In early Agust James, Ron, Paul, Anthony and Kim & Marcel (all OEF members) checked out some cool places to ride in the West. Starting on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we checked out the new Rainbow Trail which was recently highlighted in Bike Magazine. Ron and James checked out the first half of the 18 miles singletrack trail on Saturday before the rest arrived later that evening. The next day we all did the second part, from Locust Point to Timp Point and back - a 16 mile ride. The trail goes from view-point to view-point on the rim at around 8,500ft (the trail does not go into the canyon) with some nice pine needle and aspen areas in between (it's in the Kaibab National Forest). It definitely provides some constantly changing scenery. The trail has some good climbs and fast big ring sections and it's all 100% singletrack. We highly recommend this trail! Not only do you get to see the Grand Canyon but the trail is pretty good too. Btw, the trail from Parrisawampitts to Locust has more rocks and is not as smooth as the part we rode on Sunday but according to James it's still worthy...
Directions to get to the Rainbow trail from Fredonia (where we stayed); We followed a paved into gravel road (FS 22) directly out of Fredonia to the 'vista points'. It's about a 1.5 hour drive. Another route, from Jacob Lake; follow 67 south. After 27 miles turn right on FS 22 and follow signs 22 miles to 'vista points'.

A nice map of the trail, provided by the Forest Service.

James in a pine needle area.

Aspens! Kim and Paul.

James in the same area.

Group pic at the rim. Fltr: Marcel, James, Kim, Paul and Anthony. Ron is behind the camera.

"That's where we just came from" James says. Bike is Marcel's Cruz.

Awesome view. Now, on the South-Rim there would be 50 people around me...

Our second stop; Brian Head, Utah at 9,500ft. This ski resort area has been featured in a number of mtb magazines. This relatively small resort has a number of hotels/lodges to stay at, a few small stores and a couple of bike/ski/hike shops. Several bike shuttle services are available, we choose 'Brian Head Resort'. $8 per person (for 6 or more people) and a trailer with bike racks that could handle any type of bike without possibly damaging it sounded good to us. Combined with the excellent facilities of the Cedar Breaks Lodge where we stayed at (indoor pool, hot tubs, sauna, etc) we were really roughing it :-)
On the first day we rode the Dark Hollow trail, nicknamed "downhill of the gods", which starts at Brian Head Peak (11,307ft). After we got shuttled up there we were told to call them for pick up in Parowan (at 5,500ft) later that day. This trail is almost 100% downhill except for a few short climbs. The first 7.5 miles are all singletrack with a good mixture of fast flowing sections and steeper descents with lots of roots and rocks. Aspens and pine trees were all over the place, but some kind of beatle has done tremendous damage over the years, leaving dead trees behind. After 7.5 miles of excellent singletrack you end up on a fire road that brings you to the paved road (143) to Parowan. Both these roads are still fun to ride since it's no problem to reach speeds of 30 to 40 mph! When we reached Parowan we had ridden 14.5 miles. We stopped at the icecream shop and called the shuttle service to pick us up... We all had sore hands and arms from all the downhill sections so we called it a day and spend some time at the hot tubs and pool.

Group pic on top of Brian Head peak.

Kim carving a turn.

Aspens!

The next morning we rode the Right Fork Bunker trail, also starting from Brian Head Peak. It's a 12 mile singletrack to double track to fire road type ride. It has a little more climbing than Dark Hollow but the downhill single track is smoother and a lot of fun. The double track section is neat because of all the jumps and dips, the fire road was just plain fast!

Anthony and Paul on the Right Fork Bunker trail.

In the afternoon we rode Color Country and Lightning Point, a 9 mile all singletrack ride with a few short climbs and some fast downhills. It offered some nice scenic stops...

A stop on the Color Country trail.

James riding a rental, Anthony and Paul behind him.

Paul on Lightning Point.

The next day we drove to Flagstaff, Arizona. Just outside Brian Head is the Cedar Breaks National Monument. We didn't ride 'BlowHard' but this is what we would have seen from the bike...

Once in Flagstaff we visited some of the local bike shops to find the good places to ride. Mt. Elden is the most popular area, especially for those who like climbing. Check out this cool map, designed by Cosmic Ray (Mr. Arizona mountain biking) posted at Sinagua Cycles:

On Thursday we decided to ride up and down the Schultz Creek trail. We started at the Elks Club and rode uphill to the Schultz Creek trail head at 7,200ft. This singletrack trail climbs for 3.5 miles up to 8,000ft where it meets with Sunset trail. Here we took a break before riding down what we just climbed. This was much better! This trail flows! Watch out for some of the rocky sections and the roots that can suddently change your line. Back at the cars we decided that some good mexican food was in order. Walking back to downtown Flagstaff a big thunderstorm hit us, after 30 minutes it cleared up and the rest of the evening was beautiful and we spent some time in the older downtown area, visiting the shops and the local icecream shop. The next day I rode from downtown via Elks Club and up Schultz Creek trail to meet Ron, James, Paul and Anthony at the Sunset trailhead. We started climbing for a few miles on a dirt road and got lost. We finally climbed up part of Sunset before starting the descent down Little Bear. This trail has some pucker factor to it. James almost lost it on this one. Maybe it was that rental bike (his fork on his Fish blew at the Grand Canyon and locked up on him - TPC with free lockout!)... Anyway, the descent down Little Bear was fun for sure, but climbing up Little Elden was a struggle, it had some very loose sections. Back at the cars we all felt it pretty good. I said goodbye to the others (they were heading back to OKC, while Kim and I stayed another night in town before heading home on Saturday morning) before starting the downhill down Schultz back to town finishing a 23 mile ride. Here are some Flagstaff pics:

Ron on Schultz Creek.

Paul going down Little Bear.

James on Little Bear. On the bike and still on the trail...

Anthony flying down Little Bear. Turned out pretty good...

We were on the road for 9 days, drove 2,500 miles, rode 7 days in a row in 3 different places (total on my bike computer; 105 miles, max speed 41mph...). We climbed a bunch but mostly rode downhill. The singletrack was awesome with excellent scenery along the way. We recommend any of these places to go ride. Now we're back in OKC and everything is flat and little boring by comparison - oh well, we'll get use to it again, I guess...