We had a great ski season. 94 days, half of them touring, 90% in pow. On April 14th ski season ended when it got warm and wet. The forecast wasn’t promising; it was too wet to even do trail work! What to do? Wallow in self pity, ski shitty snow, ride in the mud or... DRIVE 2000km South to Utah and Colorado.
This drive is best done over two days. If we leave early in the morning we can get to Mountain Home, Idaho by evening. This allows us to get to Salt Lake City by lunch the next day or Moab in the evening. It takes 22 hours to drive back from Moab to Vancouver. The full pull is easier to do on the way home. We have learned to eat at IHOP for breakfast. It's fast and predictable. We did find a great Mexican restaurant in Ontario Oregon for dinner,
Tacos Mi Ranchitos - quick, easy and very good!
Lower Porcupine Singletrack
Since this was an impromptu trip we decided to camp at a campsite with Internet access as we still had some work stuff to take care of.
Pack Creek Campground was our home for 5 nights. For cheaper options with few amenities you can camp in one of the
BLM Sites on any of the major roads out of town. If you are feeling particularly ghetto you can camp anywhere in BLM land where you can find space. Just bring water and pack everything out.
We haven't ridden in Moab since
2007. According to internet wisdom this part of the American Southwest is overrated (we beg to differ). This area is
HUGE with much to offer. We decided to stay in Moab because we heard they have new trails and have been upgrading their current network.
We were not disappointed!
Amasa BackOur first ride in Moab was on the old Classic Amasa Back, Pot Hole Arch, Rock Stacker to Jackson. The last time we were here it was a 'secret'. A pretty well known secret mind you... Since then a new organization was formed -
Moab Trails Alliance and
Trail Mix - which seems to be the advocacy group responsible for working with the land owners, building new trails and putting up signage. You can find all the maps on this site, or buy them at any of the Moab Bike shops.
Parking lot of Amasa Back to Jackson Loop
Even the climbs have techy descents
Slickrock and blue sky- what Moab is all about
More Singletrack for the descent
Moab - Amasa Back at EveryTrail
This ride has it all, views, technical ups and very technical descending. Amasa Back to Pothole arch itself is mostly of the AM variety with lots of meandering climbs alternating with short downhills or incredible scenic views on a spine of red and pink sandstone, decomposing rock and slickrock with a smallish arch at the terminus. You go out and back on the Pothole portion then turn back onto one of the Rockstacker/Jackson entries.
Rockstacker (and the later portion of the trail, Jackson) has very technical descents of the steep, loose and sometimes tight variety followed by a surprising amount of climbs - some moderately long, but mostly punchy short climbs. You end with a beautiful (kind of unnecessary to say this really) descent back to the parking lot..
More pictures, video and map info here.
Klondike BluffsAlso described in this link above is another area that has been developed -
Klondike Bluffs - which has less technical but equally fun, fast trails. After our 3 and a half hour ride we were tired, maybe because we rode 27km without even realizing it!
Klondike Bluffs used to be mostly out and back doubletrack with a grand view of Arches National Park at the terminus. Added to this area is now a network of doubletrack linking singletrack. Views here are not quite as spectacular as with Amasa Back, but that's not a fair comparison is it? Anyone who relishes mountain biking with variety will love this trail network
Klondike Bluffs Area Info
Well marked intersections on bi-directional trails
Nice route selection
Moab - Klondike bluffs at EveryTrail
(to be continued in Part 2)
If you like real beer then load up before crossing the UT border or there is always Fruita, CO (close by) and oodles of other awesome riding destinations throughout Colorado.
From the www.utah.com state liquor law web page: "Taverns and beer establishments sell beer from 10 am-1 am. This includes a variety of venues: taverns, lounges, cabarets, nightclubs, cafes, bowling centers, golf courses, etc. Beer may be purchased without ordering food and is sold on draft and in bottles and cans. Beer sales "to go" are also allowed, but not in open containers.
Packaged beer is also available at supermarkets, grocery and convenience stores. The maximum alcohol content is four percent by volume, or 3.2 percent by weight for beer sold in taverns, beer establishments and stores."
Next time you stop on by hit up some of the breweries, I think you'll enjoy them.
Having spent a lot of time in Oregon (McMenamins, Rogue, etc. make some incredible stuff- Terminator Stout on nitro is summin else) plus other killer spots like: Red Lodge, MT (Red Lodge Ales whooohooo), Stoud's near Lancaster, PA and countless other establisments in the US and the UK, it just isn't the same. The greatest disappointment of going to Moab was seeing a Dale's Pale Ale truck pass (and not stop with me running after it even eheheh), headed for the 24 hours at Moab. Trails out there awesome no doubt but beer is nuttin spectacular- no biggie.The locals I chatted with said given the lowwww alc %, they tended to drink shots of liquor at home, then go out drinkin the beers!
And as for people taking shots before they go out, that's because bars are expensive. No matter where I was, VT, NH, UT, OR, people pregamed before going out to the bar. The magical part about alcohol is that your tolerance changes so if you just move to Utah, you're going to notice the weak beer. Give it less than a month and your tolerance adjusts to the alcohol content so you get drunk just as easily as you normally would. The difference between a normal beer and a Utah beer (talking generic beers) is only 1% by volume. That means 4 reg. beers equals 5 Utah beers. And of course you're not going to get used to it if you maintain your high alcohol tolerance by regularly drinkin the hard stuff.
Aside from that and weird laws like the Zion Curtain (can't show beer being poured), or having to buy real beer in singles rather than in 6-packs, Utah is hardly different than many other places. Like with anywhere else, you gotta know where to go and what to drink.
Right on... I researched the heck outta where to ride (did like 8 rides in 4 days) and didn't pay sufficient attention to the suds scene. I may cruise out again in the fall but prolly hittin Fruita then Crested Butte - Aspen and 401 trail.
I do consider Fruita to be somewhat overrated. They rave about their single track there, which is very nice for Colorado/Utah, but really isn't as good as the best of the PNW.
So the trails in one town in Colorado aren't quite as good as the BEST trails in an entire geographic region? You got us there.
The nice thing about Fruita/Grand Junction, and Moab is you don't have to pick just one place to go - they're an hour and a half away from each other. I call Fruita home and that's one of the big reasons I do. Hopefully we'll get summer lift-access at our local ski hill soon and it will truly be heaven on earth.