DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Well, we're back in one piece (both bodies and bikes), the pictures/videos are downloaded, toyhauler put to bed, and it's time to share some pictures. Since nobody was able to come along, we made a last-minute decision to leave on Tuesday, instead of Wednesday as planned. That gave us one additional day for playing! I had wanted to do at least two days of riding in Moab, then one in San Rafael Swell (about 1.5 hours away) before coming home on Sunday. This worked out perfect. We rolled into Moab Tuesday night, filled up the toyhauler with gas and water, and headed out to our campsite. We had no schedule, and no set plans - just the way we like it!!! We had been following the weather, which looked a little iffy due to a cold front moving through the area, but figured we'd just see what turned out... We got up Wednesday morning, loaded the bikes into the bed of the truck (Mickey is still not riding a plated bike) and headed off to the trailhead for the Poison Spider trail. Here we are, getting ready to set off: It was a little cool, but the sun was mostly shining, so we decided to leave our thick gloves and riding jackets in the truck (I would regret that later on). We headed off - up the rocks and switchbacks of Poison Spider. We were making pretty good time on the mostly empty trails: This turned out to be a good warmup trail. Some good obstacles to work over, but nothing extreme. A good way to get our "Moab legs" back after a year of being away. Riding the slickrock it always a blast... And usually easy to follow the route - just watch for the black tire marks: We quickly made our way to the top of the bluff and made a few stops at the scenic areas. Here's the bike parked near "Little Arch": We tried to keep the pace up as best we could. Our route would take us 80 or so miles back to where we were camped. If we had time, we could do another 60-70 miles after gassing up and eating lunch at camp. From there, I could dual-sport the 20 or so pavement miles back to get the truck at the trailhead - sounded like a good plan! Here's Mickey doing a "pop-a-wheelie" up the hill... More shots of the valley below - breathtaking views and HUGE dropoffs!!! More fun obstacles on Poison Spider! The weather man was being good to us. The day was warming up nicely, and although it was windy, there was no rain in sight. Here's Mickey coming down one of the huge slickrock domes: Vast expanses of rock to ride: Even some water to splash around in! We were making good time, enjoying the day. Finished with Poison Spider, we linked up to Gold Bar Rim. It looked like we'd have time to do the entire loop beyond the camper if the weather held out! That's when we got bit. I was having a little too much fun lofting the front tire over obstacles that I pounded the rear into a sharp-edged rock - pinch flat!!! No problem - find a bike stand, and repair the damage: We quickly got the tire off and found the reason the tire was flat - pinched!!! I only had a spare front tube, so I figured I'd try and patch the rear. I know you can stuff a 21 inch tube in and 18 inch tire, but I felt more comfortable with a properly sized tube. I pulled out my patch kit to find the glue completely dried up (oops), but I had a couple of Slime Scabs - so I scabbed the holes, put the tube back in the tire, and pulled out my CO2 inflater. The first cartridge gave me about 7 psi - and it was holding. Good deal!!!! I hooked up the second cartridge and Pssss..... The tire began leaking once I put the air in. The scab came loose. Oh well, I'll put in the 21 inch tube. It actually fit pretty well. We weren't about to turn back to the trucks, so we decided to keep going. Mickey also had spare 21 inch tube in case something happend. I used up my last two CO2 cartridges and we set off on our way. The tire was holding up fine, and the trail was awesome, but the weather started looking a little threatening... But the trail was so much fun and the obstacles were really enjoyable, so we pressed on: We played around on Gold Bar Rim trail, then rode Metal Masher - more of the same kind of stuff. We made our way over to the obstacle called "The Widowmaker" just to see what it was all about. I don't see how anyone can go up or even down this thing!!! We lowered our bikes down and continued the route. The weather was getting worse. The sky was getting brown: Luckily the trail opened up and got faster. We blasted along the roads, trying to get ahead of the rains we could see - stopping once in a while to take a picture or two: It turns out the sky was brown, because the area was getting what they call "Mud Rain". Basically, the high winds kicked up dust into the air, which combines with the moisture and it literally rains mud! This stuff would hit your goggles and become brown dots immediately. It was a pretty wild site to see!!! We made pretty good time going through the "Hell Roaring" trail and winding our way back to camp. We also managed to stay pretty much dry - our route did a good job of keeping us clear of the rain. We turned into the canyon just west of our campsite, hoping to play around a bit on the Bartlett Slickrock trail that loops over to within a quarter mile of the camper. We followed the roads to the trail entrance, only to be greeted by this: It looks like we lost another good one... This trail was open to motorcycles last year - and it was labeled as open on the latest map we bought just the day prior - but was signed closed on both ends. It turns out that Moab sees many more mountain bikers than dirt bikers and the pedal guys spend more money in town - so the local agencies tend to cater to their whiny "I don't like motorcycles" attitudes... We looped back and headed for camp. Shortly after arriving at camp, the temperature dropped and it began snowing. I guess we timed it just right!!! We'd have to save the next half of the loop for tomorrow. We warmed up and ate a late lunch while I waited for a break in the weather. I still had to ride over and get the truck - which, unfortunately, had my nice warm riding jacket inside it!!! The weather gave me a break and I beat feet over to the truck, loaded up the bike, cranked the heater and headed back to camp. I threw in my spare back tube - amazed that the 21 incher worked so well for all that high-speed riding in the 18 inch tire, but glad that I had the proper sized tube to begin the next day. Stay tuned for day 2! