Going Further West from Colorado to Utah

After using a whole day attending to some brake grinding coming from my right rear wheel, I was finally leaving the Denver/Boulder area to make my way further west.  On a side note, don’t ever stop at a Meineke auto service center.  They wanted to charge me 750 bucks for a rear brake job.  I had all four brakes and two new rotors done at elsewhere for just over 500 bucks.  Just had to put that out there as I digress.  I landed just west of Grand Junction and finally got the mountain bike off the car.  I rode Mary’s Loop and also Horse Thief.  I thought of a buddy of mine when he moved to the southeast from Oregon and kayaked the Green Narrows for the first time.   I asked him how did it go?  He replied, “There are rocks everywhere!”   This is how I felt mtn biking out west coming from the southeast.  It was super technical and lots of ledges. Now I know why they make bash guards.  These trails had a little of everything fast, flowy, tight, technical, and the views are amazing!  I will be back.

Super technical entrance into Horse Thief….. This is above my mtn biking pay grade!

Horse Thief trail overlooking the Colorado River

 

Mary’s Loop on the Kokopelli Trail

At 5pm I loaded up the bike, made a sandwich, and headed for Moab.  Instead of taking the traditional I70 route into Moab, I got the recommendation to take highway 128.  The views were so fantastic I decided to stop and camp off this route.

BLM campsite off highway 128

I feel small in these vast canyons.

The money shot off Hwy 128

Captain Ahab is a highly recommended trail to ride in Moab along with The Whole Enchilada.  I plan on riding TWE next week after canyoneering, so I took off for Captain Ahab.  Unfortunately, it was a Saturday and they had a trail marathon in the area.  With all the cars and runners in that area it was a big cluster, so I decided to bail trying to get to the trailhead.   I pulled up the mountain biker project and it seems that Slickrock trail was featured and pretty well-known, so off I went.  After getting on the trail, I thought they should have named this trail SlickRocks, because it wasn’t one slick rock.  It was the whole ride.  It was all smooth rock like biking on pavement. The big flat bumpy downhills with hellacious climbs is not really my style of riding and I had second thoughts about turning back after mile 2.  I told myself when would I get the chance to do this again and stuck it out. I got better at the climbs as the day progressed.  Some of these hills looked impossible but I made it up several of them.  I was gassed from the altitude, but guess what?  I made it!   This ride did produce some amazing views that I couldn’t do them any justice with the camera.  I did get a few good ones though.

This is the crap I rode all day!

So many amazing views and I could only capture two of them.

So looking back on the ride I am glad I didn’t turn back after mile 2.  It was a good workout and I saw some amazing views.  Would I come back and do this trail I mean ride again?  Probably not.

After getting a taste of these canyons in Utah, I am super excited to meet up with some friends and go canyoneering.  Paul and Dave should have landed, so cheers for now because I am headed to Zion National Park!

Brian