As much as I'd
heard about the Slickrock trail, I still wasn't sure what to expect.
Most people say it's amazing what inclines you can ride up
because of the traction. At the trailhead there was a sign
suggesting you try the practice loop first. The practice loop
"though no less difficult than the actual Slickrock trail" was
a two mile loop to get a feel for what the rest of the twelve
mile trail would be like. Considering we had all been up
since 5am or earlier, we figured the practice loop would be
enough for us this afternoon.
So here we are in the parking
lot at the trailhead in our "rental." Scott had reserved a Ford
F-150 crew cab since we planned to haul bikes and four adults.
They didn't exactly have an F-150 at the airport, so they upgraded
us to a Lincoln pickup. It was nice. We felt like snob-asses
riding around in it, but turned out to be a reall nice ride
for
us.
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The Slickrock trail is located
on the canyon ridge just east of Moab. It looks
pretty much as I described before - solidified prehistoric sand
dunes. You can just about ride anywhere on this
stuff.
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Though there is a trail marked
on the rock. If you look clise, you'll see the little white dots
marking the trail. In the background are the
La Salle Mts.
We blew through the practice loop and decided we'd do the entire
trail.
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Then
it got like this. You can see the white dots starting near the right
and going up to the center top of the picture. We rode straight up
this
thing and many more like it. Now it started to get hard.
The elevation and heat started to get to us and suddenly (contrary
to the sign) the
practice loop seemed a lot easier then the
rest of the
trail.
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Jeff
and I taking a break for
air.
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The white dots
went within ten feet of this canyon
edge.
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So Jeff got a picture of Craig
and I riding around
it.
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Here's a picture down
into the canyon we just skimmed
by.
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After a few miles the
heat and elevation was really getting to Jeff, so we had someone
take a group picture for us and he headed back to the
hotel.
Craig and I continued on the trail punishing ourselves some more.
Don't get me wrong. This isn't really a difficult trail as far as
riding
goes, but it is a lot different then what we're used to.
The elevation was only about 6,000ft, but that combined with the
heat was enough to
make it difficult for us to
breath. Riding this stuff actually reminded me more of
riding/climbing Pennsylvania roads. The hills were short/steep
and the surface was bumpy. Being on a mt. bike
I kept wanting to try my normal trail maneuvers like sliding
the rear around turns and
what-not. That just doesn't
work with this kind of traction. Duh!
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Part of
the trail rode along the canyon looking down into Moab. Directly
across to my right is the Portal trail, which we'd ride two days
later.
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Here's Craig in the same spot, but
looking back to the La Salles in the distance. We finally finished
beat and tired and rode back to town to
the
hotel on our bikes.
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