TR - Durango - Moab fall 2015 (pic heavy)

[evdog]

So I'm a few trip reports behind now, but took some time this weekend to relax and hide out from the rediculous heat in my air-conditioned place and work on them.

After Idaho-Utah it was Kernville for Labor Day, then I snuck out of work for another 5-day trip to Utah. This was followed immediately by the highlight of the year, Durango-Moab. Since this was a long-planned trip I was able to round up a couple others to come along, Basil and Gil. We tried to sneak out of work early on Friday but failed. Fortunately we were going through Phoenix and not Riverside/Vegas so traffic was no big deal. It still took us til 130am to get through Flagstaff.

We found a dispersed campsite off a forest road and set up for a quick sleep. One of us noticed Basil's tire looked a little low. I always thought a floor pump wouldn't work well on a car tire but it worked, from 15psi. Finally Basil figures out why the steering had been pulling to one side all night!



Waking up with a view of San Francisco Peaks



Last time through I had just missed sunset at Monument Valley. We wouldn't make it there for sunrise. We had to stop in Kayenta AZ to check out the Code Talkers exhibit that had been on every billboard for 50 miles. Finally a reason to visit Burger King! Then we went to McDonalds for breakfast :lol:



I wasn't sure how much of a tourist trap Monument Valley would be. We paid our $20 to get in which gets you a self-guided driving tour on a basic loop. If you show up in a tour bus like most people you are screwed, and either stuck taking pics from a single overlook or forking over $75 each for a guided driven tour. No pink jeeps, just pickups with seating platforms built in. At least they are covered for shade, but you're on your own when it comes to vehicle dust - which looked horrendous!

The main overlook



Backside of the loop



We put Basil to work



The north part of the loop is where all the best views are





Get us out of here!



Monument Valley turned out to be a massive tourist trap. Every stop on the scenic loop drive and every pullout on all the nearby highways had booths set up with people selling Navajo jewelry. The loop drive was super crowded with tour trucks full of tour bus tourists. Tons of cars, tons of people, tons of dust. $20 per vehicle for self-guided drive is worth it but I wouldn't go again unless I could hit sunrise or sunset. At $75 each the guided tour is a total ripoff. The only reason to do that, unless you are stuck because you came in on a bus, is to pay an extra $10 to get the extra credit tour which goes on a separate outer loop that self-guided drivers aren't allowed on. Looking at google images though I'm not sure views would be that great from the road. It seems you can pay for all sorts of different guided activities like horse riding, camping and maybe even MTB. No doubt anything with a guide would be mega $$. On the way out there was a group of motorcyclists arguing loudly with the gate attendant. No doubt they were getting charge $20 each instead of the group rate they were expecting! Glad we stopped though, the views are pretty cool.

[evdog]

Day 1 ride - Boggy Draw, Dolores CO

Hitting up Monument Valley took up a bit more time than I thought so we had to abandon my Plan A to hit up Durango for an intro ride on Jones to Dutch. Our remaining options were Phils World or Sand Canyon in Cortez or Boggy Draw in Dolores. We opted for Boggy Draw for cooler temps and trees, and because we can camp there. Plus I thought Phils was overrated. And selfishly because I hadn't been able to ride Boggy Draw yet!

Boggy draw has 4 main loops with numerous bailout options and ways to mix and match loop segments, perfect as we had just over 2 hours of light left



The first loop was the main Boggy Draw loop. Mostly buff fast singletrack, perfect for spinning out the legs after a bunch of driving



Our first aspens of the trip, a good sign of things to come



Next up we turned onto the Bean Canyon Loop. It took us to a nice overlook with some fun slickrock riding



And then a fun 700ft descent



I kept thinking "please stop descending" over and over knowing we'd have to climb back any more elevation we dropped. Sure enough...



