White Rim Advice

[imic]

I'm looking to ride the White Rim next spring over 3-4 days -- anyone have any advice to prep for it?

[mntlion]

3-4 days is a nice casual pace. might be hard to carry that much water? or you have truck suppport?

[alpinevibes]

Just did a 3 day trip in late Oct, our second time. Are you curious on bike or camping/trip logistics?

Biggest suggestion is reserve good campsites that make sense for your abilities and desires. We did 50/25/25mi, starting down Shafer and fininishing up Mineral bottom.


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[brutah]

I've always done it over 3-4 days with a truck or two. Makes the ride a blast, sorta like a raft trip on bikes. I've always gotten to ride the whole thing as others typically wanted a break. Doing it with a support truck or two is sweet because you can carry tons of food, beer and water.

I think the biggest thing is getting your saddle time up. Most people have sore asses from not being used to sitting on a seat that long. Plan for travel speeds to be closer to your mountain bike speed than your road bike speed. I don't think doing the white rim over 3-4 days is that physically demanding, just be ready to sit on your bike saddle for 4-8 hrs a day.

[muted]

Don't bring bananas, they get mushy by Day 2.

[grskier]

How 'off road' does your support vehicle need to be?

[Danno]

How 'off road' does your support vehicle need to be?

Needs to be a legit 4wd vehicle, with a low, but stock is fine.

I've done it 3 times, with 12-15 people and 3 cars over 4 days. As was said, it's like a raft trip on wheels. Happy to answer questions.

[Danno]

By the way, if you've never done a multi day raft trip, that means that serious advanced planning is needed.

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

How 'off road' does your support vehicle need to be?

In '08 I did it with a stock 4wd 2002 Nissan Frontier with zero issues. If it hasn't gotten worse since then I'd imagine just about any modern truck could handle it.

[Danno]

It's mostly just dirt road, but there are a few short sections that are legit four wheeling, as in a large majority of the people in our groups did not feel comfortable driving those sections. But someone who knows what they're doing could get a Subaru through most of it. But Murphy's really calls for a low gear.

[alpinevibes]

It's mostly just dirt road, but there are a few short sections that are legit four wheeling, as in a large majority of the people in our groups did not feel comfortable driving those sections. But someone who knows what they're doing could get a Subaru through most of it. But Murphy's really calls for a low gear.

I’d venture there a couple dozens of spots that would be an issue in an Outback (I’ve owned three).

Most stock pickups are fine as are any body-on-frame suv. We’ve done it with an 09 Tacoma and 2020 Tacoma with hitch racks (only a few scrapes) and a 2016 Silverado. Plenty of F150 and Tundras out there. Wrangler would make it easy but limited cargo space.

Saddle time is key for asses. It’s not tech riding but it’s tiring if you’re not ready to pedal. This year’s group was predominantly weak, wanted the booze cruise experience and ultimately wanted car time over saddle time: pick your group wisely! My wife and I brought our 15mo twins and that kept us at 50mi each.


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[Danno]

It all depends on how much you like your Subaru.

In case it isn't clear, I'm not suggesting anyone try that (and you're not allowed to, 4wd with low range is required). Just meant to point out how it's not 70 miles of 4 wheeling.

[imic]

Just did a 3 day trip in late Oct, our second time. Are you curious on bike or camping/trip logistics?]

Looking for a little of both -- on the bike, would 44s be enough or are 2.5" tires needed for it?

Any camping/trip logistics beta would be much appreciated!

[Bunion 2020]

Don't bring a BIG truck if you can avoid it. Done about 10 trips, usually supported out of Tacoma sized trucks. Last trip a buddy brought his F-350 crew cab and some of the narrow spots out of Potato Bottom were a bit harrowing. I was driving and concerned about dinging his ride.

Dishes are a pain, bring disposable paper plates. Prepared foods and vacuum sealed/frozen would be nice, last 4-5 trips it was a bit of a hassle cause the T/L insisted that we cook from scratch (his permit so....) and the cleanup was the suck.

White Crack is a cool camp site but often very windy.

The Murphys to Potato bottom section is great for boomers (usually day 3). Couple of cool side hikes in that section as well.

X10 on having your butt broken in.

[El Chupacabra]

We brought our Sierra 2500, extended cab, 8' bed, as one of two sag trucks last year on the White Rim. No clearance issues side to side or ground clearance. The other truck was a Dodge Ram 1500 shortbed, which suffered some dents - it had lower ground clearance.

I'd recommend a big truck, and a 3/4-1 ton one at that. We brought a ridiculous amount of water and coolers, and all that gets heavy. I think we had 12 people total.

[alpinevibes]

It all depends on how much you like your Subaru.

