

(Aaron on Horse Thief)

I think the best part about riding it was that Aaron and I were really trying to move fast since this was our first time on the trail and we didn't know how long it would take. We didn't want to miss the big group ride later on (they were all still waking up and getting ready at camp) so we had ride hard.

Riding Horse Thief hard and fast was the best way to ride it. We took multiple turns leading each other out and it was too much fun following the other's wheel as unexpected obstacles came up. You knew something was coming up when the back tire would skid in front of you. Then the unknown of dropping ledges, or climbing ledges, all sorts of technical terrain would come up. You didn't want to let the whoever was in front get away so you were always pushing it.

We rallied Horse Thief. And you know now that we know the trail we could probably ride it even faster. It was almost like we were racing each other in certain sections, especially on the last downhill. It was screaming fast and rough. Great times!

Fall Moab Ride Two

Rocky (Elden's Brother-in-law) was our guide to some of the most awesome/technical trails I have ever ridden. It was a lot of fun to be on the single speeds with 15-20 other riders. We started riding on a trail called ? and before too long the first big obstacle showed up in the form of a tight switchback leading to a series of rocky ledges to climb. Dug successfully showed us how to balance and hop around the first switchback. No one was able to clear the ledges. So we waited for our trail guide (the local) to show us how to do it.


Elden, Mark, Sleepy, and others waiting for Rocky to show us how to do it. Unfortunately this was one part he couldn't do. He did ride everything else during the day.

The trail changed rapidly from nice flowing trails below, to gnarly technical riding.

(Elden descending)

I was glad I had my Rig single speed to ride on. Some of the drops and things you had to roll over were much easier on the 29 inch wheels. And all in all the trails were very fun to ride on the single speed. I am glad I didn't have my carbon fiber Scott here. Although I would have loved even the 4 inches of full-suspension it has, I would have been terrified of punching a hole in the carbon fiber. It was nice to ride the Rig not worrying about rocks. In fact I have a nice new battle wound on the top tube. A nice long scrape where I slowly descended and since it was so slow my body kept going as my wheel stopped. I was trying to clean a move and unfortunately didn't make it that time.

The move of the day is below. See Ryan eyeing the possibility?

Yes it is possible. I thought for sure he was going to get bucked off of his 5 inch travel bike.



But no! He rode it out smoothly. I like the air he caught right at the end.

All in all I loved the tempo and pace of the Fall Moab ride. Nice and casual with no agenda. It you wanted to stop and try to clean a technical move, go ahead. People would either watch or join in. Like below.

Elden tried to clean this huge ledge complete with a giant tree root, rocks, and other obstacles.

Then Dug tried. Many others tried as well. Bob finally made it. I tried and didn't feel like trying much more after that as we were about 3 hours into the ride here and I didn't have any idea what was next.

I am glad I saved my energy because we then hit a trail called Holy Cross. For all I know the ledge in the picture above could have been on Holy Cross as well.

Anyway, Holy Cross was one of the most technical rides I have ever been on.

If you look close in the picture above you can see Aaron in the center.

There were sections that I thought to myself as I was riding them, I should get off and walk because I am going to crash.

No, no. If I do try and get off I will definitely crash. And so I rode on.

Amazing myself on how much of it I was able to ride. It was pretty gnarly, but also some of the most fun.

It was really good to challenge myself.

After loading up the bikes and a quite stop at the Taco Bell we only had about 1 1/2 hours of daylight left.

Fall Moab Ride Three

We went out to 18 road and rode around. These trails were a nice change of scenery from from technical rocky stuff we had been on earlier in the day. These trails were nicely buffed flowing single-track.

We climbed Prime Cut to Kessel Run.

Kessel Run was the perfect way to end the ride for me. It was like a combination of Rodeo and Lamberts Louge in Lambert Park. It was buffed and smooth and warranted that you really push it to keep your speed on the way down.

The turns were amazing and you really could lean into them with super traction. I almost felt like I was riding a bullet bike on the corners, they were that tight and smooth.

Kessell Run's descent was really long. It just kept going. I thought for sure we were going to have to climb back up to the parking lot, but we didn't.

I looked around and there was still some daylight left. Mark, Eric, Erik, Aaron, and I thought it was too good to only have one run at it so we booked it up the road this time to the start.

(Aaron just before our last Kessel Run)

A second run was even better than the first since you knew what to expect. Fast and Furious.