The climb wasn't bad though as we had actually climbed up some on the first loop. We made it back to the truck with some sunlight left




I liked the riding there. It had a feeling similar to San Diego's Big Laguna Trail, but minus the central meadow/pond and the fire road climbing. Its worth a stop if you are near Cortez and have time for a short ride. It will be cooler than Cortez both due to elevation and shade. Mostly fun fast buff singletrack but there is enough rock to keep things interesting. Give it a try for sure if you've already hit Phil's world.

[evdog]

Day 2 - Telluride.

On the last trip here I did a cool ride up Wasatch Tr to Bear Creek Trail. I had wanted to check out Alta Lakes but didn't have time. So that was the plan this day, and finishing by riding out of Alta Lakes to Galloping Goose Trail and then back to town which is considered one of the primo rides.

We made quick work of 1,800ft elevation via the free gondola.



We were tempted by some laps in the bike park (also free, just sign a waiver!) but this was put aside at the offer for a tour of some secret singletrack by some locals we met Jon and Doug who were doing a similar ride to ours. We were all looking forward to riding through new terrain without the need to navigate



We were into some tough climbing right away including some great trail through the trees.



Any time you popped out of the trees the views were outstanding



The first part of our ride was on Prospect Trail. MTBR's Evil Patrick did a nice vid of the Gentleman's Loop recently. The first ~2:30 shows stuff we rode, and then the last minute shows the traverse back to town. At 1:55 they ride the scree section you see in the photo above. Very fun riding for sure, and every climb was followed by some fun descent.



Eventually we split off onto some unsigned trails that took us onto the back 40. There were some very fun descents, some nice meadows, and then we got into the aspens. It was pretty spectacular, the pics do not do justice at all to how pretty it was.



We cross the highway onto Sunshine Tr



I had to stop a couple times to rest my hands. Great views also made stopping worth while



Gil is freaking fast, but was having a hard time keeping up to Jon on his hardtail (with seat fully up!) Not only is he fast but Jon had some tricks up his sleeve to liven up our couple miles of dirt road to the Galloping Goose





The Galloping Goose was actually a climb, with the start of that trail being the low point of the ride. It was pretty gentle climbing though and soon we were onto flat-ish ground heading back into town along the valley bottom.



Views were again spectacular with both the surrounding mountains and the aspens







Big thanks to Jon and Doug for the tour. They were on race pace so we finished the ride in plenty of time for a swim and some sightseeing.

First up we drove to the head of the valley so Basil and Gil could see the switchbacks up and Bridal Veil Falls / powerhouse. You can just make out the switchbacks in the aspens below, the road goes through a pass on the left side.



Then we headed back south out of town toward Ophir. Lighting was better for pics than the morning had been so we stopped again



And then did a side detour to Ophir



Colorado takes the prize for gnarly mountain roads





Someday I think it will be worth my time to ride some of these passes. Could make for a great bikepack route to combine them with trails and go from Durango to Telluride and back.





This was the night of the blood moon so we headed down to the Lizard Head area which has dispersed camping and good views of the moon. The eclipse did not disappoint. My nighttime photography on the other hand...



We never made it to Alta Lakes, so I still have reason to go back (aside from the killer riding). This was an awesome ride, big thanks to Jon and Doug! Telluride is definitely worth a couple days riding if you are in the area.

[The SnowShow]

Awesome pics & adventure.

[smslavin]

That loop you made is one of my favorites and that scree field is one of favorite ski runs. Alta Lakes is definitely worth the trip back.

[evdog]

Had we been on our own we would have ridden to Alta Lakes as I really wanted to see them. Naturally we also would have ended in the dark after fumbling around lost all day. So the tour was awesome as we didn't need to navigate even if we didn't see the lakes. We should have driven up there rather than Ophir. But, not having done so there is more reason to go back!

[joetron]

Loving your TRs evdog, they look like great adventures and offer so many ride ideas in places kinda close to me....however..I gotta say, regarding the 'tourist trap' in Monument Valley: Its not like its a National Park with shitty multi-national concessionaires squeezing dollars out of you...its Navajo land. If those poor (literally, super-duper poor) folks can charge white people in white sneakers $75 for a guided drive around their land and try and scrape by selling turquoise jewelry at every scenic overlook, they absolutely should. Would you rather see that stuff or a big casino in the middle of the valley...or maybe some Uranium mines?
You want to talk about a "rip-off", I'm sure there are some people on the reservation who would love to chat.