In case it isn't clear, I'm not suggesting anyone try that (and you're not allowed to, 4wd with low range is required). Just meant to point out how it's not 70 miles of 4 wheeling.

I hear ya and I just rolled over 200k for the Outback on Friday and have a leaking head gasket; I may try to sneak in and give it a shot

Looking for a little of both -- on the bike, would 44s be enough or are 2.5" tires needed for it?

Any camping/trip logistics beta would be much appreciated!

Tire width isn't a big issue, but a 2.4+ would make it a little cushier. The road mostly rolling sand/gravelly/slickrock with some chunky/chundery shots here and there.

If you've got more than ~10 people and willing drivers, bring two rigs. I agree with smaller vs larger trucks. Better to spread out the gear and you can send one ahead to set up camp stuff.
Camp at Mineral Bottom the night before, not in town, and get a reasonably early start.
Bring lots of water, bring a portable propane fire pit and a blaster.
Keep everyone's personal gear to one duffel and make sure people have legit warm clothes.
We've found that bikes usually outpace the support vehicles [stock trucks, driven by average drivers] with normal stoppage.

If you're rolling three day, I like the 50/25/25mi approach starting down Shafer. Camp 1 at Murphy: pretty nice, semi-protected sites up on the mesa; great views in the evening and morning. Then Hardscrabble, next to the river, pretty protected, then home. Labrynth is ok for night 2 but pretty windy. Can't speak to four day camp differences, except Gooseberry, Candlestick and Airport are pretty exposed.

[muted]

In '08 I did it with a stock 4wd 2002 Nissan Frontier with zero issues. If it hasn't gotten worse since then I'd imagine just about any modern truck could handle it.

Phil's truck? Same.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

If someone were to do this totally unsupported/solo......how would you do it? Do the entire loop ahead of time as a drive in the truck and stash water/dehydrated food every 25 miles?

What bikes are people running? A 29er long travel MTB ok with very fast rolling tires and running the suspension very stiff for the long smoother sections?

[Benneke10]

I'm doing it in a day tomorrow, I'll be the one shivering/starving on a green Orbea hardtail. Say hi if you see me!

[EWG]

Tire width isn't a big issue, but a 2.4+ would make it a little cushier. The road mostly rolling sand/gravelly/slickrock with some chunky/chundery shots here and there.

If you've got more than ~10 people and willing drivers, bring two rigs. I agree with smaller vs larger trucks. Better to spread out the gear and you can send one ahead to set up camp stuff.
Camp at Mineral Bottom the night before, not in town, and get a reasonably early start.
Bring lots of water, bring a portable propane fire pit and a blaster.
Keep everyone's personal gear to one duffel and make sure people have legit warm clothes.
We've found that bikes usually outpace the support vehicles [stock trucks, driven by average drivers] with normal stoppage.

If you're rolling three day, I like the 50/25/25mi approach starting down Shafer. Camp 1 at Murphy: pretty nice, semi-protected sites up on the mesa; great views in the evening and morning. Then Hardscrabble, next to the river, pretty protected, then home. Labrynth is ok for night 2 but pretty windy. Can't speak to four day camp differences, except Gooseberry, Candlestick and Airport are pretty exposed.

Looking for a little of both -- on the bike, would 44s be enough or are 2.5" tires needed for it?

Any camping/trip logistics beta would be much appreciated!

If someone were to do this totally unsupported/solo......how would you do it? Do the entire loop ahead of time as a drive in the truck and stash water/dehydrated food every 25 miles?

What bikes are people running? A 29er long travel MTB ok with very fast rolling tires and running the suspension very stiff for the long smoother sections?

I've done this enough times that I lost count. We had a standing group that did it every year for nearly a decade, for example. Damn it is a good time.

I've done it on wide tires and skinny tires. Doesn't matter at all. 1.9" worked fine when I did it on them. Narrow and hard is faster for the smooth sections, fat and soft a bit better for most of the sand. Whatever you already have on the bike is fine. I've done a lot of the classic trails on a cross bike and that would even work here, though the jarring is constant. It's not hard, though there are some steeps. It's just a lot of saddle time. Personally, I'd run my suspension supple. There are tons of tiny, constant shelf hits that will make your butt sore on day 3 for sure, so a little cush isn't a bad thing. That said I think I've done it on a hardtail maybe 5 times, and it was fine. Only ever done it in 3 days, which is perfect IMO.

There is a lot of dirt road, so keep that in mind. Which brings me to direction. I have only done it counterclockwise and really would not like to do it the other way. Counter means you are clicking off the boring part first - park at visitor's center, ride the paved road, then the dirt road, then drop in. You cover tons of miles that first day, all fast and slightly downhill till you drop in to the river. That means the road part, since it's fast and easy, can easily be handled by any suspension without driving you nuts. Slowly coming up it would sort've suck. It also means the scenery literally just gets better and better until the moment you end. Everyone should get the feeling and view of climbing out Shaeffer at the end of 3-4 days. It's awesome. If your days are unequal, make the first day the longest if you go counterclockwise.

