Easter Saturday - March 22nd

Saturday came and we decided on doing a hard ride (for us) and went up to tackle Gold Bar single track across to Portal as an out and back. This ride is more often done as a shuttle where you drop down Portal (or Poison Spider) to a waiting vehicle but that is not an option for us and we figured it would be a good early season workout.

It was a warm day and the riding is hard in both directions so I bought extra water and food. I felt pretty terrible most of the day due to a cold I seem to have gotten from my visit to the dentist a couple of days earlier. Riding in the heat on technical demanding and physically draining trails while under the effects of a Cold is tough times.


This gives you a little feel for the amount of riding terrain there is up on Gold Bar Rim. The background here is just a tiny portion of the trail.

Most of the trail is single track, but you occasionally share the jeep trail right on the rim itself. It was a picture perfect day with the snow covered La Sal mountains providing the back drop.

Amber was riding steep rollers really well all day. This is the entry into the next sequence of photos.

I wish I was positioned different for this sequence as it does no justice on how steep it really is.

It is a great section of small problems linked together in ever-steepening difficulty.

This is one shot I really wish I was in a different position for as it was a nasty 2ft drop that you had to roll because it was so close to the last move. So this photo does it no justice.

Another steep than it looks entry into a steep section.

The final roll-out amber endo'd pretty badly just after this photo and banged up her knee and ankle. But it certainly makes for a great photo!

Scenic vista's across the rim.

Timer self-portrait.

Yep, more pretty views amongst great riding.

And another steeper than it looks section with a number of moves combining to make it a great section to ride.

The exit move to the previous section.

Fatigue started to hit us both towards the end, unfortunately we were only half-way as we had to do the return trip.

Pretty mountains, pretty bike.

By the end of the ride Amber and I were both destroyed. My cold had blossomed nicely and Amber's knee and ankle were pretty beaten up. But it was a great ride in perfect conditions! One day we will be strong enough to do the full version of dropping down Portal and then riding back up Poison Spider and back across God Bar.

Easter Friday - March 21st

We had been looking forward to a long weekend in the desert for a while. Amber had to work late thursday night and there was crappy weather in the mountains. So we took the easy way out and headed out Friday morning and got over to Moab in time to head out to the Slick Rock to play a little.

It was jeep safari week, which as we found out last year is now an excellent time to visit if you are a mountain biker as you get all the fun side effects of a huge event like this but with noone on the trails. (as long as you still to the trails that are official jeep week trails - on those trails on the one group that is the jeep week group is allowed on the trail so you dont see anyone as long as you can time it to avoid the jeep line).


We opted to play around on the practice loop area late in the day. It was awesome temperatures and boded well for the next day.


Lot's of Slick Rock.


Some of it steeper than it looks.

After a quick ride we noticed lots of jeeps and people heading down a side road so we figured we should go see what the fuss was about. This was the site that greeted us as we crested a small hill.

It was a free play area where anyone and their dog could try to get their jeep up a steep face. Some cruised it, some had to work hard for it and some just broke their machines trying it.

I know if it was me on the top I wouldn't be anywhere near that close as some of the jeeps really had to gun it to make the last section.

I was fun watching some of the more dedicated rock crawlers play in steeper, harder sections.

March 7th - Moab

It was another clear weekend on the roads through the mountain so off to Moab we went!

Saturday was a full Sovereign ride, we hadn't done this ride for a while and it is always fun. Unfortunately it is also pretty hard to get photos as there is so much fast and flowing riding that you never stop.

I had a lot of "god I love my bike" moments on this ride particularly as you get to pump the fast flowing sections on the downhills.


Amber at the end of the open fast section after the first hill. They have also put a re-route in to take out the steep rocky technical section in the creek bed. I guess it makes the ride more consistent but that was always a good technical challenge up and down.


It was a pretty warm day with temperatures in the 70's. Our dog still has her full winter double coat going so she was feeling the heat. We used most of our water of her, but luckily there is a big pool of water in the second half of the ride that she could totally cool down in. She is starting to show her age as she turns 9 years old later this year.