Although Elden cooking brats back at camp was very tempting, we decided we should head home. A quick stop at Ray's in Green River hit the spot.

Home at 10:30pm.

Fall Moab in one day was great. Thanks for the invitation.

Write the Caption

Lets see who can come up with the best caption for the photo below.

Francisco

One more time! Yes still nice weather here on the Wasatch Front. The lunch meeting/ride went well today. Too bad the weather is turning bad tomorrow.

Big thanks to Kenny for lending me a jersey. I thought I had another one in my truck and apparently I didn't. I parked at the bottom of the paved climb (to make it even on the trails for Rick and Co.), instead of driving up the road to the range parking lot.

(Me happy to have a jersey)

While getting dressed I realized I didn't have a jersey. No worries, I will just wear my vest with arm warmers. Then I would only have my shoulders exposed. Oh and my back, since the vest has a mesh back. Another problem. No arm warmers either. Wow I usually have all these things in my truck.

Kyle and I rode up the paved climb to meet with Kenny, Maddox, John, Miles, and Aaron. I hadn't even stopped my bike when Aaron busts out with, "are you only wearing a vest?"

Yes, yes, I thought I had a jersey but didn't. Kenny then offered me his extra. Much better. I kind of wondered what the guy riding behind me would be thinking with my bare shoulders showing in the mesh backed vest exposing my back. Never mind I don't want to know.

It has been a year since Kenny and Maddox took me on the Francisco trail.

(Kenny and Kyle waiting for us to catch up on Francisco)

I forgot how much fun it is. A nice change to get to Dry Canyon. Even though the trails are really dusty right now, (I know crazy I am even saying the word "dust" in November) they are still a blast to descend. I really like riding through the fallen Oak and Maple leaves on the ground.

(Maddox climbing on the Francisco Trail)

Once again I feel very fortunate to have lunch riding available so close. Kind of makes me feel like the employees of the Santa Cruz's or Yeti's of the world who have mandatory lunch rides daily from their headquarters.

Chain Slap

I have taken the liberty of naming one of Orem Trails. The trail was ridden by a few of us last week here. The wide Green trail is now named "Chain Slap." If you want to know why it is named such, go ride it and find out. Also if any scouts need Eagle Projects send them up there to clear rocks and scrub oak.

On another note today we rode down Lament, to Crank, to Ireland. This was the trail we intended to find last week when we discovered Chain Slap.

Ireland is one of my favorite downhills. Sorry there is no picture because I was having too much fun blazing down the single track. The waist high golden grass along the trail added to the degree of difficulty while descending. It was so much fun not being able to see the trail because of the tall grass.

Too much fun today = we have to meet again tomorrow.

Still Riding

Its November 9th and we are still riding without the need for arm warmers, etc.

We need to cover a few more items in the lunch meeting that Maddox, Aaron (www.shammytime.blogspot.com), and Miles (www.atomicmiles.com) had today.

Who is coming to the meeting tomorrow?

Wow What A Day!

Aaron (www.shammytime.blogspot.com) and I are sitting in Ray's in Green River recounting all the wonderful riding we experienced today in Fruita, Colorado. I am starving and people say this is the best place to get a post ride burger on the way home.

It was totally worth the early a.m. wake up call for the day trip. The trails here are incredible, and we met up and rode all day long with Fatty's (www.fatcyclist.com) "Fall Moab ride."

More pics and stories coming later.

Dragon's Back to ....

All riding season long these trails are there. But it seems as though we don't start riding them until later into the season around Fall time.

Sure you may make a trip or two to ride the Timp Trails alone, but the lunch rides are really around.

I have often wondered why we don't do lunch rides during the Spring or Summer?

It could be any of the following:

Early morning rides have cooler temps
Early morning rides are possible because of daylight
Too hot for lunch rides
Training schedules for Leadville need longer miles
You can ride after work (even after the kids are in bed and still have daylight)
Trail conditions either too wet or too dry
Etc.

Whatever it may be, I am happy we have the lunch rides in the Fall.

Today was one of those, "we better ride it now before we can't anymore rides."

At any moment next week the weather may turn.

(Adam climbing the Bridal Veil BST)

So now we ride each trail like it was our last trail for the season.

(Nick and Miles climbing on SS)

Check out Nick's arm. That is some serious power pedaling the SS.

We finished today's ride going down a very fast and fun section of trail coming off the Squak Peak road ending at the Indian Hills Parking Lot. Anyone know the name of the trail?