Utah Part 2: Moab, Slickrock, Gooseberry Mesa

Part 2 of our installment from recent Southwest Slickrock participant John Brownlow. Thanks, John!

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Thursday: Finally, we arrive in Moab. It's a tiny, funky little town surrounded by huge vertical rock walls, a bit like Fernie in the desert. We meet up with our local guide Julia, and immediately embark on Moab's most famous trail, the Slickrock. Before we ride, Julia warns us that it's like 'three hours of stairmaster', and she's not wrong, but despite its fearsome reputation it turns out to be eminently rideable, and unlike anything any of us have ever ridden before. Terrifying climbs and descents are only made possible by the sand-paper like texture of the rock surfaces, and the 'trail' is simply a series of white lines painted on the rock surface. An unforgettable ride and one which features a seemingly endless menu of challenges, limited only by your own abilities and courage.

Friday: Julia guides us through the famous Porcupine Rim trail. An hour-long technical climb along a rock-ledge-strewn jeep road finally crests at a spectacular lookout, and then begin a 10-mile descent. The first two-thirds is a bike-eating rock-fest featuring a seemingly endless roster of boulder gardens, drops, S-bends and whoop-de-doos before narrowing to singletrack as the trail teeters a thousand feet above the Colorado river, subjecting the rider to extreme exposure and considerable vertigo, as well as numerous extreme technical sections, before finally descending to the canyon floor where we wipe the sweat from our palms and crack open a beer. Another unforgettable ride.

Saturday. Moab's third 'serious' ride is Amasa Back. It's an out-and-back, with a two-hour technical climb followed by an hour-long fast-but-technical descent. Others enjoy it but I'm not riding well and the trail seems crowded with both riders and ATVs. I almost endo several times, and a whipping sandstorm makes life ever more difficult. It's not a bad trail, but we've been spoilt by Slickrock and Porcupine Rim, and I leave feeling a little deflated.

Saturday afternoon, we head back to Brian Head in the hope of riding Virgin Rim, but as we climb into the mountains, a huge snowstorm hits and it's touch and go whether the van will make it to our lodging. By the time we finally make it to the ski lodge, there's five inches of snow and the temperature is -8C. The altitude (12,000 feet) is making several of us sick, and we decide instead to head back to St George in the morning to ride a trail we skipped earlier in the week.

Sunday: Mark finally gets on his bike and guides us through most of Little Creek. Also created by Morgan Harris, this is a sister ride to the extraordinary Gooseberry Mesa, and Mark says it's his favourite trail in the world. Within a few hundred yards we see why. This is a real bike-rider's trail, with seemingly infinite flow, from slickrock bowl to smooth singletrack winding through the rocks and cacti, to rock gardens and ledges, then back to slickrock drops and loops. The trail eventually gives out onto one of the utterly spectacular views over the vast Utah landscape we've now gotten used to, but within minutes we're back on the bikes and hurtling along the trail again.

James and I get deliciously lost before finally locating the trail head and our companions. We only ride about half of the full trail, but it's an addictive place and of all the places we visit it's the one I'd go back to first. Not for the views, or the challenge, but the simple ride.

Sunday night, we bundle back into the van, back to Vegas, and take out flights home. On the plane back I nostalgically review helmetcam, and as I drive home from Pearson Airport I think about the vacation. In a single week we've seen temperatures from scorching heat to freezing cold, ridden the desert floor and 12000 foot peaks, skidded through snow and mud, and found infinite grip on slickrock. To our surprise, our group is repeatedly complimented on its riding skills by our local guides, and in conversation we agree that although much of the riding is technical and exposed, overall it is slightly easier than the BC trails most of us have experience of. Also to our surprise, we agree that the little known trails around St George are easily a match for the famous rides around Moab, with Thunder Mountain probably the highlight of the trip for its unforgettable combination of scenery, flow and technical challenge.