Moab schweetness TR

[Crinkle]

Friday, one of my hard charging biking buddies and I tore out of D-town in the AM with hopes of doing an Epic in Fruita and be camping in Moab by nightfall. We arrived at the Kokapelli trail head around 12ish, suited up and rode off in a hurry. We went out Mary's loop, did Horsetheif, took Mary's out to Steve's to a portion of Handcuff's to Moore Fun back to the car. All in all a beater of a ride, but epic in everyway. Wound up being in the neighboorhood of 14 miles or more, lots of fun techy sections, especially Moore Fun. Evidently a lot of people do Moore fun in the opposite direction that we did, but I think it would be more punishing to do in the other direction. So we got to end on a nice downhill, then over the hump back to the car to the cooler full of PBR.
We wound up getting so involved in the ride, the scenery and the terrain that we took very few pics. from Moore Fun



Off to Moab in time to catch a sweet sunset from out campsite at Slickrock.


Up early the next morning with the anticipation of doing Porcupine rim. Our one huge catch was, we only had one vehicle. We knew that it would be close to 30 miles to loop it from the campsite and it was a undertaking we were willing to commit to. For a warm-up we rode the 4 miles from our campsite to the Porcupine trailhead, then another 4 miles up, then the big payoff of 8 miles of schweet downhill. Lots of nice pops and lips to launch off of. I definietly took some bigger drops than I am use to. I would LOVE to go back there with some more suspension and really go nutz. We took our time doing some sessions on some of the little playgrounds on the way down. I even recognized some spots from other maggot Moab threads.

Here is Aron getting down, my auto camera skills weren't good enough to get him launching off this rock.


Once again a ton of riding and not much picture taking, those of you that have done this ride can relate I am sure. Luckily when we hit the parking lot we were able to score a ride back to the campsite with our bikes from some real nice guys from Provo, who's poor buddy had the luck of our flatrider, getting 6 flats on the Porcupine Rim. Obviously he didn't believe in high tire pressure either, which is bad when you weight around 190#'s riding a POS.

Back to camp we crashed out in the shade for the afternoon, beat from the 20 miles that we logged in the morning. In the early evening we had a little pick-me-up which got us motivated enough to go down to Slickrock to do some playing. As we were cut short by the amount of daylight available, we were able to go play around on the slickrock for about an hour and a half before we heeded to the call of the cooler.

Slickrock is a beautiful place, made even more mystic by the great colors brought out by the setting sun on the sandstone rocks.


Like they say, you can't do it all in a day and our bodies sure felt like we tried.


We spent the better part of Saturday evening debating on what ride to finish our trip off with. Maps, headlamps, guidebooks and a few too many beers led to no decision being made, but a decent understanding of what our options would be.

Sunday morning on our way out of Slickrock we decided to go hit a trail Aron had yet to do, since it was my first trip to Moab, it didn't matter it was all new to me. We finalized on Moab Rim trail. Arriving at the trailhead pretty early as to beat the heat, we didn't realize what were about to do. Man oh man 900 vertical feet in 9 tenths of a mile. We were able to clear and ride the first 3/4 of the trail, but after that it was just too much for our legs to bear. Off on the trail we stopped and played on a few techy sections and some of the slickrock. Just the sheer size and expanse of the area had me in awe. Some more pics of slickrock fun:
My man can pick some wicked lines with only a SC Blur underneath him


Man this place is vast:



For those of you that have been there, but maybe not recently, they are building/have built a bunch of freeride stuff up top. I know that they have the downhill events here. There were stunts, drops, transitions, teeters, and then some BIG drops (15+). All of this is built to parallel the Moab trail that comes up from parking lot off Kane Creek. If this kind of thing is your bag, I highly suggest getting to it the next you get there. There were signs saying "Moab Adventure Park: Private Property" But we didn't understand what that meant. We did a bunch of messing around, we both had some really close calls and minor crashes that looked more spectacular than they really were. Finally we took off after pushing our luck on our XC bikes.

Nice rock tranny

Bridges:

Moving Bridges:


Moab is a wonderful place, I understand why so many people sing its praises and why many journey far to get there. I have truley drempt of a similar place, now I just have a name for it: MOAB.

[zion zig zag]

Nice pics! So, you liked Moab better than Fruita?

[Mr. Altagirl]

Great trip report. Hopefully, we can meet up with you down there sometime and we can show you some "stuff". When we first moved here, one of the first rides we did was at Slickrock. Our (my) plan was to ride all of Slickrock (in over 100 degree sunny weather), eat lunch, and then tackle Porcupine. Doing both in one day in TOUGH. Sounds like you went up the DH course on the Rim. The park stuff at the top is awesome but pretty much closed at this point; the lift went belly-up this past spring. All of the DH events have been canceled, possibly forever. Big bummer since that area is one of the best. I've ridden up it a couple of times but there is no way you can do multiple runs on a DH bike without the lift, it's just too much. Next time you go, if we can't meet you, try Amasa Back trail (another 2 miles past the Rim parking lot). Killer climb, awesome scenery and a blast of a downhill coming back down. If you time it right, you can air over a jeep trying to come up.

