Destination Moab: Part Trois

Tuesday?  Yes, Tuesday.  With leaving on a Sunday, our days have been all screwed up.  We had breakfast of coffee and housemade granola at the Aspen Coffee Club in Fruita before coming back to the cottage and saddling up for the day.  We had decided the night before to check out the Kokopelli trails outside of Loma.  Those are classic Fruita trails, a little more technical than what we were on the day before but from everything we had read, a ton of fun.  Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating.  Radar showed rain all over that area.  So we decided on our second choice, the Western Rim trail, which according to the local “ride guide” was listed as being in the Palisade area.  Palisade is east of Grand Junction and well out of the way of where it appeared the rain was going.  Well, after getting on I-70 for a few miles in an easterly direction, JMac realized that Western Rim is not, in fact, near Palisade but back near our original destination and in the rain.  Why it was listed in the Palisade area of the ride guide we’ll never know.  So I turned around and headed west.  Maybe it would be like yesterday and the rain would just circle around us.

We got off the highway at the exit for the Western Rim trail.  Rain.  Cold rain.  Bleh.  We pulled into a parking lot, shortly after a brief adventure where JMac decided to try driving down a dirt road clearly labelled as requiring a “high clearance vehicle.”  Yes, it’s a rental, Dear, but we still have to pay for it if we bring it back without all of its pieces attached.  <Sigh.>  After quietly listening to the sound of our prepaid MTB rental go down the drain, we decided to head back towards Fruita, return the bikes and get a jump on our day in Moab.  It didn’t appear to be raining there.  But lo and behold, once we were on the highway, the sky cleared up some.  We had to drive right past the exit for the Kokopelli trail so we jumped off to check it out.  Cloudy, dark in the distance but no rain.  More importantly, the trails appeared to be dry.  Dire signs put up by the local trail community warned us to not ride on wet trails.

We unpacked the bikes and headed up Rustlers Loop.  After a shortish rocky climb which had me maxed out on my 1x, we arrived at the top of a plateau and the start of a very fun loop of riding. 

More rocky than the trails the day before, it was a mix of slick rock, gravel, sand and hard-packed dirt.  There were enough bench steps and drop offs to keep it interesting but nothing too scary.  The scenery was everything you could imagine with the Colorado River in one direction, the red walls of Colorado Monument behind it, open sky in another and curving sandstone (?, I’m not a geologist, people!) walls in another. 

We could see why this trail was often listed as a great introduction to the area.  The trail ended on a super fun downhill all too quickly.  We took a look at the sky, dark clouds were heading our way and decided to try another loop that wasn’t too time-committing should the weather change on us.  Up we went on another rocky trail to Mary’s Loop.  This was mostly double track with some fun twists and drops to keep it real.  We made it over to the cut off for the much described harrowing descent to Horsethief Bench trail.  Uh, yeah.  MTB Project suggests cheering and clapping if you happen to be on the trail when someone attempts it. 

We didn’t see anyone attempt it but JMac did find some fresh blood about a third of the way down.  Unfortunately, the dark skies were moving in more quickly now and while we really wanted to do the classic Horsethief and Steve’s trails, we also knew we didn’t want caught in bad weather with a committing ride back to the car.  So we opted to finish on Mary’s to Rustlers, enjoying my most gnarly descent to date for sure.  Back at the car we opted for another quick run of Rustlers. 

Just as we finished the loop, the rain came.  Too short but it gave us a great taste of the area.  We’ll be back. 


It was nice being able to test the Juliana on some more technical terrain.  I was definitely able to get over some ledges that I wouldn’t normally do at home.  Was it the bike or just that I had more confidence on this bike?  I don’t know but it definitely has me continuing to ponder an upgrade.  I also was able to test the dropper post.  I don’t know how useful it would be for Ohio cross country riding but I could appreciate it for some more serious sketchy downhill riding.  JMac seemed to enjoy the Mach 6, even inquiring at Over the Edge for it’s now retail price.  They apply the cost of your rental plus depreciation for previous demo’s if you want to buy the bike you rode.  Unfortunately, if JMac bought a new bike that would immediately take his riding up a notch, which would then necessitate me definitely needing a new bike to try to get my game back up.  Since we haven’t won the lottery recently, I don’t see two new bikes in our futures.  #buzzkill

We made a brief stop at Gears in Fruita for a green smoothie, very tasty, and jumped on I-70, destination Moab!


