It gets a little silly, time after time, describing the incredible trails I get to ride, the views I get to witness, and just the experience of riding in general. I'm sure it probably gets a little repetitive to read about, maybe even boring. "Oh, great - Hazard rode another keen trail.. and no, no, really? There were breathtaking vistas? No way. And what? Really, he's literally surrounded by such places? Get out...."
Somehow, I managed to finagle a week off of work. Not the wisest financial move I've made this year, as I'll surely miss a weeks pay later on in the month (it is now "later this month, and I am indeed hurtin'). Then again, a few of those will be paid days so maybe it wont' be that bad (its that bad). The original plan was to jet outta here, zip to ABQ and ride Cedro or Sandia/Faulty, pick up a passenger from the airport, and move on to Moab. After a couple days in Moab, we'd jet on over to Fruita, and then if we were able to manage tiime somewhat efficiently, we'd move on to some high country stuff. Weather permitting, of course.
Plans, like rules, seemed designed to be broken or altered. Our passenger pick-up in ABQ ended up cancelling out, so that whole leg of the riding was nixed. Aspirations of High country ended up being crushed by a keenly timed weather front that blew through just as we embarked on the journey. Great. The upside to this was that we could spend more time in Moab, and Fruita. The only issue now was to decide how much time to spend in each, and then to figure out where the hell this "Five Miles of Hell Trail" was...
We ended up getting the hell out of Dodge on Sunday I believe, with a large-ish detour out to Farmington and Bloomfield to retrieve some important items from a fiends truck. Said items were actually just a camera. But, that is one important little said item.
Once on the road, I noticed how a third person would have really compromised the available space situation, and I was half-relieved she didn't make it. But then, the more the merrier, and its always cool to ride with people when its their first time in this sort of environment. Anyhow, the Jeep Liberty was packed to the gills with just Ben an mine's stuff. Bikes were haphazardly attached to the roof via a fairly shady, suspect rack that is a little more than a pain to get the bikes into. Especially since its about 9 feet off the ground, and we have to deflate the tires every time we put them up there...
The truck stop where we repaired the window. Weather was nearly threatening, and we were hoping that it would let up before we got to Moab.
So the road trip to Moab (3 hours - WHY do we not go there more???) was fairly uneventful. Except for one little mis-hap. Bens bike had come a bit loose in the rack, and somewhere on the two lane close to Cortez, it tried to take a dive. it ended up swinging down off the side of the roof, pedal smashing through the back 3/4 window, and then the bike just hanging upside-down by its tires, which were still attached to the ratchet straps on the rack. After about 20 minutes of covering the window up with a trash bag and duct tape, we re-secured the bike to the roof, and were on our way...
We travelled along the edge of a pretty intense weather front for quite a while. There was some weather phenomena that would have been incredible to photograph, only it was very difficult to find a place to stop with the way the highway undulated across the flats. As we looked back towards Durango, we could see the La Plata Mountains completely enveloped in what looked like a pretty severe pounding. All I could manage was this rainbow shot through the passenger window...
As we passed Monticello and neared Moab, the weather begain to appear more promising.
We pulled in Moab just as the sun was setting. Stopped at the spring water stop to fill our water up, and headed off to find a campsite.
But we had to stop to witness firey illumination of yet another beautiful American West sunset. It was unreal.
We found our campsite not far from where this was shot, got set up with supper and just kicked back. Living in Durango is great, because its so close to things like this. But just being able to get away for a semi-extended period of time doing something you dig is priceless, no matter where you are. And we soaked it up as much as we could. Tomorrow we get to ride!
First morning.
I think the plan originally was to ride a set of trails or whatever known as the "Whole Enchilada". It involved a shuttle to some high country trails, then downhill for many many miles, meandering back to Moab. The storms we witnessed on they way in to town had dumped much snow up high, effectively shutting down any high country shuttles. Somehow, the "half enchilada" was much less enticing than the whole one, so we had to come up with a new plan. I know, absolutely dreadful, in Moab, and have to figure where to ride. Tragic, right?
Oh, the other part of the plan was to ride a trail in the San Rafael Swell called Five Miles of Hell. So we wanted to sort of take it easy the first day, maybe just ride slickrock trail or whatever... (I had never ridden Moab before, so it was all a treat to me). After gathering our stuff together, we decided to stop by a bike shop and pick up a map, just in case. Amasa Back trail was discussed, and bike shop dude suggested we come down a trail called Jackson. According to him, he doesn't even come down Amasa Back anymore, and uses Jackson exclusively. Hmph...
at the bike shop...
