ok... i know what you're thinking.... WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH ALL THE HIKES?!?!? WHERE'S THE MOAB BIKING STUFF?!?!?!?!
here we go:
we had shuttles for the Raptor Route and Enchilada (starting in Hazard County)
Navajo Rocks
And a couple of people did Captain Ahab
First up was shuttle to
Raptor Route
LOVE THIS ROUTE. when we did this last time, i joked with steve that maybe we could catch the shuttle when we finished and bribe the driver to bring us back up. this time we added a little extra to the start by climbing Kokopelli and UPS. wasn't a fan of the climb up honestly. :| we also picked up a traveler from England and it was a good thing because, although he started off strong, he quickly was in over his head... running out of water and snacks a few times. we kept him with us and, when we finished, we drove him back to the bike shop so he could meet up with his friends. otherwise 😬 We all actually had issues with the heat. we were out longer than we thought we would be and the sun was just relentless.
Navajo Rocks
anyone do these trails? someone recommended them to us but he said one side was better than the other but couldn't remember which was which. we did one of the loops but i'm wondering if the other loop would have been better. i was honestly pretty tired of all the climbing. and amanda wasn't feeling it much either so we both headed back to the car while the others did a little more riding. remember when i said steve and grant weren't feeling well.... well.... i was clearly starting to get something because i was pretty fucking pooped and somewhere in there i was starting to get the whole scratchy throat and pressure in my chest bullshit.
Captain Abab
i did not join for this one but two of the guys in the group went ahead and hit this up in the afternoon after Navajo rocks. they're actually training for a Pisgah race so they've been really hitting the trails lately and were clearly in much better shape to take on extra stuff than the rest of us.
Shuttle for
Enchilada minus Burro Pass
so of course, this is on the last day of the trip with the whole crew when we're all pretty sunned-out and tired. Allan joined us again (we let him crash at our airbnb in exchange for helping to drive people back to the Grand Junction airport saturday) and we got a shuttle up to Hazard County. when we originally planned this, we were all going to do the enchilada... but, a few people decided early on to switch to Raptor Route after the top portion because they just didn't want to do Porcupine Rim after watching way too many youtube videos. i had my doubts but was willing to try until whatever chest cold thing i was getting decided to pop up. i decided the day before enchilada just wasn't going to happen for me and i would switch to the raptor route after the hazard county start. the start was beautiful and i was having a great time on the hazard county downhill stuff... but the climb right after the shuttle dropoff killed me. i couldn't breathe and my legs were super tired. so much for thinking i'm even mildly in shape 🫤 we were way quicker with the top + raptor route than with the hitchhiker the other day and it was much cooler/ earlier which helped, but i was pretty dead. 3 of our crew did do the whole enchilada stuff and actually finished not too long after we split with them (they're very strong riders). we all met up at
Milt's for milkshakes and i'm pretty sure i passed out at the picnic table. bike renters had to return their bikes so they went back to the shuttle lot, grabbed the cars, returned the bikes and picked up my poor corpse to bring it home. passed out in bed and i'm pretty sure they were wondering where to bury my body.
Pipe Dream (bonus)
Two of the guys rode this from the airbnb. i think they said it was ok... kinda like a good, it's there for an evening ride kind of thing but it helped them set up their bikes and whatnot. throwing this out there in case you're in Moab and might want to check it out.
some pics are not mine:
