Ride Report; Moab to Fruita to Moab

[Greg]

This is the ride report from the 'RME Epic dual-sport ride' that I laid out on here. For those that were interested and couldn't make it, you really missed out! I have wanted to make this ride for a long time and this was a great chance to make the ride with some good company. We knew it would be long days with lots of riding and were really looking forward to being in this area on the bikes.

Caleb was riding his Honda CRF450X and I was on my Suzuki DR650. I was wishing for a lighter bike at many points, as the trails were quite technical and it was a struggle to muscle the big DR with it's huge tank over the rough stuff. Caleb did really well, picking apart the tough sections one by one and never complaining about where I was leading him.

In case you missed the planning thread, here's how our route was laid out.-

Day 1; Ride out of Moab headed South, then turn up Pack Creek road and onto La Sal Pass road. After making it over La Sal Pas, skirt around the South side of the La Sals and head towards John Brown Canyon and Gateway, CO. From Gateway, head up Sheep Creek Road into the Dolores Triangle, cross Granite Creek and ride up to Glade Park, CO. From Glade Park, drop down into Fruita, CO and stay the night.

Day 2; Leave out of Fruita and head to Loma and the trail head for the Kokopelli Trail. Ride the full Kokopelli Trail back to Moab, making our way thru Rabbit Valley, McGraw Bottom and over to Dome Plateau. After dropping down Rose Garden Hill, we'd ride back into the La Sals by way of Hideout Road, then the La Sal Loop road and back into Moab by way of Sand Flats Road.

We met up in Moab on Friday morning at the Slickrock Campground. Caleb was smart enough to book a cabin with A/C for the weekend, when I was ready to tent it! After getting everything settled, we geared up, topped off the fuel tanks and headed out of town. It was a short ride out to the turnoff, past Pack Creek campground and right into the dirt, heading towards La Sal Pass.

The road topped out at over 10,000 feet and we took a break to enjoy the high-mountain weather of the La Sal pass and soaked in the view of Mt Peale. After some time had passed, we hopped back onto the bikes and continued our trip around the mountains, headed for John Brown canyon.

 

[Greg]

We dropped down into John Brown canyon and rode into Gateway and the neat resort there. Caleb topped of his CRF and we grabbed a bit to eat from the small kitchen in the convenience store. Our next destination was up to the Dolores Triangle, by way of the steep, switch-back filled Sheep Creek Road.

The road up to Sheep Creek road had been pretty severely washed out by a recent downpour and we were beginning to see that this was a sign of things to come. Fortunately a grader had been down the main road and cleared a path, but it was still amazing to see how much material had come out of the nearby hills. The ascent up Sheep Creek road started out pretty rough from the get-go... much of the dirt & sand had been washed away, leaving many rocks. On top of the rocks, there were the little ravines in the road where the water had ran, making picking lines pretty fun.

 

[Greg]

After surviving the climb up Sheep Creek, we began crossing the rocky Dolores Triangle. We were headed to Glade Park, CO by way of Granite Creek. The riding was perfect, but it was already starting to get late in the day. We were picking up the pace and shortly after crossing Granite Creek I had my front tire go flat. I thought I had busted open the sidewall of my TKC80 on one of the many ledges that we had been riding up, but closer inspection revealed that the sidewalls were fine.

This was going to be interesting... it's getting dark, there were mean looking clouds dumping rain in the distance and they were moving our way... and we're in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I had recently upgraded to the Neutech Tubliss setup and was no longer running traditional tubes. I still couldn't see the tire damage that was causing the leak, so I pulled out the hand pump and put some air in the tire. We quickly located the hole, it was on the outside of the tread, between 2 knobs. I busted out the plug kit and despite some minor issues setting the first couple plugs, the tire was sealed up and holding air within a few minutes. I topped off the tire's pressure and we were back riding with less than 10 minutes of downtime. That right there had me sold on the Tubliss product! It's well worth the money when you've had a flat in the middle of the desert.

We hauled ass across the desert valley, I know I topped my bike out around 85 MPH... love that section of road! We started climbing again, up towards the UT/CO border and Glade Park. After reaching Glade Park and taking a quick break, we headed down into the Colorado National Monument and on to my home in Fruita, CO. It was dark and we rode thru the Monument, making it to the house around 9 PM and we had around 180 miles on the odometer.

 

[Greg]

The next morning we headed out from my place at 9 AM, taking the back roads out to Rabbit Valley and the start of the motorized Kokopelli trail. Our plan was to ride the Kokopelli in it's entirety, skipping nothing. On the way out we passed thru Loma, CO and saw the mess that is the annual Rock Jam festival. The rain started just before we hit the dirt, it wasn't coming down hard, but was constant... enough to get you wet. We stopped under the I70 freeway and I tossed on my light jacket, commenting that bringing out the jacket would stop the rain. Of course, 20 min later were were riding the trails, the rain had stopped and I was getting too warm... the jacket had to come off. The rain was just enough to keep the dust away and created good traction!

