Back to Fruita

Well yesterday we packed up and left Moab. Howie, David, and I had no real interest in doing a ride but little HO was ready and raring. So we got a late check out and sent him over to The Slickrock trail. Had David gotten up earlier and shown any interest, he and Howie were going to go over to Arches National Park, but David didn’t on either account so we just hung out and got some work done and Howie made himself and me one of his famous omlettes. The drive back to Fruita was uneventful, just over an hour and half and we were back at the same RV park we were in a couple weeks ago. HO and I took advantage of the hot tub and pool after dinner and then we started in on the second season of the TV show 24 since we finished up the first season a couple nights before.

The ride today was the famous Kokopelli loops, just a few miles down the interstate from where we are staying. It was reasonably cool at 8:30 when we started, in the high sixties. Not so cool by the time we finished about quarter to 2, 96 degrees. This was actually David’s second time here as howie had him on part of it when he was about 10. The ride starts with a quick road climb into the Colorado river “valley” and then a right on Mary’s loop, basically an old technical jeep trail, but still really nice riding. After a mile or so we took the turn off for Horsethief’s bench trail. This is true “singletrack” alternating between hard pack, sand, and slickrock sections.

Once around and we climbed back up onto Mary’s loop. It continues as a jeep trail till this point

Bypassing Steve’s loop, we got to the intersection with Lion’s loop but missed the left and did some bonus mileage up to the intersection with Mack’s ridge and Moore Fun. Backtracking the quarter mile, Lion’s was made quite clear and off we went, first climbing then up and down on super rocky benchcut trail above the Colorado. This dumps onto a jeep trail climb then intersects with Troy’s loop. The initial plan was to finish out around on Troy’s but David had jammed his thumb on Lion’s and was having issues holding onto the handle bar so we bypassed Troy’s and finished the dirt road climb over the ridge. Howie and David bailed down the dirt road and back to the truck while HO and I took a right up Mack’s ridge since we were already most of the way to the top. This runs along the ridge for a bit with some fantastic overviews of both the river and all the trails we had just ridden. That took us down off the ridge to the intersection of Moore Fun trail. None of us had ever done this so we really didn’t have a clue what to expect other that it is rated most difficult and one description mentioned a 900 foot climb. It did not bode well that we were off the bikes within a couple hundred yards of starting as there was a big drop that neither rider or bike could handle. We started climbing on a steep rocky switchback trail, and climbed and climbed and climbed. It was all pretty much granny or 1-2 with a few short hike-a-bikes. The top of the ridge afforded a few more really nice views. Just when we thought all the climbing was done we had to summit the ridge one more time. The initial trip down was on the same sort of rocky switchback trail as we climbed up, almost as slow but obviously easier cardiovascularly. It got a little more flowy and fun after that with some really wild off camber slick rock sections that you were amazed your bike stuck to when you got over them. A few short ups managed to sap the last of our energy reserves just before the final descent to the dirt road that took us back over to the truck about 23 miles and 5 hours after we started.

Cool Critter count went up by one as HO spotted a pretty cool looking snake on Mary’s loop pretty early in the ride.

David flies out tonight just in time to move into the dorms on Friday, and tomorrow we head for Glenwood Springs for a couple nights before heading north to Jackson. Now that David is leaving I can start to rebuild my self esteem without him constantly making me fun of me.