And so, Amasa Back it was. Here's Ben picking his way in to the trailhead...
and my dead sailor style (or lack thereof) drop in to the trail. (Shot by Ben. assembled by me)
At the trail head, were goofing off taking the above shots, and watched a couple more riders come in and ride by us. A guy and a gal came by. He looked to have been in his mid-50s or older, she looked significantly younger... anyhow, he came by on an old Trek from about 1995, picked his way through the steps, and kept going. Then the girl came along, on a bike of similar vintage, only I think it was a Gary Fisher. There was a fork in the trail, and that dude had totally left his partner to fend for herself. Now, I understand, if I'm riding with buddies or whatever, you don't just leave someone off the back on a strange trail, not for long anyhow. I mean, I can pick my way through a trail/route pretty well and all that. But given the bikes they were riding, and her level of skills/bike handling (which were very minimal), I thought it was kind of rude. She stopped for a second, looking a bit forlorn/lost. Ben advised her that the forked trail meets up again, and pointed in the direction her partner went. After a quick "thank you" she seemed a bit relieved and moved on. People are strange.
I had ridden slickrock before, in Sedona, and at Gooseberry, so at least that was part was not new. I knew the trail climbed and was an out and back. As we headed up, there lots of little rock moves/tricks and drops... at about the halfway point, there was a set of fairly large ones, including a quarter-pipe style launch that puts you up on to a small plateau. I eyeballed it a bit, but figured since this was the first day of a multi-day riding trip, I'd save any hospital trips or life flights till later on. Next time though :) Other than that, it was just a climb up some slickrock basically. It didn't exactly blow me away or anything.. I mean, it was cool for sure, but not monumental. The views were sick though. And it was intensely fun.
once at the top, we ran in to the old guy/young girl couple again, and apparently chased them off... La Sals, snow-capped in the background...
It was nice to have the climb over with, and though it was far from brutal - I still hate climbing. We chilled out and re-fueled, took some shots... I love being up above the terrain like in the view above - where you can see the different geological structures, and the planet reveals a bit of its age. I could have sat there for hours really. But Jackson Trail was calling us, so we shot out pano's and headed on down.
Me at Amasa Back somewhere.. shot by Ben...
Arches National Park - a view not seen by most. check out the little arch in the lower left...
We bombed down Amasa Back for a little ways, seeing many riders making their way up. Coming down was a lot more fun than the climb, but I still have to say I was not totally blown away by it. Again, it was cool, to be sure - I dunno, maybe I have a problem or I was spoiled by Gooseberry way back, or by high country stuff, or... who knows. But we found the turn off for Jackson, follwed that... THEN it got fun :)
Jackson was fairly steep, technically challenging without being stupid-impossible (even though I did walk a couple spots)... it ends up on the side of the river (Colorado) with some pretty exposed sections and lots of little moves. It was a blast. The bike shop guy was right - I can't imagine coming all the way down Amasa Back.
3 times Ben... Ben comes down Jackson. Highly recommended.
But what the nice bike shop guy did not tell us, was how to get out of Jackson once we reached the bottom. Once the trail levels off at the river, it has a few ups and downs, then you dive right down through some thick brush into a nearly jungle-like sandy beach, right at the edge of some very "ineresting" standing water. This is the kind of water where the primordial ooze that life sprung from billions of years go was probably like. In fact, I'm sure there must have been some new and interesting life forms in this water too. But I was not too interested in checking it out up close at this time. Besides, my microscope was at home. The worst part about it was, there was no apparent escape or way around or across it, save for one fallen tree. There were tire tracks going straight in to the water, and I cannot imagine trying to pedal through this stuff. That was just unthinkable. It was probably 20 or so feet across, and who knows how deep that bio-mess was. I found a long-ish stick to use for balance, then set off to cross the narrow log - bike in one hand, balance stick in the other. I made it across, luckily without dropping in to that mess.. after a short climb up a sandy bank, Ben made his way across too - also managing not to contract any rare, incurable diseases...
I'd like to thank the bike shop dude for the trail suggestion, but also curse him for not warning us about the end. Still, totally worth it, and I recommend it as well. Just watch out for the end...
Somewhere "around" Barltlett's wash... hmph.
Shot by Ben...
