Thanksgiving in Moab

Thanksgiving is always a fun long weekend for Amber and I as we always head to the desert to play. Last year we headed to Moab and were forced further south by cold weather and snow and ended up in St George for the first time.

This time around we were hoping that the weather would hold up and we could just stay in Moab to avoid the drive and to enjoy the riding there. Amber also had her new Downhill bike for the 2009 race season and was looking forward to trying it out in Moab. Unfortunately her wrist was still pretty sore from a crash a few weeks early on Porcupine so it would be a day by day decision as to whether she would actually even ride.

We opted to drive over Thursday morning to get some rest and avoid the traffic leaving Denver.

Friday just I rode as Amber relaxed and kept the dog's amused. I didn't get any photos but had a great time as I went out and checked out in it's entirety a local knowledge trail. I rode it as an out and back and had a great time in both directions.

On Saturday I got a free shuttle in the form of Porcupine.


Conditions were interesting as snow had been falling recently and the cloud level was very low. It was only really rideable from the LPS drop point as snow was deeper the higher you went. This is the drop point we ended up using.


This is how it looked from the Kokopelli start.


Not a lot of photos as I was riding alone. But the trail conditions were actually pretty insanely nice with the moisture making the surface very tacky.


I did bring Bishop though and she loved the romp down Porcupine.


Amber snagged one photo near the start and then we were off.


It was strange riding in North Shore style mist and this is the conditions at the Porcupine lookout spot. (where LPS joins Porcupine). This is another rider approaching as he finishes the climb up the original Porcupine jeep trail. There were a few other riders out on the trail, but no where near the normal numbers.


A random shot of Bishop along the way.

As always, Porcupine was awesome times. The trail was perfect and tacky and the sense of solitude much higher due to the cloud and mist.


Sunday morning we opted to do a couple of runs on the little hill in the back of Sovereign from the Dalton Well Rd side. Amber's wrist was at about 80% which was enough to take her Socomm for a first ride. It is a great little trail section to push a big bike up and rail down.

Another fun Thanksgiving, although it was a pretty brutal drive home as there was a storm in the mountains that ended up closing Vail and Eisenhower passes for a while. We got held up in at the bottom of the highway to the Tunnel for a couple of hours before they re-opened the road. The drive home ended up taking about 10 hours instead of the normal 5-6hours.