On the way home from Moab, we stopped in Fruita to pay homage to Mike the Headless Chicken. The ritual we performed was standard, but a little too complex to go into here. Basically, we thanked Mike for the good weather and asked for his continued blessings for this riding season. If you aren’t familiar with the ritual, stop by Over The Edge bike shop for details on performing it correctly.

The last ride on the list in Moab was Amassa Back. Everyone else took off for Denver, but me and Roger hit this classic trail.

The trailhead at Amassa Back is, well, horrifying. You take Kane Creek Road from town to the parking lot, then ride about a half mile to the trailhead. Then you drop down a series of rock ledges that resemble steps. Then a little bit of jeep trail down to the dry creek. There you are faced with sand. Lots of the dusty sand. Then you start the climb.

The first ledge on the climb is a bit ridiculous. All I can say is go far left or to the right edge. If you can get traction, you should be able get up. That first ledge should provide a bit of a clue of what waits ahead. The good thing is, the trail gets more hard packed as you go, so you don’t have to fight the dust the whole way up.

It’s a steady climb from the creek to the top. There are ledges, rock gardens, jeep trail, and a tiny smidge of single track on the climb. Again, we were greeted with unusually mild temperatures for the ride. The wind of the previous days had died down, too, so it was the best weather of the trip.

Roger learned a great deal from his Slickrock experience, and let his wheels roll. He made most of the tricky little ledge moves and rock garden negotiations.

On the way up, we leap-frogged with a Jeep advertising team. They were driving a new Wrangler up the trail and blocking out shots for an ad layout.

We topped off and headed back down. Roger still needs to work on his downhill skills, but he’s getting there. I didn’t think twice about leaving him on his own. I motored. I also paid for it a bit. There’s a spot you will see on the uphill, with two nice slickrock ledges to ride up. On the way up, the one on the right is a nasty rock garden, the one on the left is smooth the whole way. On the way down, I almost dropped into the one with the rock garden. I tried a last minute correction to get over to the other one, but my front wheel locked up in a pothole, and I got whipped on the shin by the bike frame. I managed to clip out before I got smacked, which probably saved me a broken leg. As it was, my shin started swelling and began to look like a third kneecap. It’s in the same spot as a couple of other frame whips. Same scar, just going to grow it a little bit.

Down at the trailhead, someone had a rock crawler trying to go up the stairs. He ended up breaking his driveshaft. Roger asked if he needed any help, and the guy smiled and said, “Naw, I have a spare driveshaft.”

Being a newbie, Roger really impressed me on this ride. He kept the pedals spinning on the climb, and never let the little grunt moves kill his momentum. He did his first wheelie drops on the way back down, too.

The next trail on our agenda was Slickrock. There’s a bit of backlash regarding Slickrock in Moab. Some “shop” riders in Moab think it’s overblown and that there are much better rides. I would have to disagree. There aren’t too many places like Slickrock. The ones I’ve found that are similar riding are much shorter. If you ride any trail five times a week, you are bound to develop an attitude about it. So, here’s my two cents, don’t let anyone talk you into a “better” trail. If the chance presents itself, ride Slickrock without a second thought.

We started late, around 2:30. This time of year that would normally be close to suicidal, but we had 72 degree temperatures, which is a first for me in Moab on Memorial Day. Most of our group were new to mountain biking, so we hit the practice loop.

The one thing reading material doesn’t prepare you for at Slickrock is the constant up and down.  The first few inclines shock the systems of those uninitiated.  It can be a pretty demoralizing experience.  After the anaerobic climbs, the newbie is then faced with short downhills with consequences. Unlike other trails, there is very little to hide the consequences.  No boulders strewn around, no trees to hide the canyon. It takes some guts to let go of the brakes and let the wheels roll. We saw a couple of endos as we went around.  The ones I saw were from a lack of speed that was surely linked to a lack of confidence.

We buzzed around the practice loop back to the lot.  The girls decided to hang it up for the day. We talked about Porcupine, but it was getting pretty late and we decided to just loop around again.

Jay, Roger, and I zipped around the practice loop.  We hit it pretty hard and my legs were smoked by the time we got back.  So, Slickrock, if you have the opportunity, ride it!

Our first ride in Moab was the Sovereign Trail. The camera made the trip, but the battery died on the first picture attempt, so no photographic evidence…  The trailhead is about a mile east of Highway 191 on Dalton Wells road.  Watch what vehicles you take there, we almost lost Joey’s Sentra in the dry wash.  The sand (dust really) was that deep.  We followed the trail east from the parking area down the jeep road.  An ATV trail takes off to the south, and we paused there for a moment before continuing, wondering if we were missing our turn.  The key to knowing when to turn south is the obnoxious little climb directly south.  If you can’t see it, don’t turn south.

The first hundred meters of the climb are pretty steep, after that, it levels off a bit and isn’t too technical.  We continued climbing around the bend before coming to a nice overlook area. We stopped there and listened to some radio traffic, ATV’ers arguing about their lunch break.

Once past the little overlook, Sovereign becomes a goldmine of little technical moves and broken trail riding.  Speed is possible, but only if you make the right moves.  I gunned it through, following Jay most of the way.  It was the first time I’ve ridden with him, and he’s got some skills.

I was anticipating a bit of a bloodbath for the group on Sovereign and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t materialize. Everyone made it through with flying colors.

On the next section of the trail, we were greeted with 50mph+ wind gusts.  It made standing still more dangerous than riding.  From the first broken trail bit, we descended a set of loose switchbacks.  There was some hike-a-biking here, the moves weren’t all that difficult, I think it was mostly psychological (there were consequences for missing a line).

We nipped cross country for a little bit, into the wind.  The wind was a buzz kill on this section. Next was a small, fairly technical climb. If you ride this one, the rock about fifteen meters up the climb after the first turn (the one with all the chainring marks on it) will break teeth.  I lost a tooth off of my big ring on it. From the top of this climb, the trail begins a general downhill to Willow Springs Road.  The downhill isn’t very steep.  It’s a mixed bag of slickrock, hardpack, and loose sand. It is also a whole lot of fun.

We rode out to the Willow Springs parking lot and decided to loop around on 191 back to Dalton Wells.  I think that was a bit of a mistake.  Where Dalton Wells had one big sand pit, Willow Springs had them all over the place.  The group splintered here.  If it weren’t for the unseasonably mild temperatures we were treated to, it could have been pretty gruesome.  As it was, we rode the pits into a massive headwind.

Memorial Day this year included a trip to Moab. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been there and I was unsure if I could handle some of the trails. I shouldn’t have been worried. While I went a little slower, my legs remembered how to move the bike, and my handling skills were still intact.

On arrival, we grabbed the headlamps. And headed out to catch sunset at Delicate Arch. The climb was a bit of a grunt, but it’s lower altitude than Denver, so no one had any real trouble. We made it to the top just after the sun went down. The little Kodak didn’t do too well in the low light.

Speaking of the little Kodak, Roger was on the ball when the camera popped out of my pocket and made an end run for the bowl at the top. He managed to snag it before it slid too far, and I got to the battery (which came loose).

We sat up top and waited for dusk to settle into night, then broke out the headlamps and headed back down. We stopped halfway down to do some star watching. I haven’t seen stars like that in a long while. I can highly recommend the Delicate Arch hike.