Me(moab)rial Weekend

Spent 8 days in Moab over the Memorial Day weekend and once again it was amazing, yielding one of our biggest ride weeks in the desert with 171 miles, 18,343 feet climbed and 34 hours spent on the bike.

Google earth view of all the rides.....

Day 1 was a quick ride on some of the new Moab Brand Trails (Moab is adding an amazing amount of trail very quickly).

Day 2 we did the Sand Flats Suffer Fest which consists of doing UPS down to Moab without the shuttle and a penalty lap on the practice loop on the way back up to camp.  41 miles with 4,500 of climbing through some difficult desert terrain.

Day 3 did a shuttle ride from the Mag 7 (the old green dot) to the Blue Dot back out to the Moab Brand trails and back to Moab.

And the wind started to kick up this day....the haze is sand.  Little did we know the next day would be a full on sand storm.

The evening hike to find some shelter from the wind yielded one of those things you see in Moab.  A rather large group of people doing Thai Chi on the Slickrock.

Day 4 the wind was insane....we attempted to ride some of the new trails up by Baby Steps, but quickly decided that was not happening.  So we back tracked to Amasa Back hoping to find a little more shelter from the wind and sand.  We did end up riding Amasa to Rockstacker....all the haze in the pictures is sand.


Some jeeps working there way through.

We ending up losing our tent to the wind....the poles snapped and tore through the rain fly, but by the evening the wind died out and the rest of the week was amazing.

Day 5 rode the Galaxy Loop with Paul and Deb....love this ride, the rock out there is so smooth.

Jeff heading down the toilet bowl....

Paul's turn.....

 Deb doing the same.....

Day 6 was Mega Steps over to the Black Tape and back through many of the new trails put in since last fall.  The new trails are awesome and add another large network to Moab.

That evening we did a nice hike and spent some time by a really nice over look off the practice loop.  The light that evening was awesome.

Sarah, Jeff, and Clair hanging out....

Some unknown riders on the Practice Loop....

Day 7 Paul and Deb took us out on the variation as a loop via Poison Spider.....not much else to say about this ride it is one of my favorites anywhere.

Corona Arch.....

Day 8 was Slickrock in the morning.....

Another fantastic trip....looking forward to the next time.