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crawdaddy 97 Posted April 21, 2009 :clapping: right on!!!.......man, wish I could've gone again.......oh well.....thanks for the flashbacks.....more, more....bring it!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TrophyHunter 15 Posted April 21, 2009 Mud rain......fun stuff. Great father / son time! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bikeslut 1 Posted April 21, 2009 that's Moab weather! Good pics Dug, and great job on 5MOH (that turns out to be 7... is that underpromising and overdelivering?) I can say, without a doubt, I have no interest in 5MOH... signed, Pansie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dirt dame 586 Posted April 21, 2009 Cool adventure (literally!). That weather sounds good right now, in the middle of our early heat wave. Great photos. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RogerTOWM 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Great Pictures Doug!!! Widow Maker brings back some memories for me. It’s doable in a Jeep (just maybe not in a short wheel base CJ5 like mine). Metal masher lives up to it’s name in a four by. Wish I could have gone with you but then I’d have to take my jeep also. Well there is always next year. One thing about Moab in the spring, if you don’t like the weather don’t worry it will change. I’ve started the trails in rain. Eaten lunch wearing a tee shirt in the hot sun and then 30 minutes later been in a snowstorm. :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
husky4me 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Great report! Great pictures! Beautiful place! Great riding! I'd like to some day go over there... maybe take my son and do some dirt motorcycle riding and mountain biking. The trails look a bit too hard for me, but maybe I could do some of them... Thanks for this great ride report!!!! :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robertaccio 431 Posted April 21, 2009 were you guys coming down that "widow maker" or was the trail heading up? that was a steep full commitment (scary) little rock face!!! with all the follow on stuff further back in the foto. Great fotos very nice adventure!!! Good trail fix with the tube to keep going! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Audible 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Looks like you two had a great time. Can't wait to try it myself someday. :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mctrails 42 Posted April 21, 2009 Great pics. Making me want to get over there again as soon as I can. That place is awesome!! Thanks for sharing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RogerTOWM 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Ok Doug I keep rereading the report and looking at the pictures. How about the next day!! Your'e evil making us wait like this! :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Strega 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Ya know, Mickey looks like he's ready for an application for the Desert Gestapo :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Ok Doug I keep rereading the report and looking at the pictures. How about the next day!! Your'e evil making us wait like this! haha... not evil - just busy... Lots of kitchen passes to repay and work to catch up on from being gone for a week!!! Anyways, I'll sneak away from work for a little bit and sum up our second day of riding. Day 2 was Thursday, the day my Dad, Sister and her family were coming down to meet up with us. We decided that we'd ride the second part of the loop planned for the day prior since we didn't need to truck to the start and we'd be close to camp. We could be back by early-afternoon and meet up. We started off by playing around in some of the local canyons south of the airport (we were camped in Bartlett Wash - just south of the airport). We took off and rode the Monitor and Merrimac trail - a mostly easy but scenic trail. Here's a few pictures from the trail: Mickey catching some air dropping off a ledge: More scenic bluffs: The track took us to a few pretty cool overlooks: It looped us around back to the highway - stopping by Uranium Arch, so we stopped to take a few shots: More scenery while riding shots: We eventually dropped out to the highway and made our way a few miles north along the parallel quad tracks and cut over to the Soverign Singletrack. I would have to say that Soverign has to be my favorite trail up there!!! Miles and miles of true singletrack - everything from slickrock to nasty/rocky sidehills. Of course, Mickey kept leaving the GPS track when he'd see a sign like this: (it says extreme difficulty) This is why (this was a pretty good climb): There were miles and miles of this kind of stuff!!! Of course, there was a little water to play in. Here, Mickey mis-judged the depth of this "puddle": Luckily, it wasn't deep enough to drown the bike: Tight fit!!!! No quads (or BMW's) on this one!!!! A few cool tight washes: More rocky ledges to hop up (lots of those in Moab!!!) Miles of ribbon of singletrack: Somewhere along the way, we heard my sister on the radios. We were