Ok, sorry about that. Back to regular scheduled shredding and awesome pictures...just figured I would add some context to your comments up there.

[evdog]

Day 3 - Durango Molas Pass to Engineer's Mountain

I did this ride with my friend Liz in 2012. This is considered a classic Durango ride, but we did not have ideal conditions so I was stoked to get up there and ride it again. Last time we started in sunshine which soon turned to this:






No such problems on this year's trip. We shuttled to the top first, drove the truck back down and then I hitch-hiked back to Molas pass and we were off.



Views open up quickly as we start to climb



The trail climbs up before traversing across and then climbing some more





There are a few reprieves and some really nice forested singletrack



Partial view from the snow pic up top



Liz recommended an alternate to the normal route which would take us over Rolling Pass for some extra summit points



There is some pain (HAB) involved but it is over soon enough



The extra views are definitely worth it as is the 1000ft descent off Rolling Pass



Still heading up to the pass



Awww, nice marmot!



More burly roads



Rolling Pass



Dropping off the pass



We found Liz's secret trail and commenced some difficult HAB. We wondered if she was messing with us but soon enough the grade eased and we were able to ride some very nice trail.









There was a bit of tough climbing to re-join the main route and get over the final ridge line.



Getting into the golden hour we wasted no time getting our descent on. Up first is some beautiful treed singletrack



Where the trail runs next to the edge of a ridge some nice views open up. Still above 11,000 at this point we've barely started to descend





And 2,000ft of arm burning elevation yet to go. We missed a turn near the bottom and lost about 3 bonus miles of trail. But it was a good thing as we were running out of daylight not to mention getting hungry! While people typically shuttle to Molas Pass for this ride it is definitely not a descent. You drop almost 3k ft at the end but you will also climb 3k to get to it.

[Danno]

awesome TR!!!

however..I gotta say, regarding the 'tourist trap' in Monument Valley: Its not like its a National Park with shitty multi-national concessionaires squeezing dollars out of you...its Navajo land. If those poor (literally, super-duper poor) folks can charge white people in white sneakers $75 for a guided drive around their land and try and scrape by selling turquoise jewelry at every scenic overlook, they absolutely should. Would you rather see that stuff or a big casino in the middle of the valley...or maybe some Uranium mines?
You want to talk about a "rip-off", I'm sure there are some people on the reservation who would love to chat.

Truth. Thanks for saying what I was thinking.

[evdog]

however..I gotta say, regarding the 'tourist trap' in Monument Valley: Its not like its a National Park with shitty multi-national concessionaires squeezing dollars out of you...its Navajo land. If those poor (literally, super-duper poor) folks can charge white people in white sneakers $75 for a guided drive around their land and try and scrape by selling turquoise jewelry at every scenic overlook, they absolutely should. Would you rather see that stuff or a big casino in the middle of the valley...or maybe some Uranium mines?
You want to talk about a "rip-off", I'm sure there are some people on the reservation who would love to chat.

Ok, sorry about that. Back to regular scheduled shredding and awesome pictures...just figured I would add some context to your comments up there.

No worries, I get what you're saying. I'd definitely rather see that than a casino for sure. And I'd be doing that too if I were in their shoes. What I said is probably harsh but I go on vacation to get away from hoardes of people, so it is sometimes a shock to the system showing up at a place that is so busy. Even Moab was a shock after seeing pretty much no one on the trails in Durango.

[markcjr]

Lp l

[evdog]

Day 4 - Colorado Trail over Blackhawk Pass to Stagecoach Tr

Was hoping to ride with Liz today but her bike was delayed in transit back from the East Coast so we were on our own again. We opted for more Colorado Trail, this time doing a 9-mile climb up Bolam Pass Rd from the northern Hermosa Creek Trailhead.

