7 days in Moab

General
1

Hi All,

I just got back from 7 days of riding in Moab Utah, with some mountain bike friends. Keeping up with 7 ultra-motivated riders and riding every day for 7 days straight was totally exhausting and really intense (we rode 4 to 10 hours/day every day) but ultimately awesome as we got a chance to explore a lot of terrain.

Anyone interested in the trails we did, feel free to send me an email (kris at krisholm.com).

In brief, here’s some info:

Bartlett Wash: Really fun, like a lower-committment slickrock trail. We did this the same afternoon we arrived.

Moab Rim: Highly recommended. Starts with a hike-a-uni ascent to the top of a Mesa, and then a beautiful singletrack across and down the other side. There’s a little slickrock and even a North Shore ladderbridge at one location. This is the opposite direction described in the guidebook; if you did it the other direction the hike-a-uni would be a super technical but doable descent.

Amasa Back: Where whe went on the Moab MUni weekend was only the start of the true Amasa Back. Most of it extends out a long spine thats bounded on both sides by the Colorado river. This was a long ride (7 hours) but is remote and rarely visited. Probably the my favorite ride here.

Fisher Mesa: Located at the top of Castle Valley across from Porcupine Rim, this is a 10 km out-and back (20km round trip). It’s a beautiful singletrack, but a bit of a grunt as you drop 1500’ on the way out, and have to climb back up to get out the way you came.

Upper Porcupine Rim. This descends the Kokapelli Trail from the top of the La Salle mountain loop road at over 8000’ elevation. The singletrack is awesome and descends to the top of the Porcupine Rim trail, making this a good all-day ride. We did it once as a combination with Fisher Mesa for a really long day, and once on it’s own for a solid but not epic day)

Fins & Things: This is a 4wd road that makes for a fun intermediate level MUni ride, starting downhill of the main Porcupine Rim parking lot, ending at the Moab slickrock Trail parking lot. We combined this with a ride around the slickrock practice loop for a medium day.

Gemini Bridges: The entire route is easy doubletrack on a 4wd road and would make a great Coker ride if you drove to the top and rode down to the end at lower elevation, or a good workout and longer day if you started at the bottom. We combined the top half with Gold Bar Rim and the Portal Trail for a good day (about 40 km of technical singletrack)

Gold Bar Rim: Awesome super-technical 4wd road (amazing what 4wd vehicles can drive over in Moab) and technical singletrack towards and along the edge of a high mesa. Lots of big views over a very large cliff. If you know where you are going you can avoid most of the 4wd road with a more aesthetic but quite difficult singletrack along the edge of the mesa.

Portal Trail: Short but technically difficult descent, lots of rocks and steep sections. Part of the trail is death-consequence and several people have died trying to ride it (if you screw up you can easily fall over a 200’ cliff). However this section is walkable, quite safely as long as you pay attention.

Cheers,

Kris

2

The Moab maven

This probably makes you the worlds foremost expert with regards to unicycling in Moab!

Winners keep on winning!

Sounds like a blast and should keep your body in top form for a while :sunglasses:

3

Thanks for the detailed list! Makes my mouth water for next year.

One question. Were you on a unicycle for those 7 days, trying to keep up with the rest of your group?

4

Yes. It was really challenging, but all the really technical trails were fine- they only got ahead on the easier singletrack. Basically, as long as I didn’t stop much it worked out well.

Kris

5

Guess what. I already knew you were in Moab last week! I actually met a mountain b*ker on saturday on Lookout Mountain here in Denver who said he was riding with you there. I didn’t get the fellow’s name though. I told him, what a coincidence, I was just riding with Kris a few weeks ago in Moab too! (Though you may not remember me, we only met very briefly on the trail.)

Anyway I’m never surprised to hear your name mentioned. You must meet a lot of people, and you definitely make an impression for obvious reasons. Just thought I’d mention it.

Andy

6

Re: 7 days in Moab

So did you ride or walk? I remember you saying you were going to be more careful since you got married.

7

i was in moab 8 days ago. on slick rock i met a guy who said he was friends with you (kris). i wish i would of gone when you did. you are an awsome rider!

hay kris, do you ever go with the flow r.i.d.e.r.s? they just went thru utah and i went and saw it. someone said you went sometimes.

8

Nevermind the fact that you managed to squeeze what would be for me seven Moab Muni Fests into just a single week. What I’m impressed with is that you were able to ride hard for seven straight days and still walk and ride afterwards.

The two days of riding at this year’s Moab Muni Fest left my legs sore. I was having discomfort walking around Arches National Park the next day. How you were able to do seven days of hard long rides while keeping up with bikes is beyond me. Please tell me that all that riding made your legs sore.

:slight_smile:

9

I did four and a half days of riding in mountains last year. It left me aching like a very aching thing and my seatpost broken from all the pulling up on the seat. I was forced to give in and ride a bike for half a day because I didn’t have a spare post. Seven days must require insane fitness. I can see it’d be less painful with a brake, but even so, that’s one hell of a lot of riding, especially at bike speeds. Sounds like a wicked holiday.

Joe

10

Re: Re: 7 days in Moab

I must admit that I did ride it! It wasn’t horrifying as long as you paid utter attention to what you were doing, but it’s not something I could recommend.

For long rides with a lot of vertical in places like Moab, a brake is a HUGE help, both as a drag brake on long descents, and also for more technique-specific energy saving moves. For example, Moab trails are often really rocky and bumpy, and on a descent the small drops (6" to 2’ drops maybe) add up to a lot. It saves a lot of energy to ease (roll) over these drops instead of airing them all the time. Basically you just brake as you roll over the drop, until your tire eventually slips out and you roll out the bottom.

Kris