Another "plan" we had was to that afer we were done here, we'd head out to Bartlett Wash and play on the slickrock out there. After eating, we headed out, but spent so much time trying to find it, we lost daylight once we got there. We goofed off a little bit, then headed back to camp to get ready for the following days ride.
We stopped in town somewhere and picked up some camping food... which I think consisted of potatoes, a "Slap" of ham, and lord knows what else at this point.. Beer, yeah, had some beer... Did the campfire thing and hit the hay.
It would take me all week to describe the next ride - or rides. Since I've been effectively putting this together for literally weeks now.. I'll just hit some hightlights and show some photos. I'm too tired to be clever anymore.
Trail for this day was to be Poison Spider to the Portral Trail.
All I have to say about Poison Spider is that it was sandy, and I don't care what I've heard - it sucks. bah. Screw that trail. Only thing its good for is for getting you to the beginning of Portal. lol.
It was cool driving up/past "wall street" though.. people just free climbing sheer cliffs right on the side of the road. crazy I say. But cool to watch. At the trail head for Poison Spider, we ran in to a VW bus full of cats from B.C. They were in Moab for the week, testing it all out. We let them get ahead of us a little bit, and figured we'd see them or meet up with them by the time we got to Portal.
As I said, POISON SPIDER SUCKED... nearly all the way up. It was very sand too, which didn't help matters either. The sun was hot, but at least it wasn't the end of July or something - air was fairly cool. At some point in the trail, we did run in to the cats from BC, only I don't know how, as we ran in to them - head on - but they had not made any turns. Strange. The trail was not marked super well, but I guess it was marked. Having a guide or someone who had ridden it before would probably have helped too, lol... But between the 5 of us, we ended up figuring it out :D
One of the BC guys just bombing away...
on our meanderings about the place... we came across an interesting obstacle. Everybody looked at it. For like 20 minutes, but nobody was really feeling it. And I have to say, the BC guys impressed me with their riding - they were tight and dialed, and pretty fearless. They just bombed shit without even really looking, and fast. But this thing, nobody wanted a piece of. Finally - Ben decided he'd take one for the team, and after a little more contemplation, he rode the line...
If you look through the arch, you'll notice a parking lot waaaaay down there... While it was not a particularly technically challenging line, it was big mind game. The penalty for failure was either severe "maimage", or death - depending on which way you decided to fall. Ben decided not to fall, and became hero for the day.
This is allegedly Mary Jane Francis' grave. There was lots of money left here. and other things. I left a tire lever. Nobdy else left anything. Tire lever... this would come back...
Ok.. I'll admit, this part of Poison Spider wasn't so bad.. it was fun actually...
After a few more impossibly steep slickrock climbs, we found the beginning of Portal Trail.....
Perhaps one of the most popular signs in Moab - if you're a rider. Heed it or not.. decide your fate, but ride perfect because there is NO room for error. There's a video floating around on YouTube somewhere of a dude falling off a similar cliff in California, and he was able to climb back up and out. If you take a tumble from Portal.. you're done. Clip a pedal and bounce to your left - wave goodbye.
I have mixed feelings about stuff like this. Sure, the "safe" thing to do is walk, but hell, you could just as easily stumble or stub your toe or something while walking and suffer the same fate. I wouldnt' call anybody stupid or irresponsible for riding this, but I would never push anybody to do it either. Common sense applies... don't ride over your head, and if you have to question it, then walk I guess. Over-confidence is just as bad as false confidence here. Be on your game or walk. Anyhow.. the only "truly safe" thing, is not go to this trail.
On the way up, a guy kept catching up to us when we'd stop for photos. A lot the trail he was walking up because he had neither the physical nor the technical riding ability for 80% of the trail (and really, up to the Portrail trailhead, it's not that techy...). Anyhow, we took a break about halfway in to the trail, and he came running down, bike in tow, so to speak. I don't mean to talk bad about the dude, but he had NO business being up there on a bike. Yes, he had every right to be there, but no business trying to ride it, and I'd venture to say it was lucky that he made it walking....
In light of all that...
We rode 95% of it...
The really exposed part of the trail does not last that long, and it was a little unnerving at first, but there were not really many tricky parts along that edge. After you get away from the edge, things liven up a bit as far techy rock moves go. and coming down all that was a blast.
Ben, testing and pushing his limits...
Rene, showing eveyrone how to clean that section. All the BC cats were super cool, and very good riders...
Don't remember his name, but he's a park ranger up there somewhere. Borrowing Rene's Intense 6.6 and getting coached down the line...