Everything was clear on the drive in but a mile or two up the dirt road climb the skies got real dark.



They did little but threaten rain and it had cleared somewhat by the time we got up to the top of the road climb at Celebration Lake



Abandoned cabin up top



Our reward for finishing the road climb was some singletrack climbing



It was mostly rideable up to Section Point, our first pass for the day



We had to contend with maybe 10min of rain on the way up. Rest stop at Section Point



Bit of descent from Section Point leads to more traversing



Blackhawk Pass has the tough climbing



After some tough pedalling and some HAB we reach the final stretch to the pass



Rest stop



Bikes took a rest too



Dropping off the pass



Can you spot the rider?



The descent off Blackhawk is awesome, about 1,600ft in 4 miles including some awesome singletrack in the trees



We missed riding Stagecoach Trail last trip as it was new and we couldn't find it. This time the entrance is obvious. Gil starts the descent, 1800ft in 3mi



Lots of aspens again, and really nice trail for the most part



And some fun side features to play on



Awesome color



Back at the truck a convoy of 13-14 of these passed by on the main road. Probably $2M worth at least



Then more excitement as we had to wait for a forest service crew to rebuild the road for us. The 15 minutes we were told turned into 40.



This is one of the better sections of CO Trail in my opinion so I was happy we were able to make it happen.

[evdog]

Day 5 - Calico National Rec Trail

Liz and I had really wanted to hit up a couple CO Trail segments near Lake City and tentatively planned it for today. However the amount of driving and shuttle time involved would make the rest of our itinerary hard to fit in. Not to mention the forecast had gone from 20 to 40 to 60% chance of rain in Lake City and Creede. Not a good thing when you will be up to 13,000ft for 10 to 12 hours. So we opted to head over to Rico for two rides where the forecast was clear and we were close to our next destination Moab.

Calico is an interesting trail. I rode most of it over two days in 2012 as loops - up Priest / down Calico, and Winter Cr - Johnny Bull - Calico. At 20mi the full point to point on Calico is a great length for a MTB ride. It is high elevation and the views are incredible. Motos are allowed so it gets maintained. Yet I've rarely heard of anyone riding it. Locals do, but seems everyone else just does the standard Durango rides. Here is what people are missing out on....


The ride is best from north to south as you start 2,000ft above the south trailhead



There has been a fair bit of work done including some raised sections through wetter areas. A few low spots not yet worked on had deep ruts



When I rode Calico in 2012 I descended to the north trailhead. Riding up this section turned out to not be as bad as I expected, a bit under 2,000ft climb before the traverse began.

Lizard Head in the background



Views up top are incredible, a full view of the San Juans for most of the ride



Parts of the trail were incredible riding.



Other parts, like this descent, got really gnarly. I remember going up this last trip in the dark wondering how motos get up it. There are some big, exposed step ups. We had to walk down one short section



Riding the ridge



We stopped a lot to take in the views. Going was slow as well, we weren't averaging much more than 2mph



Liz shows off her shiny new rental. Turns out her bike arrived home broken!



We take the moto/bike/horse bypass. Hikers follow the top of the ridge. Next time I will try that for maximum summit points.



For a while it looked like we were going to get caught under some rain clouds but we never got hit.



Continuing on there is less HAB and more flow as we get past the most difficult climbs





We drop briefly into the trees



Before climbing back up above 12,000





Note the mountains getting hammered by rain on the right. That is where we will be tomorrow!



Still more climbing to go. Following the top of a ridgeline we are captive to most of its undulations



Fortunately what goes up also goes down and there were some really fun descents





Check out the ridgeline that just keeps going and going



Liz soldiers on after a crash that split her shin open "probably too wide to get stitches".



We get into a bit of a standoff with some cattle. They didn't move til we got right up on them. Lots of horns looking back at us



I forgot how much fun the Calico descent was. Open meadows with fast trails yield to forest riding through brilliant aspens and a couple legit rock gardens.



