Still putting the story together...but here's a start.
Road Trip - Park City, Moab, Fruita, Grand Junction, Tahoe
Matt and Mark descend a slab on Megaladonkey
It's always a race; even to escape the rat race for a week of MTB exploration in the vast expanses of Utah and Colorado, it's a race to get out of town and hit the road. Had to do a frame swap on Friday night, pack the gear in the AM, load up at Matt's, get final prep items and spare parts at the Sports Basement, buy beer, get gas, etc. We didn't leave SF until nearly noon on the first Saturday of a nine day trail bike excursion.
Two Chumba XCLs and the open road...makings of a great trip
The GPS told us the fastest way to Moab was up Interstate 80, through Salt Lake City and then down to Interstate 70 via Hwy 6 and down Hwy 191 to the land of Kokopelli. We decided to break up the drive and make our first stop in Salt Lake City. My buddy Mark and his wife we out of town and were kind enough to let us crash at their beautiful condo in SLC, upsetting the tone for our planned Spartan road trip. We decided to take advantage of Mark's garage and Park workstand by finishing up some minor repairs that each of our steeds needed. Wouldn't you know, while re-assembling my freshly cleaned and lubed Mavic freehub, I overtighened the proprietary axle nut and snapped the threads off in the axle…sweet. Of course we were in the Mormon capital when I was looking for bike parts on a Sunday morning. Through Mark, we hooked up with Photo John of MTBR fame and met up for breakfast. He was worked from a long ride the day before, but agreed to detail a ride plan for us and assured us that the bike shops in Park City (Utah's heathen capital) would be open. After a killer breakfast at the Blue Plate Diner in SLC, we headed up to Park City in search of a Mavic C-Max axle bit. Due to the proprietary nature of the part, I was prepared to buy a new rear wheel for the trip, but to my surprise, Whitepine Adventures Sports in PC had just what the doctor ordered…stoked!
Make sure you've got your bits and pieces
Park City
Photo John recommended a PC classic, climbing from central park city up Spiro, to Mid-Mountain, across towards Deer Valley, down John's and Sweeney's, back into town.
From the first few pedal strokes out of the parking lot, it was clear that we were lowlanders and this was altitude, nearly 7000 ft at the base. We wound our way up the smooth, moist, dark brown singletrack that typifies Park City trails, spinning our way around aspens clinging to their last leaves in preparation for winter. Spiro was a mellow switchback climb that took us to the Mid-Mountain trail, around 8000 ft. We made a left on Mid-Mountain Trail which was a fun flowy singletrack that contouring the hillside, heading south towards Deer Valley resort. This was a popular ride as we ran into several groups of riders and even a massive moose, grazing in the trees. We were supposed to get into John's trail and follow that to Sweeney's, but it's just never that easy. We bumbled around, asked for directions, bumbled some more, hit some killer sections of super tight trail, roots obscured by heavy leaf cover making for some interesting moments. Finally at John's, it was convoluted path through tight trees, with rooty drops, arcing curves, often seeming like we wound back on ourselves in circles, like an energetic dog chasing his own tail.
Our first taste of Park City dirt, Matt on Mid-Mountain Trail
After working it out with Walter at Chumba, he overnighted an XCL frame to me and I swapped out my parts kit from the Ibis, dressing the XCL up with Fox 36 Float/DHX Air suspension, Mavic Crossmax SX wheels, Shimano XT brakes, and a mix of SRAM/Race Face for the drivetrain. A mix of Crankbrothers, WTB, and Thompson completed the package.
Mitch's Chumba XCL, setup mid-hit with 6" Float 36, DHX Air 5.0and burly Crossmax SX wheels
For our first ride in Moab, we took the Coyote Shuttle up to almost 10,000 ft and dropped all the way to town at about 4500 ft. The La Sal Mtns in the background are over 13,000 ft.
Dale, a friend of John Finch guided us down. This dude is 62 years old, was riding with fused vertebrae from a broken back last year, showed us the route, and stopped to do do trail work on the way down. What a freakin stud!
Surly Pugsly. The most common bikes on the ride were 6-inch trail bikes, this one caught everyone's eye...that's a 4-inch tire!
Top of Hazard County...let the flow begin
The shuttle drops you at about 10,000 ft. From there, suited up, and climbed up "stomach punch hill" to the top of Hazard County. Hazard County was not what I expected to see in Moab, moist, tacky soil, snowy peaks, undulating, flowy terrain, highlighed with little rock jumps, and big dilapidated gap jumps. Once down Hazards, you get on Kokopellis for a raging DH firetrail with big water bar jumps, loose turns and monster parallel ruts. After the John Deer green cattle guard, take a right and you're on Upper Porcupine Singletrack (UPS), logically followed bu MPS and LPS...you get the picture right? These singletracks are mix of slickrock and sandy turns, where Ron on the Surly Pugsly excelled. Once through these sections, you hit another fire road and it's a fast, rocky descent to the top of Porcupine Rim Trail. Porcupine Rim is an all time trail, that every mountainbiker must do at least once. It has a mix of flow, technical sections, exposure, and dramatic views that makes for an epic trail, demanding skills, fitness and focus to make it down in one piece. Porc drops you down on to a highway paralleling the Colorado River that winds you back to town on a slightly downhill pavement grind.