Destination Moab, Part Deux

Well, with about fifteen hours of sleep under my belt, Monday morning dawned quite early.  I picked up coffee for two at the local coffee shop...I love being in a destination where you can walk everywhere...and patiently waited (not) for JMac to rouse.  After breakfast at the local diner (Camilla's Café), we moseyed over to Over the Edge Sports to pick up our bike rentals.  We had looked into shipping our bikes but with most likely only having three days to ride (we also had hiking and backpacking on the agenda), it seemed like it would just be easier and cheaper to rent.  And so we did.  Jmac got a Pivot Mach 6 and I, a Juliana Furtado.  Both have 27.5" wheels, which we wanted to check out since we're still rocking it old school with 26" wheels at home.  I also wanted to check out a 1x set up, which may not have been the smartest decision out here when I would be at elevation, in the mountains, which my Ohio legs and lungs were most definitely not used to.  Bikes sized and ready to go, we rode back to the AirBnB and loaded up for the day.

Ride #1 was on the 18 Road Trails, just a short drive north of Fruita.  We could have actually ridden to the trails as the roads out there are pretty quiet.  Immediately in the parking lot we noticed that we did not get the memo that the in fashion for Fruita riding appears to be baggies and not our spandex kits.  If our sparkling rental bikes didn't give us away as out of towners, our apparel certainly did.  Oh well. 

After doing a few laps around the parking lot to try to figure out my SRAM shifting, I'm a Shimano girl in my Ohio life, we departed on Vegetarian trail, labelled as intermediate. 

Mostly flowing, swoopy fun, it was a great introduction to the area.  Fruita had seen more than it's normal share of rain recently and while the trails were dry, there were beautiful spring wildflowers and colorful grasses that we passed by.  From Vegetarian, we turned on Chutes and Ladders, another fun intermediate route and then ended up on Edge Loop.  I was surprised that these trails were labelled intermediate.

  I think that by Ohio standards they would be closer to beginner...they were mostly smooth with little in the way of obstacles or other things to hurt yourself on.  After a quick refuel at the car, JMac asked if I was ready for the second loop he had mapped out, which was more intermediate but with a couple of miles of difficult thrown in.  I shrugged.  Sure. 


We left on Zippity to the beginner Zip Off to the intermediate Western Zippity and then Frontside. 

Although we started to get a few more tight turns on these trails and little more exposure, they were very fun.  And we still had very little in the way of rocks and other hard, sharp objects which would hurt when fallen upon.  The final main trail of the loop was Zippity Do Da, a little more than two miles of difficult.  And that's when we went from "easy" intermediate to gnarly ledgy, rocky, uphill riding.  What?!?  We hike a biked to the ridge but were then treated to some fast rollers on a ridgeline, something I don't think I have experienced before.

Point the bike where you want to go, Marsita.  Do not look over there at the pretty mountains in the distance, that's where your bike will go and you don't want to fall off the side of this trail.  So it was a bit intense but exciting to be riding something new.  We ended up taking a short cut on the road to skirt around the final section of ZDD and finished up on Zippity.  Back at the car, we were now surrounded on three sides by rain clouds. 

Rain had been moving in and moving out the whole time we had been riding but it had stuck to being north, south and west of us.  With a final glance at the clouds, meh, it looks like it's still staying west, we departed for another loop where we started.  This time we wanted to do Vegetarian to the intermediate Down Uppity.  Just as we rode onto Down Uppity the wind picked up, the temperature dropped about ten degrees and the rain started.  Still, it was a marvelously fun ride, exactly what you would expect on a trail called Down Uppity.  There were lots of swoopy rollers and flowing turns with some punchy sections thrown in just to make sure your legs were still working.  We made it back to the car, threw the gear in and called it a day.

