A Quick Mountain Biking Trip to Moab

The day didn’t start out well. Christian and Greg were supposed to be at my place at 6. I called Christian at 6:10 and woke him up. That made me pretty mad. He and Greg showed up at 7 and we were on our way. The drive down to Moab took about 3 hours, though we were slowed a bit by snowy roads in Spanish Fork and Price Canyons.

It was weird going to Moab and not climbing there. This was to be strictly a mountain biking trip. Sad. The first trail on the agenda was actually a series of trails: the Brand Trails, to be more specific. There is one big loop (the Bar M trail) with three smaller loops branching off the main trail. The Bar M started off with some flat riding on a wide dirt road, which eventually turned into more interesting doubletrack. After a few miles we made it to the start of the Bar B loop. The beginning was pleasant singletrack onto the top of a hill. On top of the hill there we started getting into the slickrock. This was my first time biking on slickrock (for those who don’t know, slickrock is just giant slabs of horizontal sandstone that you can ride on), and it was surprisingly bumpy. My hardtail mountain bike wanted to buck me off several times. Greg’s borrowed $2000 mountain bike got two flat tires. The Bar B finishes up with more dirt singletrack before joining the Bar M again,

The next trail was the Rockin’ A. This trail was almost entirely slickrock. About fifteen minutes into the ride, Greg got another flat, and this one was irreparable. His ride was over. We left him to fend for himself and make his own way back to the car while Christian and I kept riding. The hardest thing about the slickrock was negotiating the steps you’ve got to go up. Also crappy were the many dips and immediate rises that wanted to destroy the bike’s rims.

We finished the A trail and moved on to the Circle O. This loop was three miles long and entirely singletrack. It was getting tiresome and kind of boring by the end of it. We finished it up, though, then finished the rest of the Bar M and made it back to the car. Total mileage, according to my GPS, was 12.24 miles. Greg was there but his day of riding was done. Not only was the bike messed up, but he had sprained his wrist in a fall. Bummer.

We went into town to get food and gas. We ate at the Chinese buffet place there on Main Street, and it wasn’t bad (though no as good as the Chinese buffet Crisco and I had in Hurricane last month). We then hit up Arches National Park. We wanted the food to settle before another ride and we wanted to check out some climbs we wanted to do. I love Arches. It’s a beautiful, beautiful place. We took some pictures and then headed back to the biking.

The next trail we did was called the Sovereign Singletrack. Greg stayed in the car and slept while Crisco and I biked. The plan was to bike up a trail called Salt Wash Singletrack and bike down Sovereign. And man… bike trip reports are boring. I’m getting bored just writing this. Anyway, suffice it to say that Salt Wash was super sandy and bumpy (slickrock), and Sovereign was steep and fun but also punctuated with lots of bumpy singletrack.

We made it back to the car eventually. My butt was sore and Crisco was really really tired, but we survived. Total mileage was 10.2 miles. We hopped in the car and talked about future adventures on the ride home. Christian wants to bike more, I want to keep climbing, and Greg wishes he had more time to do either. Awesome.

Oh, and I love living 3 hours from Moab. <3

Nice car ornamentation in the parking lot.

Getting ready to ride.

The sign at the trailhead that shows the four different trails.

The first couple miles of the Bar M were dirt road.

Christian coming up the hill on the Bar B.

Christian riding through a gap.

Me looking stupid. I shouldn't smile in pictures like this. And the fingerless biking gloves (that look like weightlifting gloves) don't help...

Me on some slickrock. The brown line was painted all over the rock to show you where to go. Not cool, IMO...

She's old and ugly, but she was $100 and she works like a champ. It was the only bike of the day (out of an $800 bike and a $2000 bike!) to not have problems.