Thursday, November 12, 2009

Fall Moab, Fiscal Year 2010... in Fruita

As is par for the course with me, my Fall Moab report is coming a bit late. And because it's late, you've probably already read 3 or 4 other Fall Moab reports, and/or seen a couple of really great videos like Fatty's and Kris'.

So all I'll say is that every once in a great while, it's worth waking up at 3:30am and driving 8 hours (round trip) within a 19 hour period, just so that you can ride your bike for a while. But only if your destination is Fruita. Or maybe Moab.

The few pictures I took turned out pretty lame, but I do have some documentation that is even more valuable than pictures. If a picture says a thousand words, then the the GPS tracks from rides like these must say ten thousand. Or maybe even a million. So when you visit Fruita, especially if it's your first visit, follow these routes and you won't be disappointed, because they give you a great single-day view of what Fruita is all about. Click on each of these pictures and then push the "play" button for additional details on the elevation profile, the route, etc.

Horsethief (if you click into this track, you'll notice that after the ride, I hopped on the freeway, road 75 miles per hour to Fruita, went through the McDonald's drivethrough, and then to the campground, all on my 32x20 singlespeed):

Lunch Loops - this is now on my new top 5. Maybe even higher. You have to like technical stuff to enjoy the small loop in the middle called "Holy Cross." By the time we hit it, some folks were getting tired of tech-stuff, so I'd recommend hitting it first, and then doing the more mellow (but still technical and super fun) outer-loop:

Kessell - Fast, fun, easy. Perfect way to end the day:

5 comments:

Derek said...

Holy Cross is one of the best ever, but it's made for the 26" full suspension. I spent a couple days out there in the spring and took both the supefly and the rush.

You missed out on Zippety Do Dah. Kessel is fun, but the drops and ridge lines on Zippety are something you don't really get to do anywhere else.

KanyonKris said...

Derek - Sadly Zippety is in bad shape right now. Andy rode it 2 weeks ago and it's all rutted out. Otherwise I would have pushed to ride it. Joes Ridge is another good choice.

Ricky said...

I agree on all counts. Spectacular, endless singletrack in Fruita.

BTW, Gooseberry Mesa in StG is well-worth the one-day drive investment.

South County Ciclista said...

100,000 words at least. Man your heart rate never peaks. Granted we were not working very hard. Very cool to see where we rode mapped out. I still think that first downhill on the big Sat. ride was one of the fastest and best. (The one where you nimbly skirted around the big rock while tossing your rear wheel around it.)

Carson said...

My only Fruita experience was a long xc race. It's good to know fun trails exist. Thanks for the routes.