After a shower at the cottage, we decided to check out Grand Junction for dinner.  Our first stop was Kannah Creek Brewing for a beer.  There, we met some very friendly bar patrons and quite possibly the most talkative guy in all of Grand Junction.  Our brains now full of all knowledge Grand Junction, courtesy of The Most Talkative Guy in All of Grand Junction, we went downtown to see what was to see.  Grand Junction has a nice walkable Main Street area with lots of places to spend money on things you probably don't need.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), it was just after 5:00 and most of the shops were closed or closing.  We did check out Summit Canyon Mountaineering, which was a nicely appointed outdoor gear shop.  It seemed to have everything you might need for an outdoor adventure.  Dinner was my choice, Nepal Restaurant, also on Main Street.  Beside having lots of veggie-friendly options, the food was excellent.  The rain had followed us on and off from Fruita so without much else to do in downtown Grand Junction, we returned to the cottage.

We took another look through our ride options for Tuesday.  I believe we have settled on the Kokopelli trails near Loma.  More on that later!

Destination Moab, Part Un

<So you like how I threw in that second major in French that I haven't used in like, fifteen years plus?  Right.  #moneywellspent #lifedecisions.>  Anyways.  Sunday started way too early with a 6:30 a.m. flight from CLE to Denver. 

Right now the suggested arrival time to Cleveland Hopkins is at least two hours prior to your departure time due to airport construction.  I would recommend every minute of that.  We made it through the Southwest line to check our bags fairly quickly.  And then came to a sudden stop in the security line...which I think is the only line at the moment.  It took us forever to get through there.  And the line was way longer behind us.  The people after us had to be in line for two hours.  After that our travel was rather uneventful.  Once in Denver, JMac surprisingly upgraded our rental ride to make sure we had room for the bikes we would be renting.  Or maybe it was so I didn't lose my sh*t when the rental car stalled out going up the first mountain out of town.  (Yes, that happened).  We then headed for downtown Denver.  Our first destination was the REI store where we could pick up a few things such as fuel and a new water bag for the backpacking leg of our trip.  But since it was now freakishly early in Denver time, we had some time to kill before the REI opened.  We stopped at a grocery store and stocked up on some food goods for the next week.  Food in hand, REI was open and we proceeded there.  Thankfully for my wallet, REI didn't have any major sales going on so we were able to stick with our shopping list and keep the frivolous purchases to a minimum. 

Go west, young man.  And so we did.  Almost immediately after navigating our way out of downtown Denver, I fell asleep.  No, Silly, JMac was driving.  I awoke to the crazy loud sound of sleet, ice and rain crashing down on our SUV and hitting the side walls as cars drove past.  Apparently we were going over Loveland Pass (almost 12k' elevation) just in time for a storm.  I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.  When I next awoke we were a good ways past there in central CO.  Gone were the green Rockies.  Instead, we were in much more arid country with mesas and scrub vegetation.  Still, very pretty.  We made it to Fruita is just about exactly four hours and checked in to our AirBnB rental.  It's a small cottage on the property of a main house just a half block from "downtown" Fruita.  We'll call it "charming."  Our two night stay cost about half of what our two day MTB bike rental cost.  #priorities #score  We dropped our shizzle off and walked into town.

I didn't think downtown Fruita would be big but I do think I thought it would have a wee bit more.  After all, Fruita is a world class mountain biking destination.  But I guess it does have everything you would need in that department--at least two bike shops that I saw, two breweries and the local pizza joint.  Mountain bikers' desires fulfilled?  Check.  We stopped in at Copper Club Brewing Company first and enjoyed a fine beverage on the patio...it was now a perfect 70 degrees out...and the company of a couple of Grand Junction guys who were out on the local trails that day.  We all got a good laugh out of our non-elevation ready lungs that would be stretched in the next week.  We then made our way to Suds Bros Brewery on the other side of the block for dinner.  Dinner and beers out of the way, JMac reviewed our trail destination for Monday and I...wait for it...fell back asleep.  I don't cross time zones well.  But with a game plan in hand we were ready for ride #1 come Monday.