St George questions

[SchralphMacchio]

Must do for Blue+ is Holy Guacamole. The flow is spectacular. There are a lot of quick punchy step ups but they aren’t technical, just short and steep which may suck her energy. But it’s a short fast ride with spectacular views of Zion and even more spectacular flow. There is camping here but shade is sparse from my recollection.

Goose isn’t stiff in terms of mandatory features IMO, and Windmill is going to be more on the great views for less effort. The harder rated trails are really more about just continuous effort with lots of up and down. The nice thing about Goose is that you have bailout options via the various roads in case of bonking / frustration / had enough punchy Mesa combat riding. Great place to camp but not a fun place to be if there are T storms, and the roads can get pretty nasty if they get saturated. I think there is more shade up here than Guac, but it’s been 8-10 years so my memory is hazy. I don’t recommend testing your mettle on Smithsonian Butte road from Grafton up to the Mesa top unless you have a vehicle setup for high clearance off reading and low gear ratios, just go around to the south side before driving up to Goose.

LCM is great but there aren’t bailout roads - my wife lost her energy and will here with the Mesa combat riding and it was a pain getting back to the truck. LCM has lots of camping options and is more remote feeling than Goose or Guac, which see a lot more traffic.I think there might be more shade here than Goose, but memory is still hazy, this was about 5 years ago when I was last there.

I seem to remember more shade at the informal Kolob Gardens campground right off the creek of Kolob Terrace road, if that place is still around anyways!

[rippling over canyons]

Gooseberry and Little Creek are awesome. There's no painted dots at Little Creek, so route finding can be challenging. Make sure you're running a navigation app if you ride here (Trailforks, MTB project). My favorite trail there is Grafton.

[BFD]

I think gander is a better ride than wire mesa. Road could be dusty but you can ride it as an out and back.

[skaredshtles]

Gooseberry and Little Creek are awesome. There's no painted dots at Little Creek, so route finding can be challenging. Make sure you're running a navigation app if you ride here (Trailforks, MTB project). My favorite trail there is Grafton.

Grafton is a fun ride, for sure. It doesn't even show up on MTB Project, though.

[jono]

I'm not a huge fan of Wire, either, but it works for a shorter, partial rest day ride.

I liked Grafton better than Wire, but it's longer while still being a little boring compared to GBM, Little Creek and Guac. And more cactus hiding in the trail (as of October, anyway).

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Yes I rode some of the stuff on Grafton in 2021. It was cool but definitely a good bit of cactus hiding and the final section off the mesa down to the huge gap jump is a no go for the GF i'm sure. That is one chunky gnar section for sure.

[jono]

Yeah, that part isn't so boring, either! I was referring to the trails up on the mesa itself, including a big loop out to views like Wire's. But you're right: there's no doing Grafton without the DH, so maybe a bad candidate with the GF. Plus cactus.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Ended up finding a sweet spot with no neighbors out Kolob. The Sheep Creek/Jem area sites were BUSY.

We ended up riding all the blue stuff on Gooseberry the first day. I think I liked Gander the best. She wasn't ready for Secret etc.

Day two we did Margarita > Guac > Holy Guac. Perfect weather both days. I always forget UT is a little far for a 3/4 day trip.

[g_man80]

We’re going to be in St. George in October and I just realized it’s the same weekend as Rampage. Will Gooseberry and Grafton be a complete shit show? Is it better to ride that area during the actual event assuming most will be spectating?

[muted reborn]

Grafton shouldn't be busy during the event but I bet it's busy the days before and event days in the afternoons. But after a full day of a comp iit's hard to ride anything long afterwards in the shorter days of October. If the event is delayed I'd guess everyone will ride and things will be crowded. I saw workers riding Gooseberry the day before Rampage but I wouldn't say that whole area was a shitshow, just busy. It was cool to leapfrog Darren Berrecloth on Gooseberry for a few miles that day.

Camping will be hard and restaurants will be busy. Lotsa drunks who won't be riding too, ha.