using our VX-170s to talk to each other and I had given my sister the frequency. They were caravaning down with my dad, and heard us. We coordinated a meeting spot and time that let us finish up the singletrack. I have to say - Soverign will DEFINATELY be at the top of my list of trails to ride again when I visit next time!!! It's hard to find a true singletrack that is so much fun and scenic as it. Hopefully, the mountain bikers don't steal it away like they did to Porcupine Rim Singletrack and the Bartlet Slickrock trail.... On day 3, we decided to have a little family time. My sister and her husband are big-time into 4-wheeling and own a pretty well outfitted/modified Toyota Landcruiser. My dad also has a Landcruiser, but doesn't like to drive offroad that much - so I got to play driver. I hadn't done so much 4-wheeling in years and had a blast!!! I also got to scout out a new trail to see if it'd be good on bikes. We drove "Behind the Rocks", a trail south of Moab. While it was fun on 4 wheels, I don't think it'd be that good on a bike. We saw bikes out there, but the good obstacles were well spaced out and the scenery wasn't much better than the closer trails. But there might be a way to link it up with a few other trails to make a good loop. One of these times when I have more time up there to scout around maybe... Stay tuned for Day 4 and 5 Miles of Hell!!! :clapping: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dirt dame 586 Posted April 21, 2009 Ah, so there is some stuff for us not-so-hardcore riders to play on. Nice! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Ah, so there is some stuff for us not-so-hardcore riders to play on. Nice! Plenty of it!!! There are some great, scenic, find yourself in the middle of nowhere trails if you've got the time and the fuel range to do them... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 were you guys coming down that "widow maker" or was the trail heading up? that was a steep full commitment (scary) little rock face!!! with all the follow on stuff further back in the foto. Great fotos very nice adventure!!! Good trail fix with the tube to keep going! We came down the Widowmaker... Actually, the GPS tracks Crawdaddy forwarded to us didn't have the Widowmaker on them, but when we saw the sign, we had to go check it out!!! We couldn't ride down it, heck, we couldn't walk our bikes down it - we had to LOWER the bikes down it. I'm sure better riders would just launch off it - but not me - and not in the middle of nowhere!!! :heat: I was surprised at how well the the 21 inch tube worked... I also think I'm going to start packing my slime compressor instead of the CO2 pump - I went through the four cartridges and the hand pump portion of the Second Wind pump was pretty much useless - it let out more air than I could put in!!! I'll deal with the bulk of the electric pump (actually I did deal with it for days 2 and 4 - 5MOH) -vs- stressing over whether I'd have enough air... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darylhunter 1 Posted April 21, 2009 So looks like for sure I'll have to bring both the Husky and the Gas Gas. Trials bike for 5MoH and Husky for the other stuff. Still waiting to hear from my friend on which weekend in May we're going. If anyone else wants to join us I'm sure that would be fine. Doug, I wasn't planning on driving the toyhauler out. Are there places to stay around there? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 Day 4 - 5 Miles of Hell!!!! Throughout our 4-wheeling on day 3, Mickey kept waffling on doing 5MOH. I think he had such a good time 4-wheeling that he would rather have done that. I was worried that since my dad was staying in our trailer Friday night, that we would be short on time if we had to pack up and drive over to San Rafael Swell (1.5-2 hrs away from camp). Crawdaddy kept sending "peer pressure" text messages and I finally made a paternal decision that we WERE GOING TO ride 5MOH. So on Saturday morning, we hitched up, loaded up and headed off. We got to the trailhead, quickly suited up and headed out... The weather was perfect! Cool, but not too windy. Mostly sunny... perfect day for an assault on the trail that left Crawdaddy, Mickey, and me defeated last year when we started too late (heck - it's only 5 miles, how long can that take??? ) It's a 5 or so mile ride to the official start of 5MOH - Here's Mickey getting ready for the left turn at the new sign (I liked the old sign better): We kept up a pretty good pace - having an easier time than last year since we'd "warmed up" on the Moab slickrock and ledges the few days prior. Some of the rugged, yet beautiful terrain: Mickey, getting ready to climb the wall that the three of us struggled with last year. This year, it took a little work, but not as bad: Orange bike, orangish rocks: We both decided to take this climb in two stages, up the first, manhandle the turn, then up the second - the goal was to finish the trail, not break ourselves or our bikes trying to be pretty on it!!! :heat: : Mickey getting ready to climb the small wall where he looped his bike out last year: Neither of us made it up all that elegantly, but we managed... We ran into a group of 5 riders along the way. One of them had ridden the trail and offered to assist us with "The Crux" if needed. He gave us a few pointers on some of the sections coming up and promised us that there was nothing beyond "The Crux" that was as hard as it (He lied... B) But only because "The Crux" had some strategically stacked rocks to help). Here is the trail with a few of their bikes: As we rode on, there was another group of 4-5 riders ahead of us, making their way up the gulley to "The Crux". This gully was a set of obstacles in themselves!!! We made it up to the base of the hard section and