Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

Dawn - Sometimes An Ultrarunner

April 8, 2013

Slickrock MTB Trail, Moab

Ah, slickrock.  Where have you been all my life?   I almost couldn't have imagined that there is a place in the world where biking can be so much fun.   The Slickrock Trail above the town of Moab is rather appropriately named.  The whole trail is rock.  Smooth, slick, red and white rock.    Aside from a few sandy slots, the WHOLE TRAIL IS ROCK.  Amazing.    
Luckily we had brought a couple of bikes down to Moab on the RV,  I guess someone in our group knew that we would need them :)   The trail above town has a couple of loops, one of them a short practice loop where Aidan, Nick and I tried out our moves.   The rock got steep at times but wasn't technically difficult at all.   In short, it was a heck of a lot of fun.  I will just ignore and not mention all of the times when I had to get off my bike to push up the short, steep hills.   

I got a kick out of the trail markings...they were literally little stripes of white paint on the rock.  I guess in the absence of paths, vegetation, tire marks, or other ways to naturally make trails in normal terrain...little strips of paint work perfectly.  It was like following a little racecourse around the rock.  It sounded a bit like a racecourse, too...we were sharing the space with a couple of motorcycles having as much trouble as we were, and it was jeep weekend.   So on the jeep trails, beer drinking spring breakers were driving their 4 wheeled vehicles up rocks than normally no one would want to get near.  I was happy to be on my human-powered bike instead.  

It was warm, it was sunny, it was dry wow, I can't imagine ever riding this in wet weather.   After the practice trail we set off on the longer loop, and made it about halfway before we had a snack and turned for home.  After all, there is great rock climbing in Moab too, and a lotta day left for exploring!   






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