Tag: road trip

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bikes general trip reports

Moab 4: Porcupine Rim (no porcupines present)

The Moosling and I spent a morning around camp – mostly climbing the mountain and going exploring – while Alex and Greban went riding on the Slickrock trail.

Later in the morning our messiah (aka Jeremy) turned up, and Alex & Finn performed shuttle duties, dropping us off at the top of the UPS trail (no higher, thanks to muddy trails) to start Porcupine Rim. Porcupine Rim is one of the ‘must-do’ trails of Moab, and though it largely consists of double track, it certainly has spectacular views. Most people do it as 23km of mostly downhill (although it’s far from easy, effortless downhill), and a few mad folk do it as a 50km loop. I have a suspicion that Alex and I would fall into the latter category were it not for the limiting factors of offspring and riding with more mentally stable companions.

After an initial uphill slog, we started winding our way downhill on pleasant single track through the trees.

The trail kept sneaking up to Porcupine Rim, with outstanding views of Castle Valley, so there were quite a few photo stops.

I was nursing my bike a little, as I’d realised that not only were my front shock seals gone, but my front and rear brake pads were both close to worn through as well. Nonetheless I mostly managed to hang onto Jeremy and Brendan’s tail as we flew downhill, and it was a good crash course (thankfully with no crashing) in remembering how to descend on dirt.

The last section of single trail by the Colorado River gets a little more interesting and exposed, but in a thought-provoking rather than mind-numbingly terrifying sort of way (despite Brendan’s attempts beforehand to ensure I was well and truly worried about falling to my doom on this part of the trail). By the time we descended to river-level and the car, I was just ready for the trail to keep going and going, and was more than a little disappointed that it had ended.

We did treat ourselves with showers in town though (Sand Flats has no running water), and then we even bought dinner instead of cooking back at camp. Luxury.

Distance biked: 27.5 km
Elevation gain: 176 m

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bikes general moosling trip reports

Moab 3: Sovereign Trail System and Klondike Bluffs

The day started with rain, and I happily lurked in my tent until I was ordered forth by a toddler overlord who requested ‘tasty food’. I cooked porridge in the rain, and I don’t know if he was terribly impressed. I wasn’t either, as the showers continued until 11am or so. We moved our picnic table under the juniper tree and huddled.

Brendan, who by this stage was known as Greban (and don’t even think of arguing with a two year old on such matters, it’s just not done) suggested we should ride the Garden Mesa trail over in the Sovereign Trail System. In a pattern that was to be repeated many times over the coming days, I said “Oh alright, that sounds like a good idea”, and we set off.

The Sovereign Trail System is full of coppery green, and looks suspiciously like a generic ‘alien landscape’ set from any number of low-budget space movies. After overcoming my initial reservations about this strange green landscape, the trail turned out to be fun, if a little on the sandy side in places. The place was fairly deserted as we climbed up onto the Mesa, rode around a bit, and then dropped down back to our car.

Here Brendan rides towards the camera in a completely un-staged photograph

After returning to camp for what was either a late lunch or an early dinner, who can say, we all set off together and headed to the Klondike Bluffs area.

The excellent campsite at Sand Flats

By the time we started riding it was around 5pm, which ended up giving us really nice light, a good temperature level, and pleasing lack of rain. Now if only we could make it to the summit and back before sunset, we wouldn’t be eaten by wolves. (Spoiler alert – No-one was eaten by wolves)

The riding was pleasant, and easy enough for towing the Tout over, and finished with a wee walk into Arches National Park to reach the summit of the Klondike Bluffs area. The Moosling was impressed with his freedom, and enjoyed galloping to the top of the mountain and declaiming something or other at the pillars.

And so we descended the mighty mountain, and it was lovely and quite enjoyable, and then the Moosling played ‘Help, help, I’m stuck in a cattle grid!’ while we loaded everything back into and onto the car. (Oh, and there were also some alleged dinosaur footprints, which I was unexcited by)

Distances biked: 14.5+14 km
Elevation gain: 320+225 m

Categories
bikes general trip reports

Moab 2: Gear Shakedown on Moab Brand trails

The first day we arrived in Moab, overnight temperatures were forecast to reach a low of minus 5oC or something silly like that. For some entirely unrelated reason we decided not to camp on the first night, and instead spent the evening huddling in a cabin in Moab itself. Well actually, I went out for a run, exploring some of the local single track, while the menfolk unpacked the car, cleaned and overhauled the bikes, and cooked dinner.

The following morning we packed everything up again, and drove our little car convoy out to the Moab Brand trails. Just north of town, they were the perfect place for a gear shakedown, and nice and friendly to test out the new Tout Singletrailer we had acquired (courtesy of Finn’s Zaida).

For the record, the Tout could easily handle the Lazy-EZ trails, as well as Bar M and Rockin’ A. Probably a few of the others would have been fine too, we didn’t explore the entire trail system.

Most of the Tout towing on the trip was done by Alex. Well over 95 percent of it. It’s much lighter and more maneuverable than the Chariot, but has a completely different feel to the towing – unsurprisingly given that it attaches to the seat post rather than the rear wheel spindle. It’s also much more stable – the Chariot isn’t very hard to tip.

There were a few things that could either be improved on, or that just have to be taken into account. It could be narrower; although it’s narrower than your handlebars, the width is low to the ground, meaning it occasionally has issues with rocks and features that the bike can just roll past. It’s also inclined to cut corners, so that has to be taken into account when you’re making turns.

All in all though, it’s a fantastic little single track machine. The rear shock seems to work reasonably well, and the Moosling was pretty happy to chill out on his bench seat – oh, another added bonus is that you can put the harness on after the helmet is already attached to the toddler (not the case with the Chariot).

Above you can see Brendan displaying the typical “Moab grin”. This is the facial expression common to mountain bikers riding in the Moab area, however scientists are yet to explain this puzzling phenomenon. It is suspected they may be thinking something along the lines of “I can’t believe I’m riding my bike in Moab, this is fantastic!”, although conflicting studies have suggested it’s merely an allergic reaction to the red sand.

After our little trail adventure we headed up into the Sand Flats Recreation Area to the east of town, and had our pick of the campsites. Our first choice somehow ended up being the best one available (following comprehensive surveys of other available campsites performed shortly after arrival). We had a juniper tree, a nice large camping area, and a small mountain for the Moosling to climb. And so Alex and Brendan headed off into town to ride some more single track, while the Moosling and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the area and playing in the sand.

Distance biked: 18.5 km
Elevation gain: 185 m