The views sucked... -

We worked our way into the McGraw Bottom area, right along side the Colorado river. The trail gets a bit rough here, a bunch of rocky drops and climbs while traversing some washes and a heavily overgrown trail... and it's all single track! It got pretty exciting a few different climbs, but Caleb was the one that put on the show!

 

[Greg]

We connected to Hwy 128 and stopped at the bridge where I had stashed some gas for Caleb. We picked up the rest of the Kokopelli trail at the Dome Plateau turnoff and headed in for some great riding!

We came out from Yellow Jacket canyon, crossed over Hwy 128 and picked up the Entrada Ranch road, by the charred Dewey Bridge. After heading up Entrada Ranch road, we split off at the Top of the World turnoff and followed the Kokopelli into unknown depths. I hadn't done this portion of trail before, but had heard that it had some tight spots. As we rode further in, we descended into a deep, tight canyon. At the bottom of the canyon we found that the recent storms had washed out the trail. We decided that we'd just turn back, since it would be a battle to get thru the washout and the hill on the other side looked quite menacing.

We backtracked and continued to climb up to the top of Rose Garden Hill... The trail gets rougher and tighter, as if it's preparing you for what lies ahead. Eventually we made it to the top of Rose Garden... we parked the bikes, walked the first few ledges to see what we were in for and started thinking about where the best lines were. Caleb decided to ride it first and since he had the smaller bike with a much better suspension, I was happy to let him lead. The first 2 ledges weren't bad, the pics are pretty gnarly but STILL don't do any justice to the hill.

Right about here it got interesting... Caleb missed the line he wanted to take and rather than try backing the bike back up the hill, he decided to take the drop that was in front of him. I watched from above, concerned that he wasn't where he wanted to be. As his front tire dropped off the ledge, it got caught on the way down, pitching the bike onto it's front tire and tossing Caleb over the bars, slightly sideways. I rushed down, making sure he was alright... it looked like he could have easily broken something. The bike was leaking gas, since the tank cap was pointed dowhill. We uprighted the bike and Caleb brushed himself off, took a breather, then continued on down.

 

[Greg]

I was up next... I made it past the first 2 ledges, then got to the one Caleb went over the bars on. I wanted to try cut across the hill, like Caleb had planned, but after setting up for it, I also went too far. I decided to hop off the bike and back it up the hill, to reposition myself. As I was pulling the back backwards, my feet slipped and I ended up with about 400#'s of DR650 sitting on my legs. Doh! I picked the bike back up and decided to just go ahead and drop down the same spot that Caleb went down, hoping that it would treat me better than it did him.

We made it down the rest of the hill without a problem and I'm sure we both were happy to be on semi-flat ground again. We picked up the Hideout Road and started climbing up towards Beaver Mesa and the La Sal mountains.

We picked up the pavement and took the La Sal loop road for quite a distance to the next dirt portion of the Kokopelli and dropped into Sand Flats road, which eventually dropped us down past the Slickrock trail and downtown Moab.

We rode into Moab at around 7 PM, looking forward to having some good Mexican food and thinking about jumping in the hot tub. We got cleaned up, ate and ended up sitting around the campfire, forgetting about the hot tub.

Our initial plan was to ride the White Rim trail for the 3rd day, but we were both BEAT, so we called it an early weekend. In 2 days of riding we put 325 miles on the bikes with 95% of that in the dirt, over pretty rough roads. Much thanks to Caleb for making this a fun ride and being a good guy to ride with! Also thanks for the additional pics and the GPX files!


If you're interested, here's the link to the complete photo album. - http://greg-catherine.smugmug.com/M...to-Moab-Aug-10/13540719_EqZ8Q#986774109_VgxPk

And the KMZ files are attached, if you're like to duplicate this trip or see where we rode using Google Earth.

 

[UNSTUCK]

Great write up Greg. Looks like you guys had fun.

On a side note, and off topic, I just picked up a bike...a 2003 drz400e! I'm pretty excited, but it doesn't run..... more on that latter.

Thanks for the write up.

 

[Caleb]

This was an amazing trip. For anyone that wanted to go but couldn't or thought about going and didn't, you missed out. This was the funnest ride I've been on to date on my bike. Good challenges, long distances, amazing scenery, and great company. I'm looking forward to going back down to the area and doing some more exploring.