On the way down, one of the BC guys caught a flat, which was quickly fixed, and we finished the trail without incident. It was about a 2 mile road ride up to the cars, and we all enjoyed the pavement for a bit, as we got to pedal in the shade and gawk at the female climbers ;) After about 1 mile, Rene caught a flat. I stayed in case he needed help or something, and the rest went onwards. Rene was riding Single Track rims, with Nokian tires - a bad mix due to the tight beads on the Nokians, and sort of larger diameter of the rims. He went through one his tire levers, and lent him one of mine, a good blue park lever, and he busted it straight away, lol. Well, we fussed with it for about 20 minutes and finally got it. caught up with the other dudes, and then Ben caught a flat. Both Ben's and Rene's flats were caused by goatheads, scourge of the desert brush. I was lucky so far...
Back at the cars, we tailgated for about an hour, sharing stories and backgrounds. There were lots of details that were of particular interest - cultural stuff, and of course politics came up... won't go there, except to say there were no fist-fights ;) But the one odd detail was that they were ALL surprised that you couldn't drive with an open container in your vehicle. We were all enjoying a beer in the parking area, courtesy the BC guys - they had frig. in the VW van. But even the Park Ranger guy was surprised... We're like, "dude, you're in UTAH...." c'mon.. So funny... Anyhow, we all traded info, and hopefully a trip to BC will be on the books for next summer. North shore - Oh.. I cannot hardly wait...
That about wrapped it up for Moab. We decided to not waste a day in the San Rafael Swell, with the 5 miles of hell trail, instead, opting to spend an extra day in Fruita. Sweet. We got there about at dark, and camped at the 18 road trails. The Kessel Run Trail was 100 yards from my tent, and a spur trail went right from out site to the trail. Niiiice.
Ben, in front of the fire, with the light of Fruita and the univers as a backdrop...
Next morning we woke up, did a quick breakfast, jump-started a car for the two girls in the adjecent campsite ( :D ) and decide to "warm up" on Kessel Run before hitting Joe's Ridge and Zippity... I swear, I was all about going slow, just taking it easy... but you cannot get on Kessel Run and deliberately go slow. I was cool for the first 100 yards or so, then I felt myself sneak in a couple clicks on the gear shift - the deraileur moved the chain down, and I cranked forward.. faster... faster... and the shit eating grin just spread....
Ben usually is right on my ass through this stuff, but I had not heard him in a while so I stopped, looked back, and nothing. Waited... waited... 10 minutes.. I was near the end, so I deciced I'd ride out and back up the road and look from the top. As I rode up to the road, Ben was waiting, with a little bit of dust/dirt scattered about him.
Turns out, his shoulder dislocated on small rock drop, and caused him to run off trail. Our ride had come to a close. Nuts.
We ended up eating dinner, and did a sort of photo shoot just before sunset, just on Kessel so he could run behind me, and this time, we HAD to go slow, but it was worth it, we got some cool shots.
Ben pulled the trigger, but this was "my" composition.. not that there's really any difference given the circumstances....
This one is all Ben's doing... he needs a real camera so badly..
While it was a bummer to have to split without hitting zippity, or Horsethief Bench... the ride in Moab with the BC cats was more than worth the price of admission - wih the possible exception of Ben's dislocated shoulder. Other than the pacific north-west connection, we came away with the idea that "damn, we only live like 3 hours from Moab and Fruita, and never go... this has to change...". And it shall. Ben's shoulder needs to heal a bit.. and I need to grow a new freewheel, as I broke mine today... but right on. And North Shore next year!!
And the other casualty of the trip - Ben's Pro-Tec. The large-ish dent in the top is from his Jeep Liberty. Yeah, we ran it over. Try that with one of those sexy Giro Xen helmets :) We jetted in to Grand Junction where he was able to find a new pro-tec - manufactured in this century at some shop calld TAZ.. which was actually a pretty keen place...
We should probably ride Moab/Fruita more often... I'm all for Fruita... but I have to say, I'm not that impressed with Moab. I'm not saying its not cool, and will have to admit that Portal was a challenging ride, but that terrain doesn't float my boat like what I've ridden in the last four weeks out here. Given, Moab, and loamy downhill steeps are very different games :) And Moab IS FUN, for sure. As well, I have to admit that I'm relatively a Moab Virgin too, there are many, many trails there to get down on.. so I really need to give it a fair shake I suppose.
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