As there will be lots of pix i thought I would start a thread with mine to keep it cleaner. Scott, Blake and I came from the Portland area (1100 miles) and buddy Jason Came from St. Louis. Our most excellent digs... We started off EZ as 2 bikes had new pistons and we wanted to start on the EZ fun stuff. Day one... Slick riock fin-n-things Prospector metal masher loaded up and went to Cliffhanger Day one... getting ready at slickrock... Jason and Blake Blake and Scott On slickrock Blake loving the video game like riding. Blake liked to park his bike 8 inches from the 400 foot drops. and then take pix over the edge... Scott needs a kick stand... Blake had some funky dance going here, someone is happy to be on vacation... Buddy Jason (left) and me... I was going to do a stress test on the new skid plate... But Blake thought it a bad idea so I did not... Ride on... That's all I have for slick rock area Second half of day two coming up.
Next we were off to Cliffhanger. This is a cool out an back. Some pretty technical stuff but not real hard. One nasty section that Scott almost made and where he messed up his knee falling backwards off a shelf. This trail started at the bottom and climbs up to this massive ledge and bowl with huge drop offs and views. yes, we can ride all that... We headed back down the hill and that when Scott had his knee farking get off. several hours later... Scott is the King of adversity. While The other three of us would next three days crying on the couch Scott takes some meds and slaps a knee brace on and hits the gnar. I think he was onto something, put the pain meds directly on the brain through your ear. Day one done.
Day 2 was Sovereign trail without Scott. Very cool single track we managed to get 57 miles of. Lots of diversity, some nice hill climbs, sand, slickrock, ledges, single track, everything. Theres tons of vid coming on that on but i did not snap much for pix that day. did get some on day 4 with Scott when we went back there. day 3 was Poison Spider, Gold Spike, Metal masher and Gemini area. Long day, good fun. Poison spider is a lot of ledges and stepups, step downs, Some EZ some pretty big. All good fun. Rode up to this cool ledge... where Blake found out not to play with these... or you get to spend an hour removing spikes from your gloves and hands. This is his I just golden spiked my hands look... One of two WB165 kicking ass out there... Blake also learned another lesson. If you are going to put ice in your pack make sure there is room for water or you get to wait a while. More pix and vids of these rides coming, thats all i got for days 2-3
Day 4, we took it EZ on day 4. Scott had not got to do the sngle track so we headed back out there for about 45 miles. Scott all pretending there is nothing wrong with him... Jason loving the trail again... A break and the racers edge (6 hours old McGriddle)... Our helmets chomping at the bit... But the owners seem to want to rest. It was 104 here that day. Scott life happens, no matter how harsh the area... End of riding.
End of day 4 I tried my best to make them go ride somewhere else too but had no real takers. So I said lets go see the arches national park. That was real cool and a nice end to the vacation. there was almost no one there and we had this HUGE arch area almost to ourselves. the scale and amazing size of these feature will not come across in pictures. It is truly breathtaking in real life... Blake estimates it is about this big... Scott says bad knee and all, this is so crazy cool I am going to bust out a break dance right freaking here... Such a weird place Back side of the arc we climb up to and sit in... Yes, freaking huge (see the specks that are people)... I am 400 feet tall... This kinda gives the scale, the arch is still way above Blakes head here... Scott on pain meds trippin thinking he is being eaten by the land... Then he realizes he has a little Captain in him... That he need to release himself of... 3 times the trouble... Scott trippin on the good meds again... Uh Blake, thats a dude... Even trippin Scott knows which one is the chick... Short of Scott "Scotting himself up" this was a GREAT trip. 2 flats, one smashed pipe, one airbox cover missing (my GG) and one messed up knee but otherwise solid 4 days of riding with great friends. this is what this riding gig is all about for me. Lets do it again.
That's really an incredible looking place .... I bet it is hard to keep your mind on riding with all the scenery around all sides ....
"Good time had by all." I love riding in Utah, but if you come to Arizona (in the winter) we have some much larger cactus to play with.
Did you see any other riders? Didn't seem like it. Bet the eastern tree riders are jealous. Wife and her friend and I skied the last day at June Mt. in Mammoth area and we were the only skiers on every run (7) we took that day...last week. There were other skiers there, just not visible on our runs. Weird.
maybe about 10-15 total for the weekend. Not a lot. Lots of rock crawlers and Razors though. Tons of MTB people most of which were very cool. One lady was super cool.
That is so true...photos can never do the Moab area any justice, no matter how amazing it looks in your photos! Looks like you guys had a great time. Thanks for posting up all the photos! You know i love `em
Beautiful pics! A group of us are planning a road trip to Miller this fall. I may just ditch them and ride around that area.