 

[Spork]

Awesome pics :greg::greg::greg:

 

[Rot Box]

Great writeup and pics!!! That trail looks awesome

Looks like both of you went for a loop on that rocky downhill I was wondering if you'd have to stash gas--Caleb what kind of range do you get with your larger fuel tank? Anyway thanks for sharing!

 

[rholbrook]

I was over at my friends house talking to him and noticed a big gas tank on the upper shelve. As it turns out, it came as an extra for his WR. If I had known that, I would have borrowed it. That way I could have witnessed Caleb's ENDO again. I think he should change his middle name to Endo. Caleb Endo Call. That sounds good. When is the next ride? I coming.

 

[Caleb]

I was wondering if you'd have to stash gas--Caleb what kind of range do you get with your larger fuel tank?

I got surprisingly good mileage. When I filled up the first day in Gateway I used 1.7 gals and we had gone exactly 90 miles (so almost 53mpg). When I filled up in Fruita, it was almost the exact mileage and the same amount of fuel. My tank is a 3.2 that actually holds 3.4, so I could have made the second day on a single tank...but it would have been pushing it. I'm probably going to get a larger tank for these rides, since despite having plenty of fuel, it was still on my mind almost all the time.

I was over at my friends house talking to him and noticed a big gas tank on the upper shelve. As it turns out, it came as an extra for his WR. If I had known that, I would have borrowed it. That way I could have witnessed Caleb's ENDO again. I think he should change his middle name to Endo. Caleb Endo Call. That sounds good. When is the next ride? I coming.

Sounds good to me.

 

[Greg]

Great write up Greg. Looks like you guys had fun.

On a side note, and off topic, I just picked up a bike...a 2003 drz400e! I'm pretty excited, but it doesn't run..... more on that latter.

Thanks for the write up.

It was a good ride, a little bit of everything and enough technical riding to make you enjoy the well maintained roads. Glad you liked the report!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your DRZ, sounds like a fun project! Start a thread about it in here when you can, my DRZ quit running on me at one point.

This was an amazing trip. For anyone that wanted to go but couldn't or thought about going and didn't, you missed out. This was the funnest ride I've been on to date on my bike. Good challenges, long distances, amazing scenery, and great company. I'm looking forward to going back down to the area and doing some more exploring.

Awesome pics :greg::greg::greg:

Great writeup and pics!!! That trail looks awesome

Looks like both of you went for a loop on that rocky downhill I was wondering if you'd have to stash gas--Caleb what kind of range do you get with your larger fuel tank? Anyway thanks for sharing!

Rose Garden hill... I've been down it with a 4x4 several times, this was the first time on the bike. It wasn't that bad, but we did have our issues. Now that I've done it, I'm not as scared of it as I was before this trip. The pics just don't do the hill justice, a few huge ledges, lots of loose rock and one steep hill! Picking the right line and taking your time go a long ways here.

I was over at my friends house talking to him and noticed a big gas tank on the upper shelve. As it turns out, it came as an extra for his WR. If I had known that, I would have borrowed it. That way I could have witnessed Caleb's ENDO again. I think he should change his middle name to Endo. Caleb Endo Call. That sounds good. When is the next ride? I coming.

I think you would have really enjoyed this ride! Get that WR tank on and maybe we will repeat this one. Fall is coming fast, great time to ride!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Really wished I could have made it, I need to adopt a calendar with more weekends per year

 

[SAMI]

I want to be there... Right now.

 

[Corban_White]

Really wished I could have made it, I need to adopt a calendar with more weekends per year

I support this. 3 work days a week and 4 day weekends.

 

[Greg]

Really wished I could have made it, I need to adopt a calendar with more weekends per year

It would have been fun to have you there, I think you would've really have liked the ride.

I want to be there... Right now.

That is Caleb's pic, he might have a full res version? I re-sized my pics and deleted the originals. All I can offer is a larger image.

I support this. 3 work days a week and 4 day weekends.

I'm in!!!

 

[Caleb]

It would have been fun to have you there, I think you'd really would really have liked the ride.




That is Caleb's pic, he might have a full res version? I re-sized my pics and deleted the originals. All I can offer is a larger image.

I'm in!!!

Yep, I've got a full-res of that...granted it was taken with my P&S camera I keep on my bike, so it's not THAT high-res. If you want it, let me know.

 

[Greg]

Yep, I've got a full-res of that...granted it was taken with my P&S camera I keep on my bike, so it's not THAT high-res. If you want it, let me know.

It might be better than the shrunk down images I used...? Either way, that is one of my favorite pics from the ride. Amazing how green it was, considering it was late Summer in Moab! All that rain that washed out the trails also brought a lot of green to the area.

 

[Caleb]

Yep, it was pretty cool to be riding a long in the desert, turn a corner, and be greeted with lush green vegetation.