Thanksgiving 2010 - Moab, UT

Amber had Wed of before thanksgiving so we packed up the car and headed out early to avoid to traffic and to try and beat a storm that was coming in. Luckily we managed to do both and gave a friend a ride out to Glenwood Springs as well so she could spend Thanksgiving in Snowmass with family and enjoying what was looking to be an epic opening weekend for the Aspen/Snowmass mountains.

We had grand plans but as is the way of things on road trips you have to be adaptable.

Thursday we thought we would go and do some shuttles on the Porcupine DH race track but were met with a lot of the white stuff at the drop point. Amber opted to take the first run down.

This is the exit of the DH run, I rolled my small bike down to meet Amber.

It was snow covered 100% of the way and although the dogs absolutely loved the trail it was less suited to riding bikes on being a slippery and cold ride down for Amber with about 4" of snow all the way.

In the afternoon we had originally planned on pushing up Portal and checking it out but after bumping into a friend earlier in the day we decided to check out the Chilli drops. They are a number of DH trails up behind the original location of the Chilli Bike Shop. Some really fun riding that ends with very steep terrain. The steepness was very reminiscent to parts of Idaho Springs and was loose and rocky as well. We each did a run and Amber pushed up the bottom to redo the steep ending.

On Friday we decided to head over to Green River for a day trip. There have been a number of great looking videos on VitalMTB recently that piqued my interest for the area. The Alex Pro video being one of them.

We didn't really have any directions so we headed out a likely road and stumbled onto an awesome looking area with spines and features all around. The area we came across wasn't the area in the Alex Pro video but instead was the area that the Drop In crew visited. Season 5 - Episode 10, Steve Romaniuk and Mike Metzger push up and ride down.

We warmed up playing on some of the lower spines. Push up, roll down, repeat. :)

Everything is much steeper than it looks, but everything was fun and confidence inspiring with great soft dirt and good clean entries and exits. Amber enjoying one of the steep rolls.

Part of the fun was linking the spine sections.

Really was a fun zone to play in, We will definitely go back an visit again.

After warming up we decided it was time to do the big push and head up the mountain more and checkout the feature that the Drop In crew hiked and rode.

It was also a trail that the dirt bikers also rode. This is the view as you start pushing up. We are heading all the way to the rock pillars on top.

Up, Up, Up. The dogs came as well.

Steep in sections, this was one of the lowest angled sections. Moab rests while Amber and Bishop push on.

Looking about down from about half way.

Almost at the saddle.

Amber dropping in from the high point. The steepness and the exposure definitely played on your mind as you started down. We definitely want to go back again with water and food to be able to stay and play on sections to get comfortable with the terrain.

Amber controlling speed.

Rolling a steeper section. We controlled our descent where as Steve Romaniuk rolled it as a wheelie in his version.

Looking back at the mountain and the spines on it's flanks.

On Saturday we were feeling a little lazy and went and checked out Porcupine on the forlorn hope that some of the snow had melted. Unfortunately it was still there in strength so we decided to go for a drive and go and have a look at Top of the World thinking that it might be a fun to 4-wheel up and the ride down.

It was definitely some fun driving as there was a lot of snow and ice, but the riding was not as friendly given the time required to drive. So Amber took a run down and we called for the for the day.

Fun riding in the snow.

We headed home pretty early Sunday morning to try and beat the holiday traffic and to stay ahead of another storm front that was coming through and threatening road closures in the mountains. Luckily again we avoided the storm and the worst of the traffic.

A great weekend of exploring and we will be heading back to Green River.

Last October weekend in Moab - Moab Ho Down

We were both really excited to be heading back over to Moab again for the Halloween weekend after hearing that they would be doing a Life Cycles Premier on Friday night and having the DH race again on Sunday.

The Ho Down is put on by Chili Pepper Bike Shop and is in it's 5th year. Tracy and Ryan at Chili have done a great job building up the grassroots event and added a film festival to the agenda for this year.

We both took Friday off so that we wouldn't have to rush out there to see the movie and managed to get a couple of DH runs in on the race course before the sun went down. The DH race starts at the lazy man's porcupine drop point and comes down the Classic Porcupine climb ending at the Water Tanks exit. The Super D race starts at the LPS grate and comes down the same finish.

The movie night was started with the winner of the amateur submissions. It as a short film of a local we know well from the race season - Aaron Brags - riding the Portal trail like I didn't even know was possible. Really well filmed and made me want to push my DH bike up portal to try and ride it racer style somewhat like Aaron did.

The main even was Life Cycles. The film was a mix of amazing bike sequences in the same sort of presentation as The Collective but it was short with a lot of other sequences of the style of Earth. The combination was spectacular! We will be buying this on blu-ray once it is available. Awesome bike porn!

Saturday we decided to do a pay shuttle of Porcupine in the morning and self shuttles of the DH track in the afternoon.

Amber amped and dressed to play for the day while we wait for the shuttles to arrive. Unfortunately shuttles were not dropping for Hazard or Kokopelli because of the snow and mud from recent storms and instead dropped us at the bottom of the Kokopelli trail which meant a climb up to UPS. I was surprised at this drop as I would have just avoided the climb and come in from above LPS had we known.

Amber in a section of LPS. We really didn't get any photos worth much as we were having to much fun just riding bikes. Amber started slow but by the time we were in LPS was a pedaling monster all the way across LPS and the Porcupine Rim as well. Great weather and great trail conditions all the way.

One of the gullies in the bottom of Porcupine.

After some lunch we headed back out and did a bunch of self shuttles on the DH track. We were both unsure as to which bike (Mojo or 951) to race with as the DH track has some flat sections with a lot of pedaling. I found that for me my DH bike was faster as the big 38 tooth front ring was much better than the 24 tooth ring I have on my Mojo so that even though it was easier to pedal on my Mojo I could nail the DH obstacles faster and better on my 951. Amber however found that her Mojo was a better choice for her than hauling the big bike around. I managed to pinch flat my last practice run on my Mojo as I decided to go the big bike while Amber went the trail bike.

A really awesome day of riding bikes

On Sunday we had hoped to get some practice runs in but we got moving later than we would have like and missed our chance as the Super D race was seemingly going to be starting early. We took the dogs up the trail for a while before coming back down and getting our race kits on.

The race was great fun! and we will race it again next year for sure. Amber got 1st place in a small pro-women field even with a mechanical. She dropped her chain high up on the course and had to stop, get of the bike and re-set it so she could pedal. In the rush of it she put it back in place on the granny front cog and left it there for the rest of her race run. I was really happy with my 3rd place in Sport Men and we both got prizes at the end of the day. (Amber's were pretty awesome swag, mine was an excellent beer glass).

Results: http://news.chilebikes.com/
Mountain Flyer article: http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/view.php/moab-ho-down.html

After a really fun weekend we made the journey home to arrive at about 11.30pm in time for Amber to submit an assignment for her masters that was due at midnight. Full and fruitful days and nights are the only way to live!