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Warning: Picture-heavy report from my first time to Southern Utah. What a fantastic week of mountain biking, camping, rock climbing, hiking, and good food.
Day 1: Last week I road tripped it down to southern Oregon to meet some friends and head out to Moab. Our crew of 13 towed a U-haul trailer at mildly absurd speeds to arrive last Friday at ~5:30 AM. Success, we beat the Jeepers and scored a killer campsite within seconds of trail and with a killer view of the La Sals. Only problem: it's still dark out and well below freezing. We begin to setup camp anyways and are much delighted when the sun comes up. We were pretty damn tired from the drive and just wanted to get acquainted, so took it easy for riding on the first day and just messed around on the adjacent Slickrock trail and pounded out a couple practice loops.
Northern Nevada is boring as shit
Sunrise over the La Sals
Unpacking the trailer
Morning light on the adjacent bluffs
Good riding, good views on the rock
Did I mention the good views of the La Sals from camp?
Nonstandard pedaling devices: trials bike and unicycle
Day 2: Porcupine. The snow kept us out of the high country, but we were able to tack on LPS to the Porcupine ride with only a couple small patches of snow. Beautiful flowy singletrack with killer views on LPS. The techy ledges and drops on the Jeep trail are pretty damn fun too, then it turns back to more fantastic singletrack as we descend to the valley.
Crew getting ready to ride
View from LPS
Sending it on Porcupine
This place is sure rough on bikes, notice any spokes missing? (hint: count 5)
Day 3: Mag 7 to Portal. What a fucking day, this ride sure had its moments of brilliance and moments of misery. I've gotta give props to our fearless leader in the first pic below who polished off the ride in ~2:45 and then proceeded to ride the additional 14 miles and some elevation back to camp. The rest of us turned the ride into an 8 hour ordeal of getting lost, suffering through sand and endless rock slabs, and getting lost some more. After some 30 miles, we finally descended Portal in fading light. This trail is fucking insane. I'd like to try it again fresh sometime because I ended up walking nearly half of the damn thing since I didn't have a deathwish after such a long day.
Killin' it on Mag 7
Where the hell are we?
No more pictures of that ride, we were focusing on getting our asses back to the pavement.
Day 3: Rock climbing. After another cold 25 degree night, we took a rest day from riding and got a taste of climbing some desert sandstone. I'm not that great of a climber and the damn rocks in the desert tend to form mostly difficult routes, but we found a few fun 5.8 and 5.9 routes.
Me on a sport lead
Tenting it opens up the budget for damn good food all week
30 second night exposure, you would hardly know it was night with how well the full moon lit the place up
Day 4: Slickrock. Some in the group rode Porcupine again, I had to give the iconic Slickrock ride a shot. I'm glad I did - there aren't as many screamer descents on the ride but its up-and-down nature keep things interesting and the views are great.
Day 5: Amasa Back > Rockstacker > Ahab. We cruised past the long train of Jeeps on the Amasa climb and broke off onto Rockstacker for good fun and more interesting riding. After lunch at Pothole Arch, we turned back and hit Ahab on the way home. I'm stoked on that ride, it's a seriously brilliant trail navigating artfully up, down, and around various rock slabs down to the valley. I'm sure it will only get better with age and rain as the couple of sandy spots get more worn in. Tough choice between Ahab and Porcupine for best ride of the week.
More killer views of the mountains
Panorama from above Pothole Arch
Setting off on Ahab
Sunset from camp
Day 6: Porcupine & LPS again. It's such a good ride, we had to do it again. We pedaled up UPS a bit, hoping the past couple days' heat would melt the snow, but got turned back after a mile or so. Still nice to add some extra flowy singletrack on top of the bluffs.
Lots of flats
Arches NP in the evening
Delicate Arch in the evening light
That's it! Stats: 20 flats, 2 blown wheels, 1 busted Reverb remote ($120 WTF?), 1 blown seat, 1 bent brake lever, ~90 miles ridden, one helluva spring break.