Great day on the bike! This was not an easy ride, lots of up/down on the traverse but the views and high elevation riding really make it worthwhile. I will definitely do this ride again.

[Dantheman]

Damn, Calico looks ridiculous.

[powtario]

Awesome TR! Few rides just got added to my Co itinerary

[evdog]

Damn, Calico looks ridiculous.

Yeah, looking back, it is. When I did parts of it before I didn't get the best impression. Priest to Calico gets you up top but you don't see the best of the ridge top riding. When I did the loop on the north end I got to the Calico segment in the dark and didn't see it. Having done the full ride now the scenery is pretty spectacular. The riding is tough, but well worth it IMO

[evdog]

Day 6 - Bear Creek to Indian Trail Ridge

For today's ride I wanted to get back to the Colorado Trail. We had already tackled most of the passes from Molas south. The one really cool segment we hadn't done was Indian Trail Ridge. I've done it heading south and it is burly. I wondered if doing it heading north would be better. We opted to modify a route I did last trip where I climbed up the Aspen Loop ATV trail to Sharkstooth Trail and then dropped down Bear Creek Trail. It turned out Bear Creek is actually good for climbing so we were going to climb most of it, take a cutoff trail up to Aspen Loop, and then Sharkstooth across to CO Trail and take Indian Trail Ridge south. Then drop Salt Creek Tr.

We shuttled a car to the ending point to avoid 6-7 miles of pavement and then were off



This ride starts in the aspens and turns a corner east up Bear Creek



There are a few short steep climbs, some nice techy rock and some descents too as the trail follows the hillside above the creek. Eventually we get spit out into some wide meadows



After we finally get into the trees we cross this bridge. I was expecting it to be mostly all HAB after this but turned out we could ride some of the trail.



We bailed on taking the cutoff trail to Aspen Loop and instead followed Bear Creek Trail all the way to the top where it intersects Sharkstooth. This saved us an extra 1,000ft HAB going over an extra pass.



The last half to 3/4 mile was pure hike a bike



Up top on at Sharkstooth we have to traverse across the basin before climbing over a pass to Taylor Lake



You can see the pass we'll take in the middle of this pic



The trail was really raw and in places hard to follow



Final push





Looking down into the next basin. Taylor Lake is around the corner. You can see the road the Hermosa shuttles drive in on for the Kennebec shuttle in upper center



More scree field riding



We stop at Taylor lake for a snack and to filter some water



It was getting late in the day and our planned exit down Salt Creek Tr was in doubt despite saving some time by going straight up Bear



The HAB from Taylor up to Indian Trail Ridge was only 500ft but it was tough. We topped out at 12,300



Presenting Indian Trail Ridge, Colorado Trail:



The trail follows this high ridge for six miles







We were actually riding it in the favorable direction but there was still some HAB





Getting on toward the end of the ridge, and daylight.







Three of us had carried lights with us on all our rides. Unfortunately Liz had not brought hers, and with dark approaching and none of us having ridden Salt Creek before we were leaning to bailing early. There is a connector trail off the CO Trail which connects to Hillside Drive a forest road that drops right down to our campsite. And if we can find it, we could take that part way and then get onto Rough Creek Tr to avoid dropping all our elevation on road. But we couldn't find the connector, so were stuck with our original plan to ride out Salt Creek in the dark.

We've had lights fail before on night rides so it isn't a big deal if not everyone has one, that rider just goes in the middle and we all stick together. But it got tiring doing this for 6 more miles of CO Trail and then all the way down Salt Creek. Salt Creek trail turned out to be a really good one. A bit steep and rutted in a couple parts but we all made it down more or less in one piece.

Thanks Liz for coming out to ride with us again!

[geomorph]

That is an epic TR.

[Dantheman]

Evdog wins Sprockets this year.

[jamal]

Neat!

[smslavin]

wow. you covered some ground. awesome.

[406]

Awesome TR, bummed I didn't go on this trip!

[evdog]

Awesome TR, bummed I didn't go on this trip!

