Paradox Valley Riding??

[Capatain]

I've been able to find info on the huge trail that crosses through Paradox Valley on the way to Moab, but I was wondering if anybody has any beta on more "day-ride" kind of riding in the area, we'll be down there climbing this weekend and I'm trying to find some alternative activities for my GF.

thanks.

[Goatski]

i was down there exploring first week of october - very cool area. you probably won't see another soul...

that said, we didn't find much for riding except dirt roads. i wasn't able to find any info on singletrack trails myself, but as luck would have it i stumbled on one of the coolest trails i'd ever seen.

on our first night we camped on davis mesa ESE above the town of bedrock along the DD16 road, where i had scoped out some big slickrock patches on satellite pictures. the slickrock was sweeeet (one section had mounds that were evenly spaced like moguls). after the slickrock novelty wore off we followed the road down to the west end of the mesa. the road turned to singletrack after a gnarly rock climb - much to our delight. we followed it to the edge of the mesa and i thought "cool trail to the overlook"... but then i saw the trail bend around and descend down between a break in the mesa cliffs.

the trail had old rockwork retainage to make it 3' wide and i realized that it was an old miners horse-trail. my girlfriend looks down the first fall-line between the cliffs and says "no way."

okay, no problem, i say, i will just descend for 5-10 minutes and then turn around and come back up - this trail looks too cool to pass up. i saw two mtb tracks in the sand which gave me hope the trail was rideable, and down i went.

the trail is steep & rocky (not rutted too bad - but in some places just trenched) big exposure, very techy trail. oh yeah, i walked a few sections

i had to turn around and come back up only 1/4 the way down, which is fine, i will definitely be back with better skills and bigger cajones to tackle this one.

i think the way to do it would be car shuttle from bedrock to the DD16/DD15 fork. starting at the DD15 turn-off it looks like a 1600' descent with a real nice section of downhill jeep road to start out on (DD16).

probably not the ride you are looking for with the GF, but it may be the only singletrack in the area. the next day i really enjoyed riding the Y11 road with my girlfriend after camping in the middle of the canyon (at saucer basin) on the second night. super mellow road, but it winds through a sweet canyon with almost zero car traffic. the EE22 road at the east end of the paradox valley also looked intriguing, but we never got around to it.

hope you have a good trip - enjoy the solitude

also, i'm excited to see the new gateway trail when it gets done:
http://copmoba.org/news/archive/?news_id=1138
http://copmoba.org/news/archive/?news_id=1076

theres also a trail that comes from the uncompahre plateau down towards gateway - the ute trail. the link is missing the map but it gives you an idea:http://books.google.com/books?id=pFy...age&q=&f=false

happy trails

[Capatain]

thanks for the beta Goatski, I think I'll just tell her to bring her running shoes and sack up and do some climbing this time. I'll let you know if we learn anymore.