Joined
·
128 Posts
The good...
Single digit temps and just the right amount of moisture in the soil had frozen solid the sandtrap-type trails typical of this area, making perfect surface conditions. We're talking deeeeeep loose sand that is normally reserved for throttle-twisters only. It wouldn't surprise me if my WTB's were the first bicycle tires to explore some of these paths. Good also, were the crazy-clear-blue skies, large expanses of slickrock to play on, outstanding views of unamed mesas, sand dunes, and Zion's monoliths.
The bad...
cold, cold, cold. Numb toes & fingers, frozen camelback. Even my bike suffered from the icy temps. It felt like my forks had maybe 1.5" of poor overdamped travel. About 15 minutes into the ride, I notice that I'm wacking my pedals on the ground with practically every stroke. I jump off to see that the rear shock had compressed nearly all the way and is "frozen" in place. Initially I was sure that I has finely blown a seal loosing all the air. But when I couldn't forcefully extend the shock I was perplexed. After a couple of minutes of head scratching the sun had came up and I noticed that the shock was slowly extending by its self. I wrapped my hands around the shock which seemed to accelerate the extension. It still felt like it had its full air pressure, so I hopped on and continued. The shock worked flawlessly the rest of the ride. Very strange.
The ugly...
By 11:00 the sun was pretty high and my super-smooth trails were beginning to revert back to dismal sand traps. Luckily, I only had a few more downhill miles to get back to my car, So I only had to push my bike for maybe 1/2 mi.
Overall, a very sweet ride. This area has incredible potential. As is though, all the existing trails and jeep roads are too sandy to ride as they completely avoid the slickrock. But if your timing is right with the weather and you don't mind some frozen parts (flesh & machine), this compares with some of southern Utah's more famous rides.
Single digit temps and just the right amount of moisture in the soil had frozen solid the sandtrap-type trails typical of this area, making perfect surface conditions. We're talking deeeeeep loose sand that is normally reserved for throttle-twisters only. It wouldn't surprise me if my WTB's were the first bicycle tires to explore some of these paths. Good also, were the crazy-clear-blue skies, large expanses of slickrock to play on, outstanding views of unamed mesas, sand dunes, and Zion's monoliths.
The bad...
cold, cold, cold. Numb toes & fingers, frozen camelback. Even my bike suffered from the icy temps. It felt like my forks had maybe 1.5" of poor overdamped travel. About 15 minutes into the ride, I notice that I'm wacking my pedals on the ground with practically every stroke. I jump off to see that the rear shock had compressed nearly all the way and is "frozen" in place. Initially I was sure that I has finely blown a seal loosing all the air. But when I couldn't forcefully extend the shock I was perplexed. After a couple of minutes of head scratching the sun had came up and I noticed that the shock was slowly extending by its self. I wrapped my hands around the shock which seemed to accelerate the extension. It still felt like it had its full air pressure, so I hopped on and continued. The shock worked flawlessly the rest of the ride. Very strange.
The ugly...
By 11:00 the sun was pretty high and my super-smooth trails were beginning to revert back to dismal sand traps. Luckily, I only had a few more downhill miles to get back to my car, So I only had to push my bike for maybe 1/2 mi.
Overall, a very sweet ride. This area has incredible potential. As is though, all the existing trails and jeep roads are too sandy to ride as they completely avoid the slickrock. But if your timing is right with the weather and you don't mind some frozen parts (flesh & machine), this compares with some of southern Utah's more famous rides.
