St. George trail conditions?
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All of southern Utah is raining currently. Only thing remotely ride able is prob paradise rim and Church rocks. As for barrels and green valley loop this weekend is going to be pretty iffy. If goose doesn't receive any snow today and tonight the road in is going to be sloppy till at least Saturday if the weather cooperates. Trust me I'm bummed, but at least I've been able to put new tires on, switch out all the drive train, and tune everything else up during this depressing weather.
yessir! I was riding the highline. Craner talked me into getting a canfield =P, but I still have my highline.wasea04 said:
Level with me. Is it going to be uber-muck down there? I don't wanna be destroying your work. I was just hoping to get a quick trip in with the wife while I'm off work.
We were going to leave Thurs night, maybe go to vegas for new years.. so we'd be riding late friday/sat/sun.. Think anything will be dry by then? Drop me a PM if ya want.. mines not working for some reason.
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I think what Shelbster has said holds true, most our stuff is clay based, but some of it's a sand base and would be good to go by this weekend. Paradise is really fun, one of my favorite rides, it's a really fast open technical rock garden descent, I'd show you around myself but I've been ill with Mono for the last two weeks and will be off a bike for the next two months.
Arr. Bummer! I'm just coming off a fractured wrist myself.. So, I NEED a ride. lol.wasea04 said:
If we do come down i'll give paradise a shot. I'm up for something new.
What about grafton, I've never ridden it. It's in the same area as gooseberry right? I'm assuming the road in will be a disaster.. =/
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Grafton's great, and it's in the vicinity of Goose, but like you guessed that area is one of the worst around when wet, second only to GV. It's so bad that even if you tried you get out there you'd get stuck in the mud. Grafton is a scaled down much more fun and flowing version of the Flying Monkey, Furrykid really puts in a lot of hardwork to make Grafton as great at it is.
Let me know if you need any directions to Paradise, I can give you a nod in the right direction
Let me know if you need any directions to Paradise, I can give you a nod in the right direction
I'm gonna try to head up the mesa (Grafton) for a while later this morning, I would think the road is soupy but I'm predicting the top trails will be slow but fine and the bottom of Grafton when you dump out in the wash will be soup! I know for a fact Apple valley got 3 plus inches of snow yesterday, so goose is out! Grafton is always good in the morning before it thaws but who wants to drive here to ride in the cold early morn. Rockville bench should be fine also.
How was grafton furrykid? I've got a friend who met us down here w/only his DH bike.
We rode paradise yesterday, was pretty sweet. Like a giant pump track w/some techy bits on the descent.
If grafton isn't clear I think we may have to hit Zen or Church Rocks.. are any other trails that are more DH oriented?
We rode paradise yesterday, was pretty sweet. Like a giant pump track w/some techy bits on the descent.
If grafton isn't clear I think we may have to hit Zen or Church Rocks.. are any other trails that are more DH oriented?
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looked to be a bit of snow still on the north facing stuff when i was on Rockville bench day before yesterdaymikesee said:
It was exactly what I was predicting.... the drive was only really sloppy in the flats climbing crybaby. The trails up top were slow and sluggish but not soupy. Some snow in the reallyshady spots. The bottom of Grafton itself was snotty from just above the double in the flats to the floor of the wash. Someone had been on it earlier and left it mildly rutted but no real damage. Should be even better now. I would think goose would still be frozen and sloppy and the road even worse but as I was climbing the road Sunday a truck pulling a 5th wheel was pulling out of the show me the $ trail head from having camped there, so the road from the Apple Valley side can't be all that awful. Beautiful weather on the way so it should just get better.
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Is there anything that I could ride my sunday on in the St. George area? I have noticed on other maps of the "bear claw" region that it shows a "downhill race course". Or are most all of the trails down in this region mixed trails, with lots of climbs?
Any good shuttle runs? Or should I just take my 7point, and leave my Sunday at home?
Any good shuttle runs? Or should I just take my 7point, and leave my Sunday at home?
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Update as of 1/9/10
Thanks to those that shared trail conditions beta last week, we spent 3.5 days in Hurricane/St. G and got a few good rides in. I just wanted to throw out a few observations based on our time down there.