We rode extra hard in extra-scenic spots just to make you regret not going even more!

[::: :::]

well done
thx for sharing!

[evdog]

Day 7 - Whole Enchilada

When I originally set up the trip I had mentioned Moab as a possible location for a few days. Neither Basil or Gil had ridden in Colorado before, nor Moab. While we could have easily stayed around Durango longer we had been able to secure spots on shuttles for Friday and Saturday morning in Moab, so we booked it over there after we finished the Indian Trail Ridge ride.

First up for Friday was The Whole Enchilada. Seems like everyone else was in on the plan too. There were 7-8 shuttle vans already unloading when our arrived at the top, and another 5-6 vans pulled up while we were getting ready to leave. Total gong show. Or maybe it was just the shock after not seeing anyone on the trail the past few days?

I knew they had been building some new singletrack on the route but I did not realize they had built trail right from the shuttle drop off point that traverses across to the first gate. Previously riders would descend dirt road for a mile before climbing back up on steep doubletrack. The singletrack was great, really fun and flowing, and did not descend unnecessarily! Great addition. Needless to say with a constant stream of riders we did not stop here for any pics.


The climb up to Burro pass spread people out fairly. The only downer was the guy in front of me who had to stop and puke every few steps but still wouldn't let me pass. I'm sure it was smooth sailing for him once things pointed downhill though!



Had we waited 20-30min the crowd might have cleared out and we probably would have had the trail to ourselves. But we were itching to ride, so picked a gap between riders and took off



I think Gil took some go-pro footage, if I can get it I'll post it. But there aren't many views anyways coming off Burro til you get to Warner Lake. Or so I thought... there is new singletrack that bypasses Warner Lake too! I was a bit bummed by that as the lake is gorgeous and would have had a nice aspen backdrop. Here is what it might have looked like today....



Instead we had only this view from the Hazard TH



Hazard was fun as always. We got in behind some other riders who were hauling. The main addition I had heard of and wanted to check out was Jimmy Kean Tr which is a new alternative to the Kokopelli fire road descent. Kokopelli used to be awesome, it was an old road that had narrowed down to fast double track. But a few years ago they it back to full dirt road lame-ness. Jimmy Kean is a 6-7 mile segment that would bypass this if you choose, but would add some climbing to the ride. We were all in for it.

It basically traverses along the ridgeline from the Kokopelli dropoff pullout, winding up and down all over and then traverses back to the start of UPS singletrack



Every climb is followed by a flowy descent and there are some incredibly fun parts to the trail



A lot of it is in the open like this. And there is some climbing on it. Could that little bit of climbing be why we were the only ones on it or do people just not know about it yet?



On to UPS...







Nothing much changed here except the sand seemed deeper in places



Despite our detour on Jimmy Kean we passed our pal Sean from the shuttle van (for the second time) who was bragging on the way up how he would be the first rider down the mountain (no pic of Sean, the kid in the pic below is a total ripper!)



The Snotch seems to get gnarlier every time I ride the trail. It is a bypass to the Notch (aka Hang Nail), which is, well - here's a vid I found years ago of someone cleaning it:



Every year on this ride I told myself I'd finally ride the Notch, and every year it looked a lot burlier than my recollection so I would chicken out. Never underestimate the power of self-preservation!

5 or so years ago they built a bypass with a section called the Snotch, which was still plenty technical. Checking it out:



The entire bypass is actually much larger and also goes around a steep climb. A much better route IMO.

Gil rides the first turn of the Snotch



Basil in the middle



And the last turn



This part was super gnarly, covered in slippery dust and now with a couple steps at the entrance and a thread-the-needle runout. I was going to walk it until I saw how hard a time Basil was having. Definitely easier to ride it!

There was plenty of stopping to gawk at the views







We suffered the Porcupine jeep trail section and finally were back on singletrack.



I stopped taking photos here as the trail is way too fun to stop on, and because Gil had the GoPro going. If he gets them uploaded I'll post them.

Another great ride in the books!