Day 1: Last week I road tripped it down to southern Oregon to meet some friends and head out to Moab. Our crew of 13 towed a U-haul trailer at mildly absurd speeds to arrive last Friday at ~5:30 AM. Success, we beat the Jeepers and scored a killer campsite within seconds of trail and with a killer view of the La Sals. Only problem: it's still dark out and well below freezing. We begin to setup camp anyways and are much delighted when the sun comes up. We were pretty damn tired from the drive and just wanted to get acquainted, so took it easy for riding on the first day and just messed around on the adjacent Slickrock trail and pounded out a couple practice loops.
Northern Nevada is boring as shit
Sunrise over the La Sals
Unpacking the trailer
Morning light on the adjacent bluffs
Good riding, good views on the rock
Did I mention the good views of the La Sals from camp?
Nonstandard pedaling devices: trials bike and unicycle
Day 2: Porcupine. The snow kept us out of the high country, but we were able to tack on LPS to the Porcupine ride with only a couple small patches of snow. Beautiful flowy singletrack with killer views on LPS. The techy ledges and drops on the Jeep trail are pretty damn fun too, then it turns back to more fantastic singletrack as we descend to the valley.
Crew getting ready to ride
View from LPS
Sending it on Porcupine
This place is sure rough on bikes, notice any spokes missing? (hint: count 5)
Day 3: Mag 7 to Portal. What a fucking day, this ride sure had its moments of brilliance and moments of misery. I've gotta give props to our fearless leader in the first pic below who polished off the ride in ~2:45 and then proceeded to ride the additional 14 miles and some elevation back to camp. The rest of us turned the ride into an 8 hour ordeal of getting lost, suffering through sand and endless rock slabs, and getting lost some more. After some 30 miles, we finally descended Portal in fading light. This trail is fucking insane. I'd like to try it again fresh sometime because I ended up walking nearly half of the damn thing since I didn't have a deathwish after such a long day.
Killin' it on Mag 7
Where the hell are we?
No more pictures of that ride, we were focusing on getting our asses back to the pavement.
Day 3: Rock climbing. After another cold 25 degree night, we took a rest day from riding and got a taste of climbing some desert sandstone. I'm not that great of a climber and the damn rocks in the desert tend to form mostly difficult routes, but we found a few fun 5.8 and 5.9 routes.
Me on a sport lead
Tenting it opens up the budget for damn good food all week
30 second night exposure, you would hardly know it was night with how well the full moon lit the place up
Day 4: Slickrock. Some in the group rode Porcupine again, I had to give the iconic Slickrock ride a shot. I'm glad I did - there aren't as many screamer descents on the ride but its up-and-down nature keep things interesting and the views are great.
Day 5: Amasa Back > Rockstacker > Ahab. We cruised past the long train of Jeeps on the Amasa climb and broke off onto Rockstacker for good fun and more interesting riding. After lunch at Pothole Arch, we turned back and hit Ahab on the way home. I'm stoked on that ride, it's a seriously brilliant trail navigating artfully up, down, and around various rock slabs down to the valley. I'm sure it will only get better with age and rain as the couple of sandy spots get more worn in. Tough choice between Ahab and Porcupine for best ride of the week.
More killer views of the mountains
Panorama from above Pothole Arch
Setting off on Ahab
Sunset from camp
Day 6: Porcupine & LPS again. It's such a good ride, we had to do it again. We pedaled up UPS a bit, hoping the past couple days' heat would melt the snow, but got turned back after a mile or so. Still nice to add some extra flowy singletrack on top of the bluffs.
Lots of flats
Arches NP in the evening
Delicate Arch in the evening light
That's it! Stats: 20 flats, 2 blown wheels, 1 busted Reverb remote ($120 WTF?), 1 blown seat, 1 bent brake lever, ~90 miles ridden, one helluva spring break.
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