All of the St. G valley trails (Prospector, Church Rocks, Barrels, Zen, Barrel Roll, Stucki, Green Valley, etc...) are about as good as they get right now. No snow, tacky dirt, and 50 degree temps. Glorious. Off the hook sweet.
The Hurricane-and-higher stuff is less ideal. Goulds/JEM/Virgin/Hurricane is rideable, although there is some grease in shady spots. I hesitate to say that it's fine to ride, as the greasy spots are soft enough that you'll leave ruts when you go there. Best bet is to ride these early and be done before ~11.
Guacamole is in great shape, but you'll NOT want to try to drive all the way to the top to park. Just before the road bangs that hard right and starts to climb steeply, PARK and ride the last ~1/4 mile. We didn't have this beta and almost slid off the road. BAD place to slide off the road. We backed down (doh!) and rode up, only to see that someone else had already slid their Subie 40' off the road and down the gnarly, steep embankment. Good luck getting that one out.
Slickrock Swamp/Rockville Bench is primo.
Goose is NOT YET READY. We had no problem driving in as far as the outhouse, but the road got FUGLY after that. And the trail wasn't much better. Very early on the snow/ice/goop was frozen but as the morning wore on things were thawing and it got soupy and sloppy fast. By ~10:30 any of the dirt/ST sections were a mess. We made it ~halfway out S. Rim and saw the writing on the wall, so we turned around and bailed to the road and got outta there. Hidden Canyon, North Rim, Windmills, Yellow, Grey Matter, and The New Trail SE of Windmill are all buried. If the temps stay high and no more precip falls, I'd say S. Rim will be ready by ~1/20. But the rest of the trails will need a lot longer. PLEASE learn from our mistake and give the Goose the time it needs to dry out. Ruts suck, almost as much as the people that leave them!
We didn't get to Little Creek but would expect it to be similar to or maybe a little worse than Goose because it has more in-the-trees-trail and more shade.
We didn't bother going to Grafton based on what we saw of it from Guac.
So there ya have it...
MC
Thanks to those that shared trail conditions beta last week, we spent 3.5 days in Hurricane/St. G and got a few good rides in. I just wanted to throw out a few observations based on our time down there.
All of the St. G valley trails (Prospector, Church Rocks, Barrels, Zen, Barrel Roll, Stucki, Green Valley, etc...) are about as good as they get right now. No snow, tacky dirt, and 50 degree temps. Glorious. Off the hook sweet.
The Hurricane-and-higher stuff is less ideal. Goulds/JEM/Virgin/Hurricane is rideable, although there is some grease in shady spots. I hesitate to say that it's fine to ride, as the greasy spots are soft enough that you'll leave ruts when you go there. Best bet is to ride these early and be done before ~11.
Guacamole is in great shape, but you'll NOT want to try to drive all the way to the top to park. Just before the road bangs that hard right and starts to climb steeply, PARK and ride the last ~1/4 mile. We didn't have this beta and almost slid off the road. BAD place to slide off the road. We backed down (doh!) and rode up, only to see that someone else had already slid their Subie 40' off the road and down the gnarly, steep embankment. Good luck getting that one out.
Slickrock Swamp/Rockville Bench is primo.
Goose is NOT YET READY. We had no problem driving in as far as the outhouse, but the road got FUGLY after that. And the trail wasn't much better. Very early on the snow/ice/goop was frozen but as the morning wore on things were thawing and it got soupy and sloppy fast. By ~10:30 any of the dirt/ST sections were a mess. We made it ~halfway out S. Rim and saw the writing on the wall, so we turned around and bailed to the road and got outta there. Hidden Canyon, North Rim, Windmills, Yellow, Grey Matter, and The New Trail SE of Windmill are all buried. If the temps stay high and no more precip falls, I'd say S. Rim will be ready by ~1/20. But the rest of the trails will need a lot longer. PLEASE learn from our mistake and give the Goose the time it needs to dry out. Ruts suck, almost as much as the people that leave them!
We didn't get to Little Creek but would expect it to be similar to or maybe a little worse than Goose because it has more in-the-trees-trail and more shade.
We didn't bother going to Grafton based on what we saw of it from Guac.
So there ya have it...
MC
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Thanks for the goose info Mike!
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