Matt arcing one of the many flowy turns on HC
Yeah...Utah's pretty awesome. Matt on the edge along Upper Porcupine Singletrack
Mitch dropping the chute on Lower Porcupine Singletrack
After UPS, MPS and LPS, we were ready for the real deal, Porcupine Rim Trail
Matt can't hide the stoke after ripping Porcupine Rim Trail
Moab Cyclery offers tours, rentals, parts, trail advice. And they sport a full fleet of Chumba's!
And a little Northshore ramp to boot!
The start of Amasaback Trail. This trail reminded me that technical climbs can be fun. Head up Amasaback to get to Rockstacker and Jackson's, both super techy descents with mad exposure.
Matt and JVH getting ready for Rockstacker
The Moab locals are super friendly and all seem to be tour guides or ex tour guides. Dave, Rachel, Eric and Mark, leading us to the promised land.
JVH working some slickrock on Rockstacker
All roads in Moab lead to the Brewery, where 3.2% was king
We did make it to Slickrock for an afternoon session with JVH and Inga
Matt at Slickrock
Slickrock is like a giant bike park with little rollers and hits all over. JVH stylin it.
Matt during our little photo sesh with I Hate Bikes, JVH and Inga
Fruita and Grand Junction Colorado
After three awesome days in Moab, we managed to peal ourselves away and head to Fruita Colorado. We only had a couple of days here, so we went into Over the Edge Sports in Fruita for the skinny on the skinny. As usual, we picked the local shop crews brains for trail recommendations. We decided we'd do a day at Road 18 trails and a day at Grand Junction to see what Free Lunch was all about.
We heard Road 18 was nothing like Moab, and the rumors were true. It was smooth as white velvet, with fast, drifty turns. it was all singletrack, some of the trails hugging ridgelines with drops on both sides, while others followed dry creeks, banking on each wall like a dirt toboggan run. Highlights included Zippity Do Da and Kessel's Run. We also got to hike up and ride one of those sweet desert ridgeline descents you see in NWD movies...pretty sick. Overall Road 18 was fun, but not very challenging.
The next day we headed over to Grand Junction to check out the DH only freeride trail called Free Lunch. Free Lunch is located in an area called Tabagauche Trails, locally referred to as the Gauche (gooch). After an undulating and entertaining technical singletrack climb, we reached the top of Free Lunch. There is a detailed sign at the top explaining the dangerous nature of the trail and telling beginners to turn back. It has a good three foot drop to almost flat that discourages the faint of heart from continuing on. After the drop the trail opens up and leads to a freeride zone, with multiple lines leading down within a marked area. Options ranged from fairly tame to 4-5 drops to near flat, rock or sandy slopes, all doable on the 5 inch travel Chubma XCLs we were riding. There were fast sections, jumps, rock gardens, drops, gaps, ledges, etc., in all a really fun trail with some challenging sections.
After Free Lunch we rode the Holy Cross Trail. We hadn't heard much about this trail, but we super stoked on it. It had tons of flow, really fun high speed drfity turn to rock nugs, super techy rock sections, well built stonework sections, great views, really one of our favorites of the trip.
The Book Cliffs at Road 18 trails in Fruita, Colorado
Smooth like a baby's butt, Road 18 trails were flowy and fun, but not too challenging
Road 18 did offer up one of those killer desert ridegline descents you see in the movies!
The place to stay in Fruita...why?, see below
Gotta head up to the Guache (the gooch) if you want to hit up Free Lunch, Grand Junction's famous DH only freeride trail.
Matt droppin the "qualifier" at the top of Free Lunch. The sign at the top says, "if you can't pull this move, turn around and ride the other way!"
Almost all of the gnar sections had these neat little signs, showing the difficulty of each route.
One of the coolest rock formations I've ever dropped. There are mulitple lines...choose your doom!
Like I said, cool rocks eh?
Holy Cross Trail is another must do the Gauche Area. After dropping Free Lunch we hit this trail and were surprised with another super techy, flowy fun trail. It's amazing the mix of tech and flow of a purpose built bike trail.
Stopping for a view on Lemon Squeezer
Back in Park City on the Flying Dog trail located north of I-80. Another super flowy purpose built bike trail.
Going back to Cali...Cali....Cali I-80 between Wendover and Salt Lake City.
Yeah, not a lot of gas stations along that little stretch. We had to slow to 60 MPH and get passed by a bunch of semis to make it to Wendover
What's your favorite city along Interstate 80 in Nevada? Mine too...Battle Mountain
We made it to Truckee that night and rode another sweet trail called Hole in the Ground, up off of Donner Summit. That pretty rapped up 8 days of killer trail riding on a 9 day trip. More pics to come...