Moab fun

After two days on Gooseberry, it was time to move on. Next stop Moab! Again, no plans or agenda, other the hopefully riding Porcupine Rim one day we were there. At least that was the plan. We set up camp near the north end of the Sovereign trail and studied the maps. Nick had ridden the north chunk of Sovereign years ago and it had been pretty fun then. So we wanted to try and find it again. Well, we found the loop of Sovereign Singletrack on the Mesa above our campsite, but it wasn't as much fun as Nick remembered. So we bailed on doing the whole loop in favor of something we knew would be fun. Sovereign and Saltwash Singletrack. Following the green dashes of Saltwash south, up and down the small mesas and gullies, meandering across slick rock and into washes.

Upper Sovereign trail - we had a hard climb, but decided to have fun on the lower sections

Following the Green dashes - Saltwash trail

 I was doing better then the last time we'd ridden that trail, attempting more of the steeps and rocky climbs and riding all the descents. I did take the easy lines on most of the options while Nick was hucking off rocks. We didn't ride all the way to the southern terminus of Saltwash - I was starting to get tired. At the first junction of Saltwash and Sovereign, we turned to head back north. This time following the blue dashes. Since we'd gotten an early start, there was no one on the trails - a nice change of pace from last time where there'd been herds of dirt bikes out enjoying the nice weather. It was just us, blue skies and cool conditions. But I was really starting to get tired and getting sloppy on the technical stuff. Not a good sign, so we took the exit road and the easy way back to camp. Still had a nice ride, but the fatigue from the race was getting to me.

More fun on Saltwash trail

We had a little powwow while eating dinner, weighing the options. Nick really wanted me to do Porcupine Rim, but he also knew I needed to be a little fresher for that ride. So we decided to do Slickrock on Thursday, make it a little easier and hopefully get the shuttle for the Rim on Friday. I called about the shuttle once we got into town, but it didn't sound hopeful. No interests other then us so far and he needed five riders to head up. So I gave him my contact info and Nick and I drove up to Slickrock. We were greeted with an empty parking lot and the trail all to ourselves. It was awesome. We got to ride all of Slickrock and only saw two other people on the main loop. The practice loop was a little more crowded, including a group doing a photo shoot for something. I had a lot more fun on Slickrock this time and was able to ride nearly all the trail. 

We are so small in this landscape! Nick out on Slickrock.

Nick at the top of one of the Slickrock Climbs

Getting ready to descend - follow the white dashes!

Finding the bottom of the long descent

 While we packed up to head into town for a bit Nick asked if I wanted to ride Porcupine if we couldn't get the shuttle. And honestly, I didn't. I knew he wanted to ride it and would be fine. But the two hour road climb would be enough to make me sloppy where I needed my a-game. Bad idea. So we nixed that idea. If the shuttle came through before we headed out of town, yay! We'd do the Rim. If not, there would always be another trip to Moab planned. After lunch out and re-provisioning for a few more days, we did a little driving around. Still no call. So we bailed on Moab. No Porcupine this time through. I felt pretty guilty since I knew Nick had really wanted to do it this time. Last trip to Moab, we'd been snowed out. So it will be first on the agenda next time we come through. 

Huge exposures mean big views.