Imagine a week long mtb road trip to New-Mexico, Utah and Colorado, riding every day on 'new' trails. That's what we did from April 16th-23th. We = James Perry, Ron Goodson, Russ Thompson, Lionel Berumen, Paul Carter and Marcel Slootheer, all members of the Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship, an Oklahoma City MTB club. At first, Moab, Utah, was our main destination, but while planning the trip we found some interesting places to ride 'along the way'.
First stop was Farmington, New-Mexico, about 45 miles south of Durango, Colorado. We rode the trails that are part of the Road Apple Rally Course, a yearly mtb race; pro racers like John Tomac, Ned Overend and Daryl Price show up every year for this race, it's one of the oldest mtb races in the US. Anyhow, we rode 'the land of whoops'! The name says it all; this place has whoops, jumps and rolling stuff everywhere. On Saturday we rode 1/3 of the course; the Kinsey trail and the Seven Sisters loop. On Sunday we rode 25 miles, beginning with Mainly Whoops (motocross trail) which later connected with the fun stuff we rode the day before. Seven Sisters soon became our favorite section with 2 big drop-off's and 2 table-top jumps! Amazingly we didn't see many locals on the trail at all, with the awesome single-track they have you would expect the trails packed with riders. Not so...

Russ and Marcel riding the whoops in Farmington, New Mexico.

James on Seven Sisters.

Russ, James, Ron, Lionel and Paul.

Paul lost a pulley - Russ' temporary fix....

Our second stop; Moab, Utah, one of the mtb mecca's - you know, like Clayton (OK) :) We camped out this time. We rode the famous Slickrock Trail on Saturday, the 4th time for me. Even though the trail is only 12 miles long it takes about 4 hours to ride it because of all the technical sections, steep climbs and awesome views, and thus many stops. We were not in a hurry anyway. Don't expect single-track, it's all rock and it looks like the moon or something. This trail is all about commitment. Some sections are so steep, if you would stop during a climb you'll probably fall back down the hill, and slickrock doesn't give... Not like the name suggest, slickrock is not slick. It's more like sandpaper which provides excellent traction to climb those insane steep sections. The trail is 99% rideable if you like the hairy stuff.
Next day we hooked up with David Sigler and Tim Harington and rode the best ride in town; the Porcupine Rim. The trail starts with a 3.5 mile climb to get to the rim that overlooks Castle Valley. The view is worth the climb! After lunch we started the 12 mile downhill. At this point the trail is still a technical Jeep road with rocks and drop-offs everywhere. David found a good section and broke a finger, and also needed 5 stitches after his carbon-fiber bar-end cut him during the fall. I was glad I had a first-aid kit with me. After patching him up we continued. The Jeep road turns into single track and it becomes quite narrow. Don't look at where you don't want to go (canyons!), just focus on the trail. Most technical (read - rocky) sections had a line that made them rideable, you just had to spot that line.... Some sections were just too difficult, at least for us. Sore hands and shoulders afterwards, but a big smile on the face on the way back to the campground. The hot-tub that evening felt oh so gooooood.

Lionel on the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah.

James taking the lead.

Paul climbing in granny-granny.

A nice view of the Colorado river, and the Porcupine Rim trail.

Russ is going to make someone a good wife...

Russ on the Porcupine Rim trail - the uphill.

James and Tim.

Gee, don't we look, uh, red today....
FLTR - Ron hidden behind Tim, Marcel, Lionel, James, David, Russ and Paul.

Castle Valley, from the rim.

Lionel going for it.................... Lionel getting stuck!

Porcupine downhill...

Next town on the 'to ride' list was Fruita, Colorado, only a 90 minute drive from Moab. I first read about this place on the internet and the trail descriptions sounded real good - the key words 'single-track' were mentioned often. We visited "The Edge" bike shop in town for trail maps and advise. That evening we rode Mary's Loop, an easy 10 miler to get familiar with the type of riding in that area. It's like the single- track part of the Porcupine Rim minus some of the very technical stuff. We picked the Kokopelli area with trails overlooking Horsethief Canyon and the Colorado River. Mary's loop has 400' of climbing, with 50% single-track. The single-track rolls real good, with some technical rock sections. Next day we rode 22 miles. Oh, did I mention that so far the weather had been great? 40's at night and 70-80's during the day. Well, by now it was very cloudy and rain could be seen in the distance. Troy Built was the first (uphill) section we tackled; 100% rideable single-track, but very steep in places. We connected with the Lower Lions loop, a more technical section. Rain was moving in. After Russ fixed a tire with duct tape (hole in side-wall) we finished the ride with 'Handcuffs', a short loop in a canyon. It got colder (OK, we were spoiled by the nice weather we had earlier in the week) and we headed back - we rode 22 miles that day. We cleaned out the salad bar at City Market; Russ won with a 2.9 lbs salad... And we also hoped that Amtrak wouldn't wake us up again at 4 in the morning. (Thanks, Ron for pickin' out the motel).

James on Troy Built.

Overview of Hand-Cuffs.

Paul on Lower Lions.

Lionel on Hand-Cuffs.

Next day (Friday) we headed for Durango. We more or less knew Durango had too much snow to ride, so we ended up 45 miles more south, in Farmington :) We felt like locals, returning to the same trail we rode 'last' weekend. We rode Kinsey and the Seven Sisters again, in the afternoon and also in the evening! Darkness is a terrible thing to waste, right?? The night ride rocked and Russ sampled the local soil when he endoed. He bruised a few ribs...bummer! A visit to the local WienerSchnitzel completed our last day of riding, those dogs sure hit the spot...

This trip was good. We rode 3 days in Farmington, 2 days in Moab and 2 in Fruita. There's nothing better than some good soul rides with friends. Racing doesn't even come close. We all had an excellent time, ate more Mexican food than we should have, didn't drink nearly enough beer (too tired?) and just plain hung out and talked about the rides (man, remember that one gnarly off camber section with the sharp left turn and the 2 rocks in the middle???). Thanks guys for the good time! I definitely want to do Fruita again, but a road trip to New-Mexico would be cool too (less of a drive!). Who's in?