[homerjay]

No requisite portrait from the castle valley overlook?

nice pics, porcupine is a great ride.

[GT40]

Great pics, I really like this one. Makes the area look so big. Beautiful lighting, shadows and background.


Looks like you had a perfect ride. That's a lot of riding in 3 days.

[CS]

I don't think there is a better place to be when the sun is setting than on Slickrock with the La Sals in the background.

Sweet pics Crinkle, and great TR.

Damn it makes me want to get back to Moab.

The real question is did you clean the staircase section going into the creekbed just before the end of the ride? I have still yet to find a trail that is as grin-inducing as Porcupine.

[lph]

The real question is did you clean the staircase section going into the creekbed just before the end of the ride? I have still yet to find a trail that is as grin-inducing as Porcupine.

the one you have to air into, the one that most people have trouble hiking down, the one that after the creekbed goes right back up again? that is knarly. I have only ever seen one person clean it. some girl on a burly bike, maybe three years ago. her boyfriend rode it, but exploded.

i was on slickrock last year during a thunder/lightning/pounding rain storm. that is absolutely the worst time to be on slickrock. it was scary on so many levels.

[Crinkle]

The real question is did you clean the staircase section going into the creekbed just before the end of the ride?

Hell no. We looked at a few different lines and discussed the general carnage that would ensue if we attempted and failed, then passed on the first 3 steps. I think we were both able to clean from there, but then again the first 3 steps are wicked. (not to mention beyond the capabilities of our XC bikes)


Flyk, I like Moab better for its options on lines that you can take and its great expanse of terrain. You can always do something different each time you ride the same trail. Fruita is just sweet, sweet singletrack.

MrAG, Moab is now on the list. I will be returning each and every year and it would be great to get a tour with some mags sometime. Our choices on Sunday morning were Moab rim OR Amasa Back. We heard the view were outstanding on Moab, so we went there and we were not disappointed the views or the terrain.


The great thing about Moab is it had new terrain for me to try and bring my MTB game to a new level. I learned a lot of new moves, gained a lot more confidence and realized I need a bigger travel bike for next year. The XC is great for kicking the miles on, but more travel=more fun.

[CS]

Ha. I hear you with the XC bikes Crinkle. The Bullit made it a bit easier and oh so fun, for sure.

LPH, the line has been easified for sure in the last year. Instead of the big boulder onto another then into a trough to the hard right turn, a new line has been built to its right that is basically 3 big stair steps down. Not too big a deal anymore, especially with a big bike (though my buddy (Ktrials) did it no problem on a Heckler. Of course, he is freak).

[lph]

Ha. I hear you with the XC bikes Crinkle. The Bullit made it a bit easier and oh so fun, for sure.

LPH, the line has been easified for sure in the last year. Instead of the big boulder onto another then into a trough to the hard right turn, a new line has been built to its right that is basically 3 big stair steps down. Not too big a deal anymore, especially with a big bike (though my buddy (Ktrials) did it no problem on a Heckler. Of course, he is freak).

ya, that does sound alot different from what i remember, have to check it out next time i am there.

sweet pics, crinkle. makes me miss moab so damn much.

[hev]

nice pics and TR crinkle

[Mr. Altagirl]

Ha. I hear you with the XC bikes Crinkle. The Bullit made it a bit easier and oh so fun, for sure.

LPH, the line has been easified for sure in the last year. Instead of the big boulder onto another then into a trough to the hard right turn, a new line has been built to its right that is basically 3 big stair steps down. Not too big a deal anymore, especially with a big bike (though my buddy (Ktrials) did it no problem on a Heckler. Of course, he is freak).

CS saying its easy has to be taken with a grain of salt; he thinks Flying Monkey is going to be a cake walk. Although, I do have to agree, take the right line down the three drops and you’re home free. The best thing is if you ride into the notch just before that section and there are a bunch of XC types trying to figure out how to carry their bikes down the thing, then you come along and just keep riding.

Oh yeah, CS is right in that K-trials doesn't count either. He can front wheel hop down the whole thing.

[cumerritt]

awesome TR and pics crinkle. im heading down there this weekend to get some.

[Z]

looks sweet

[Ferniefreeheels]

Nice pics Crinkle! It was our first time in Moab last april, we had an awesome time. Porcupine rim was definitly my favourite out of the rides we did, slickrock was a close second.

this was me catching a bit of air somewhere on porc. rim

This was my buddy George also on the rim.

Looking at all these Moab pics is getting me stoked! We will most likely be back in Moab in April 05 ...if anyone wants to hook up with us, that would be great.
Anyway nice report and pics Crinkle.
Cheers!!!

[Darkside]

Off to Moab in time to catch a sweet sunset from out campsite at Slickrock.

A little after the fact, but this got me so stoked to get back to Moab in a few weeks, hopefully it'll work out.

I have that same sunset photo, plus like 10 more. That campsite at the trailhead is a bit busy, but so worth it.