long weekend: mtb

We were lucky enough to take the Friday before Labor Day off so, with an extra long weekend at hand, we drove down to Moab Thursday night.  (Yes, there has been a lot of Moab this year. Expect more of the same.)  We got into town about 8:45-ish, having gotten caught in traffic on I-15 between Lehi and Provo due to both an accident and increased traffic for the college football game.  After the drive, we needed to decompress just a bit and walked over to Woody's for a beer.  The bartender was quite surprised to see us out after the sun went down.  But not so surprised that she didn't remember what beer we drink.

 Rusty Spur

Friday morning found us on the dirt at the Moab Brand Trails around 8:30 a.m.  We decided to change things up just a little this time.  We still started out on Rusty Spur to warm up, then followed the Bar M loop just to the Bar B/Rockin A/Bar M junction.  We turned right to do Bar B counter-clockwise.  We'd never done this one before: it was more technical than our usual route, especially as we made our way down into the washes, but it had a nice long climb on a old road on the back half.  We also found a back entrance to Arches National Park.  No bikes allowed off-road in the park so we'll have to go back to explore on foot sometime.

Canyon next to the Rockin A trail

Back at the Bar B/Rockin A/Bar M intersection, we turned right and went out on Rockin A.  This trail we've done once before, back in 2012.  It seems to be one of the older trails in the Moab Brand system and is all on the slickrock skirting a pretty little canyon.  The first two-thirds were great and fun to ride but the last bit was more technical than either of us was comfortable with and we ended up walking a bunch of it.  We finally reconnected with the Bar M trail at the Circle O junction (we plan to give the Circle O a try another day) and finished the Bar M loop.  When we got back to the parking lot, we took the cut-off across, back to the Bar M, and did that half of the trail in reverse direction to what we normally do.  There's more climbing that way, for what it's worth.  It was getting hot at that point so we didn't linger too long over post-ride beers.

Ride stats:  16.66 miles; 2:24/6.9 m.p.h. (because of all the walking); 22.9 m.p.h. H's max speed

On Saturday, after our hike (more on that later), H took his MTB back to Moab Brand Trails to get some more miles in.  It was hot - although the temperature dropped consistently while he was out there - and he had the place to himself.  He said that the different angle of the light made everything really pretty: usually we're there as the sun comes up, not as it's going down.

A distant Arches National Park in the evening light

Ride stats: 15.92 miles; 1:24/11.3 avg. m.p.h.; 22.2 max speed

Our final ride of the weekend was on Sunday, up at Dead Horse Point State Park.  We didn't leave until close to 8 a.m. and there were about a dozen vehicles already in the parking lot, including two guided tours.  Once we got past a couple of groups on the Big Chief loop, however, we really didn't have to deal with many other riders.  It was a beautiful morning and we both felt like we were riding pretty well.  H has new tires and found that his cornering, especially on Whiptail and Twisted Tree, was much better.  I thought I had ridden out too fast (for me) on the front end, trying to put some distance between myself and some other MTBers but after a snack, I found plenty of strength in my legs for the second half of the ride.  Gorgeous morning, good riding, entertaining people-watching during post-ride parking lot beers.  It's all good.

Whiptail trail

Ride stats:  16.67 miles; 2:02/8.2 average m.p.h.; 17.9 max speed