If you did it in one day I'd stash water. Personally I would never want to stop long enough for dehydrated food. 3L bladder, tons of bars, one or two drops of water and bars along the way, get it done. Maybe I'd bring a coupe PB&J sandwiches. I can usually fit a full day's food somewhere in my pack. It's the water that is the issue for a 1 day, so any stashed food would just be emergency. And I know plenty of people how just bring a huge pack and 2-3 bladders and not stash anything. Obviously, if you do that, be careful. But you will run across other people. Usually. Know your skills and limits.

2 rigs for sure if you have 10 people. Hopefully you have folks that really want to drive. I've done this many, many times and have never driven due to others wanting a break. We always camp on BLM land on the way into Island in the Sky. Never brought a heater. Yes to warm clothes. Think like a rafter. First time I ever did it my wife and I (core lightweight backpackers) show up with those thermarest wraps that turn a thermarest into a camp chair, thinking we were being decadent. Dude we're talking to goes into the back of the truck and pulls out a full heavy steel and vinyl three part folding lounge chair like you find at pools. Another dude had made a bike trainer powered margarita mixer. We learned our lesson quick. Heavy does not matter.

This trip is supposed to be super relaxing and cut off from communication/your regular life. Live it that way. Some of the best trips I ever had were here - not because they were extreme, but because they were a time out. And play Bob Marley when driving. Thank me later.

Lastly, since it's so laid back, it's easy to get careless. We did it once while my wife was pregnant with my son. Another lady was pregnant also (yes they rode the whole way - but they are badasses. One of them was 3rd in the US Cyclocross nationals.) Anyway, someone did not use proper cooler hygiene. We wake up on the last day and everyone has been puking all night except me and one other guy. 13 super sick people. Pregnant ladies were way too dehydrated. We loaded them into the two trucks, threw everything else inside with as many people as possible, and drove out as fast they could. 22 miles or something like that. I'm sprinting the whole way on the bike to get out and get another car to come get the people who didn't fit but were in trouble. Sprinting up Shaeffer after 21 miles of riding on the limit was exhilarating, but extremely painful. Got everyone out and had 5-6 check into the hospital. Both pregnant gals ended up on IVs. Everyone ended up fine in the end, both babies were good, but it was a bit hairy. So don't let your food get contaminated. Only as good as the weakest link on the trip.

Funniest thing was the doctor took one look at the group and asked what restaurant we had eaten at. Apparently, food poisoning through dining out is a bit of a thing at times in Moab.

[EWG]

I'm doing it in a day tomorrow, I'll be the one shivering/starving on a green Orbea hardtail. Say hi if you see me!

Nice work! Give us a TR. Weather looks decent.

[Danno]

I've done it 3 times, and done both directions. I assumed the way we did it is a given, but given this:

There is a lot of dirt road, so keep that in mind. Which brings me to direction. I have only done it counterclockwise and really would not like to do it the other way. Counter means you are clicking off the boring part first - park at visitor's center, ride the paved road, then the dirt road, then drop in. You cover tons of miles that first day, all fast and slightly downhill till you drop in to the river. That means the road part, since it's fast and easy, can easily be handled by any suspension without driving you nuts. Slowly coming up it would sort've suck. It also means the scenery literally just gets better and better until the moment you end. Everyone should get the feeling and view of climbing out Shaeffer at the end of 3-4 days. It's awesome. If your days are unequal, make the first day the longest if you go counterclockwise.

it has to be said. One hudgely important piece of advice is don't do this. Do. a. car. shuttle. There is no reason to ride the pavement or boring part of road before mineral bottom. Either direction is fine, there is plenty of parking near the visitor's center or at the top of Mineral Bottom. Wasting any time/energy to bike the extra 25 miles of boring just strikes me as silly unless it is really important you to bike a full loop. The car shuttle is easy.

[Dumbest Known Time]

Did a white rim trip with a pack of friends and two trucks a few years ago. Absolute blast. We did 5 days with a camp day in the middle. There was a really wide range of bike experience levels on the trip. A year later one rider discovered their bike had a front derailleur that they had never used.... Everyone did fine after they met their quota of complaining about sore asses.

[Danno]

The Murphys to Potato bottom section is great for boomers (usually day 3). Couple of cool side hikes in that section as well.

The Fort Bottom side hike is a must do, IMO.

[Danno]

Also, buy this book, it's cheap and very informative: https://shop.cnha.org/products/a-nat...hite-rim-trail