Moab, Feb 24th 2007

We finally managed to escape the front range and get through the mountains for a weekend at Moab. It had been 6 weeks since we last rode our bikes and I was very concerned at where our legs and lungs would be after such a long time out of the saddle.

We had tried to get to Moab the past 2 weekends, but no joke, the highway (I70) was closed because of weather both times on the Friday when we needed to leave. Last weekend we had even planned on a 3 day weekend but after the roads were shut on Friday and we got up early Saturday to find them still shut we bailed on that as well.

So we finally managed to race ahead of this weekends storm warnings and had a mostly good drive with just a couple of short sections of near white-out conditions and made it to Moab! Things looked ominous though as the entire drive south from Grand Junction to about where the Gemini Bridges road leaves the highway there was at least 1" of snow on the ground. Around Moab itself was just wet from rain rather than snow.

With this in mind we opted for a southerly facing ride an went for Gold Bar Rim as the ride of choice, it has the advantage of being familiar in the first part of it because we had ridden it so many times before. I was hopeful that familiarity would help against the inevitable lack of fitness.


Fortunately both Amber's and my legs and lungs had held up over the break remarkably well. Amber had been using the trainer and I was just lazy - but we both felt strong.


Well at least in the first section up to the rim....


As always the first part of the ride was excellent.


Although for the last parts both of our legs were starting to feel less strong.


But after some food and a rest near the top we felt revitalized and decided to tackle the single track across the top of the rim. The section across the top is much more technical and has a lot of steep downhill sections (none are photographed because we were either too busy smiling or too busy walking).


but there were a few nice photos to be had.


I need to take some better pictures of the rocky downhills. This ride is easily one of my favorites in Moab because it really feels like you are riding far from anything and in exactly the sort of terrain I always think of when I think of the desert - rocky, remote and rugged.


This is the view from the end of the trail. At this stage you can descend the Portal trail down to Potash Rd or join up with the end of Poison Spider and descend down that ride.

We however were parked at the start of gold bar and faced the reality of turning around and returning via the technical single track we just (mostly) descended. The return trip is brutally physical and the total ride ends up being 18miles of amazing and technical single track.

It really doesn't get any better as a way to kick-start a new year of mountain biking!