Myself, Road-D, and J-Rad headed off early Monday morning for "The Next Moab." Or so the June 09 Bike Magazine article said. I'm not aware of many Fruita/GJ folks who have been up there, much less who have been guided by locals. We didn't know any locals, so we were planning on doing a lot of looking for needles in haystacks, in regards to good trails.
We started out at McCoy Flats, as that was the best known and mapped trail system. It was good XC trail, but J-Rad's and my bikes were a bit overkill. We made our way up and down chasing Road-D on his 29er hardtail. It was quite a bit more furious pedaling then I wanted to do.
The ride was about to change though. As we were sitting at a trail intersection two guys rode by, the second addressed us all with girl names. He says, "Hello Amanda, Nancy, Mary, have a great ride!" J-Rad instantly jumped on behind the guy, stalking him. The guy was clearly in over his head. Finally J-Rad says "Hey Sally, you ride pretty good for a girl." The guy let him by. When it came my turn to ride behind him it was terrifying. He was riding as hard as he could, and was very near crashing. Finally he let me by saying he was having shifting issues, but he did however note that he had "1-800-Excuses on his speed dial."
After some more furious pedaling I found a group of guys chatting at the top of a hill. Everybody was now laughing and joking as we were finding out that the guy who was talking smack was their BLM Ranger, who is in charge of recreation and responsible for legalizing all of the trails around Vernal. And the fast guy in the lead, was none other than the Troy of Altitude Cycles. We had accidentally landed right smack in the middle of a group ride of locals...on a Monday.
Post ride we assembled in their parking lot. A guy who I had met at our shop a few days prior was there, and he offered to shuttle J-Rad and I up Red Mtn, a trail described as similar to Porcupine Rim. We met up with Tree (yes, his name was Tree, and it was a nickname he gave him-self) and he dropped us at the base of one of the most terrible looking hike-a-bikes I've seen. The above pic only shows the first level of three. We were also given very vague directions.
Once on top we found singletrack with some fun jumps and drops. We were told that there were lots of man-made teeter totters and stunts on the mountain but we didn't find those. What we found was a descent as rough or rougher than Porcupine Rim. At one point I blindly launched off a rock and mid flight noticed a jeep sized hole beneath me. Coming up slightly short sent the GPS Road-D had loaned me flying down the trail.
We spent most of the descent looking to our right for singletrack spurs. We found a few, but the Vernalites hide their trails from ATV's rather well. Had we found the spur for the Rojo trail it would have been one of the best descents of my life. We would have to wait until the next day, guided by Troy, to find the Rojo secret stash.
Coming down Red Mtn we would occasionally pop out onto the rim. I was dreaming and hoping that surely a trail followed along the above rim. We didn't find it that evening, but it did exist and we were shown it on day two.
Road-D, Troy, and J-Rad (really gay photo, thanks guys!)
Rojo!!!! This trail is what I dream about. Gravity fed, tons of rock, drops, techy moves near cliff edges, and views of distant mtns. Riding it with BMX world champ Troy Lupcho made it even more fun, despite his love of spandex, the guy flat rips!
After lunch, Troy took us out to La Point. He promised our grin muscles would cramp after riding Cork Screw. He was right. The area is vast and wild. It reminded me of what 18 rd must have been like in the early days. The climb was steady, about twice as long as Prime Cut, and very similar. The descent was a full throttle blast on flowy narrow trail with drops into washes and jumps back out. I haven't had that much fun on my bike in a long time. The only photo's are from the top, it was just too much fun to stop on the way down.
Thanks to Troy at Altitude Cycles and all of his crazy crew for making us feel like part of a family. Anyone heading to Vernal MUST stop and get a map and advice from the crew at the shop. If you don't you'll just blunder around looking for the good stuff. I'm not normally one to push more people to trails, as I am kind of a jerk and like to keep sweet trails to my-self to avoid over crowding, but Vernal needs traffic to keep the trails in good shape. By speaking with our economic dollars we can help keep the trails from becoming oil wells, or torn to shreds by ATV's and other like minded rednecks. Go ride there now!
.JPG)
