On Friday the 9th of October I didn’t have to go to work and got to take some early season turns in Silverton’s Velocity Basin. Only a week later, Friday the 16th of October, I got out of work early only to go the opposite direction and get in a late season bike shred in Moab. We left in the late afternoon to catch a sweet sunset traveling west out of Durango.
We were hard pressed to find a campground at 9:30 on the Friday night before a marathon, but we got lucky and scored a sweet campground in the bottom of the canyon on Kane Creek Road. We quickly set up camp and proceeded with the usual camping antics. Fire. Beer. More fire. More beer. Sleep!
We wake, eat a quick breakfast and run to the Poison Spider for some bike shoes because Ryder couldn’t seem to locate his at home. Bummer, but apparently needed anyway. Just minutes later we are shredding around the famous rocks and slabs of the Slickrock trail. This place is biker heaven. We take the day milling around the 13 mile loop and sessioning natural half pipes and rock drops.
I wasn’t exactly looking for the rock drops, but I came out of this a little too hot and missed the light sweeping left and lost grip on the right. I wound up blowing through that tree at the bottom. Several branches and about 10 feet lower, I crawl from the mangled bike and start laughing unscathed. Lucky. A few more feet to the right and I would be hugging the trunk.
After all was said and done…No Harm…No Foul. Continue the shred. I don’t know what it is, but it seems like the miles in Moab are a little longer than the miles Durango. There were no gnarly, long up-hills or even anything out of the ordinary other than the slickrock, but by the time I made it back to the car I was wiped out.
We wound up meeting four others (Vaughn, Kelly, Blake and Laura) in the parking lot and they joined us at the camp that night. We all shared dinner and talked over many (let me express that again MANY) beers. Good times were had by all. We awake again and set off on another ride. We shuttle cars and ride the Porcupine Rim Trail. I can honestly say that this is my new favorite trail. EVER. Period. 3 miles of grueling technical uphill only to be at the top of a 12 mile Moab style downhill.
A quick break at the top and we shred hard all the way down. There are some of the most fun sections of trail I have ever ridden on this trail. Also some of the most technical downhill sections. They are not fast moving sections, but what you lack in speed you make up for in having to balance and essentially ride trials through some of the sections. Needless to say…We had an awesome time.
We finished the out the ride and rallied up the shuttle vehicles and convened at the Moab Brewery for a final meal and well deserved beer. All in all it was a successful weekend. Lots of shredding. Lots of fun. New friends. And to top it all off… Ryder and I were not passed once on a trail (we did manage to pass quite a few others though).
I was skeptical about the ski-ability as I traveled north over Molas & Coalbank pass. It was looking thin. To my surprise though, we pass through Silverton and up into Velocity Basin to find an ample amount of snow for being only the 9th of October.
So we chug. Then we shred. The first half of the chute was wind-loaded and we were ripping through face-shots. I just wish that were the case for the second half. The second half was slowly sliding over rocks covered in 3″ of snow. My skis hate me, but I got to shred. One more storm or so and we should be in a bit better shape.
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