Moab

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Road Trip! So the drive from Vancouver to Moab took 21hours in the end, we had a great drive but it was quite long… Once we headed out of Seattle we had views of beautiful snow topped mountain ranges. Then we got to Idaho the roads looked similar to that which I have seen in films (Thelma and Louise springs to mind) long straight roads, dry flat lands and lots of diners! Salt Lake City looked cool, though we only briefly stopped there to pick up our friend Pauline from the airport who was my roomie in India, she is hanging with us for 2 weeks. So we eventually made it to Moab and what a treat! Fantastic place, firstly its hot and sunny and secondly it’s a really pretty and happening town.. We have a cool unit right near the centre of town.

On our first morning we woke up and went straight to the bike rental shop. We all managed to get full suspension bikes Debs appropriately being named Tuk, mine a Kona Dwag named Bite. We planned to do Porcupine Rim a 15 mile trail with a 5 mile bike out. So we got the first and last shuttle to the trail head, 10 bucks a person ouch for the budget! As we set off we slowly began to realise that this was proper mountain biking, with everyone Kyle included having to get off and “hike the bike” at some point on the first 3 mile up hill section. An hour or so later (first day) we arrived at the summit point where we were rewarded with some amazing canyon land views and promptly stopped for a little lunch as the next section was what we had come for. 12 miles down hill! To say it was epic was an understatement. Although it was with hindsight probably a little technical for our first day. Either way we had an amazing ride down and even stopped for some pictures of various little drops we managed to find. Some larger than others.. see pics of Kyles drops and sequence. With smiles beaming we finished for the day. As we had built up quite an appetite and as it was hot and sunny there was only one option for that evening.. Beer and a BBQ. In all a perfect end to a perfect day.
Day 2 Saw us try Klondike Bluffs and Baby Steps track. A somewhat technically simpler track but still a good 20 miler on rough terrain. Another excellent day ensued and we were ready for Day 3 the daddy that made Moab.. Slickrock Trail. Slickrock is so named because the sandstone of which this trail is named after is apparently very slippery for shod horses but fortunately rubber sucks to it. There were a few insanely steep sections on this trail and it was amazing the gradients that you could go up. It truly is an awesome ride one which I would happily do again and again. A 12 mile loop full of gnarly steep sections and hairy descents it wasn’t overly technical but still on the money, Again please!. However Day 2 was also St Paddy’s day so we called it there and went to the pub for some St Paddy’s local brew.
Day 4 was our final day riding saw us tackle Sovereign single track and Bartlett’s wash. Sovereign single track was an awesome dirt single track through proper desert terrain and then into proper volcanic terrain with green dirt from the copper oxide and black glass volcanic rock. Bartletts wash is more slick rock heaven this time red rock with just one huge adventure playground. Lots of things too drop off and play around on. A big 30 mile day and awesome.
Day 5 was a relaxing day where we mucked around playing Frisbee in the yard and then went to the Arches National Park, where we hiked into the Fiery Furnace. The Fiery Furnace was an awesome area for climbing and canyon-ing with loads of cracks and crags to muck around on. We could have spent hours there but ended up heading out to catch the sunset at the windows. (two large natural arches that overlooked the Moab area and provided a great view for the sunset. Pity nature provided a cloudy day but it was peaceful and beautiful anyway.
Next stop the home of hedonism and the less salubrious Las Vegas.

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Comments

[ailsa]

jealous!
Jealous, jealous, jealous, but very glad you guys are getting in some serious fun, look forward to lots of happy mountain bike trips when you get back in 7 weeks !!!! xx

[ailsa]

where are the big jumps
Ryan thinks the ride looks too easy and wants to know if there is any decent terrain!!!

[DebzandSam]

Jealous
Tell Ryan he is just jealous and shouldnt be so resentful!

[Bhupesh Vora]

Love the Video!
Interesting sound track though, it feels like you should all be wearing long robes and carrying light sabers (or have horns in your head if you're on the dark side) :-) Or maybe you're saving this for Vegas!

[Dad Tuck]

Highly technical
The Whangarei Heads Road loks far more challenging !! Real Kiwis dont need suspender bikes !

[DebzandSam]

Suspender bikes?
What you looking at on the web dad..? Full Suspension bikes or Full sus.. not suspender bikes.. and like to see you ride it!

[DebzandSam]

Darth
Yep liked the sound track.. have to find artists that don't mind you using their music as sound tracks as most of the hosting sites just remove mainstream music.. did you see the Fernie Video?