Amber is a short little roller in the middle section. This is one of my favorite sections of trail on Sovereign - the section between the two big hills as it has lots of rocks and still lets you get same flow going and both hill are a blast to go down and a brute to ride up. (We always do sovereign as an out an back to avoid the horrible sand road options and the ride is awesome in both directions)


Amber another part of the same section. For some reason these sections with the broken flat plates of rock always remind me of home in Australia.


Heading back to the car - the rocky hill with switch backs. This is much easier up and down since they re-routed it a couple of years back.



We had planned on riding something like Porcupine on Sunday, but unfortunately Amber's TALAS 32 blew a seal so we just relaxed Sunday morning and headed home early. I will drop her bike into The Fix Monday so that it is all ready to roll for next weekend.

We have a long weekend on March 21st that will see us in Moab for the last weekend of Jeep Safari. I always used to avoid riding Moab during safari week but last year they changed how they do things and now the jeeps can only get on the major trails as a part of a safari week group - it makes for awesome trails for the mountain bikers as we are exempt from that!

March 1st - Pueblo

We headed down to Pueblo again on this Saturday. Unfortunately our camera battery died before taking any shots.

Amber and I were both very lethargic so we made a pretty short day of it, but we did run into another Mojo rider - Pastajet from MTBR.

Feb 23rd - Moab (part 2)

After the Blue Dot we had some food and headed over to a trail we had been told about last Fall.


Less traveled - but lot's of fun.


The trail meandered along a small canyon for much of the way.


Nice back drops.


It is hard to tell from this shot, but this was a technical move that we just could not commit to. It started with a small wheel biter before rolling down a steep rock slab. It is something we definitely need to come back to.



Not long after this I broke my chain and that put an end to our afternoon ride. Amber bailed out an access road and went and got our car while I re-joined the chain together. Unfortunately I had neglected to bring a quick link with me so it was only a bad jury-rig that just let me ride out to meet Amber with the car.

All in all it was another fun trip to Moab and the drive wasn't that bad either.

Feb 23rd - Moab

We finally go a clear weekend on the roads so we packed up the FJ and headed over to Moab for a weekend in the sun.


There was a still quite a bit of snow around on many of the trails of Moab so we opted for the south facing trail of Gold Bar Blue Dot and were rewarded with perfect trail conditions. This is Amber at the very start of the trail.


And again a bit further into the trail.


Our Dog Moab relaxing.


This is on the way back down entering into a fun sequence of obstacles.


Amber almost back to our car.

Jan 26th - Pueblo

We headed down to Pueblo to take advantage of the fact that there was somewhere semi-close by that we could actually ride in January. We were rewarded with a picture perfect day and temperatures that wandered into the 60's as the day warmed up.

The riding in Pueblo is a lot of down a canyon or offshoot and then back up another. There was plenty of technical riding to be had, but very little that was mandatory scary. The trail builders had done a good job linking features and lines.


We started by first dropping into Lower Dog which also happened to be one of the more technical (rocky) options. We came back later in the day it was so much fun. But sadly never really got any photos that did it justice.


Next up was a trail called Freeride. It had a couple of fun ladder sections. Our dog always gets freaked crossing things where she can see through them and this was no different.


Amber on a wooden bridge.


A fun little rock obstacle just past the bridges.


After Freeride we headed back up and came down a trail called Pin Ball. this was another fun rocky endeavor that was all to short but good times regardless.


The best trail we did was Skull Canyon and we did it a couple of times down and a couple of times up. It had nice obstacles and a nice flow.


Amber taking a rougher line.


Near the bottom of Skull Canyon.

After a food break we headed back out and started with Lower Dog all the way down to the reservoir and came back up a trail call Stone Henge.

I guess it is a tradition to add to the stone piles. We opted to just ride.

Pueblo was fun riding that seems like it will be a good option in winter when driving to Moab is hard with weather in the mountains. It seems like it will get hot fast here so I don't expect we will use it once things start warming up in March and April - but you never can tell.