watched a few riders from the group show us their line. It looked pretty good! Every one of them did it in two stages - loop up the side to the hard section, set up the bike and blip up the 4 foot step using a strategically placed rock. Doing it that way made it a relatively easy obstacle to ride!!! If only we'd known that secret last year!!! We didn't get any still pictures, but I have a few videos that I'll post once I get them uploaded, including one of a guy from the group behind us riding up rocks straight on - rather than in two stages like we did. Pretty impressive!!! Riders after making it up "The Crux": The mighty 450, ready to continue rather than turn left for the Escape route like last year!!! I'm not sure whether the trail got harder, or whether we started getting more tired - I think the latter... One of the climbs we both had to try a couple times before getting it right: A view back down the trail of the top of one of the climbs. Ya gotta be careful with this one, since this hidden hole is waiting for you if you get too far to the left. Good thing we had the radios and Mickey gave me the "Stay to the right!!!" heads up!!! My battery was dying at that point, so we decided to take a break, kick start the 450 and bump up the idle to charge the battery while we rested our bodies. As we did, a group of riders behind us caught up and a guy on his XR 400 completely looped the bike climbing the approach to this obstacle. There was a nasty little rock step in a gully and he lost control as his back tire hit the rock after spinning in the dirt. We helped him right it and turn it around - then continued on our way after making sure he was ok. More rocks (did I mention that there were a lot of rocks???): Mickey taking in the view on one of our many rest breaks: The trail kept climbing ridges, bashing over rocks, then dropping back into sand washes between the ridges. You ride up the steps, wishing for level ground, only to be greeted by more rocks on top of the ridge, then having to ride down dropoffs. About that time you're wanting flat terrain only to be greeted by DEEP, SOFT sand: As you're struggling the sand, you keep wishing for more rocks... I think it's a sickness!!! :lol: Here's a pair of rocks that will keep the wide bikes out!!! Towards the end, the trail started getting a little more tame: Being completely out of water, and getting tired - it sure was nice to see that "end of trail" box!!! In all it was an excellent trail!!! The most challenging trail I think I've done!!! There were definitely some sick individuals that created this thing, but what a trail they created... Here are the GPS totals for the entire loop - including the 3-4 mile ride out, the 7 miles of the trail, and the 10 or so miles of ride back to the trucks: The bikes and bodies fared pretty well!!! The only carnage I have to show is this cracked mirror: I think I'll leave it as a souvenir!!!! We figured we'd snap a picture of the trail sign-in box since the SDAR sticker we placed there last year was still in place!!!! From there, we loaded the bikes, showered, and hit the road. In all it was a great day and a great way to end an enjoyable trip!!! The End... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DigDug 0 Posted April 21, 2009 So looks like for sure I'll have to bring both the Husky and the Gas Gas.Trials bike for 5MoH and Husky for the other stuff. Still waiting to hear from my friend on which weekend in May we're going. If anyone else wants to join us I'm sure that would be fine. Doug, I wasn't planning on driving the toyhauler out. Are there places to stay around there? If you're only bringing the trials bike for 5MOH, man up and ride the Husky on it!!!! :heat: Actually - it might be nice to be on a light bike if there is any manhandling necessary.... There are plenty of motels in Moab to stay, but we priced them out at $80 plus per night. At that rate, we'd pay for the extra gas to haul the toyhauler in two nights. You can haul up empty on water and fill at the Archview RV Campground for $1 per 10 gallons (you tell him how much you think you'll need). Your cost benefit goes up even more if you split costs and need more than one room if you motel it... The closest hotels to 5MOH are in Green River - We didn't price them, but they'll probably be cheaper than Moab since it's not a "tourist" spot... I'd love to join you guys - I just don't think the kitchen pass and pocketbook will allow it!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robertaccio 431 Posted April 21, 2009 Thanks for the fotos,,,and report. That really is an amazing location. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crawdaddy 97 Posted April 21, 2009 Man, I wish I could've joined you two knuckleheads again this year...... BRAVO!!! Thanks for rubbing salt in my wounds with an excellent trip report/photos :heat: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dirt dame 586 Posted April 22, 2009 Great pictures of the Five Miles. That's as close as I want to get to them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bagstr 294 Posted April 22, 2009 Doug, Impressive. "The trail kept climbing ridges, bashing over rocks, then dropping back into sand washes between the ridges. You ride up the steps, wishing for level ground, only to be greeted by more rocks on top of the ridge, then having to ride down dropoffs. About that time you're wanting flat terrain only to be greeted by DEEP, SOFT sand:" OK, so other than 5MOH, would you ride any of the routes on the 950. I know the answer, but must ask. There is this mythology that a good rider can take the twin almost anywhere. Not being a mythological rider, I am hoping to move to a "much smaller" single by next riding season. Congratulations! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
