Hello 🙂

Ok, flights all booked for a friend and I to go to Moab this October… He’s been before but I haven’t. Currently pondering what trails to do and how exactly to spend the week.

So, for anyone that’s been before, what trails in Moab are a MUST in your opinion and what trails are a way out of town that should also be ridden? Is it worth a long day-trip to the Colorado borders, like Durango or Telluride?

Moab can occupy most of the week, but shame to miss an opportunity if a few hours drive can give you something special.

Thanks!

Not sure on Colorado weather by October.

As for Moab the classic Slickrock and Porcupine Rim are a must.

Also worth a trip is Fruita.

Thanks! It’s early October so weather should be fine….. 🙂

I went late Sept/early Oct a few years ago – weather was spot on apart from 1 1/2 days of VERY HEAVY rain. It’s a great place, I’d love to go back. Loads of good trails but Porcupine Rim was just amazing. I did a day in Fruita too, which was worth a visit but I wouldn’t go a long way out of my way to do it again.

We went out a couple of years ago for this

http://moabhodown.chilebikes.com/

which was great fun if you’re out that weekend. I would definitely recommend a trip to Fruita…we were up to the snow line on some rides, so check in with these guys

Fruita

for local conditions (also, their ride jerseys have a dinosaur riding a bicycle).

Do enjoy!

Heh, I’m going to be around that area at the same time as you. Hoping for good weather too 🙂 Sorry no bike advice 😉

It’s also a good place to pick up a bike bargain (well it was when I went) – well spec’d Yeti 575 for £1500??

The Whole Enchilada was the trail of choice when I was there last I think – crazy long downhill taking in Porcupine Rim from what I remember. Shuttles available to the top, of course!

Make sure you do:-

The Whole Enchilada
Slickrock
Amasa Back
The Portal Train But WALK THE DODGY BIT
Sovereign Singletrack area

Then there is also:-

Klondike Bluff is a nice out and back for an easy day
Gemini Bridges is a nice ride but nothing too techy.
Schaefer Trail is a total climb fest where you go past the Thelma and Louise suicide cliff

If you are flying into Denver then do Fruita on the way there or back

Great, thanks 🙂

We are flying into Grand Junction. I’m pretty rubbish at geography at the best of times so have no idea if all the above trais are in the same area or not…?

Yes, all those trails listed are around Moab town (or City as they call it).

Fruita may be a bit far, but worth a consideration. We’ll ride all those trails suggested by everybody here thank you! I’ve ridden almost all of those before and can’t wait to ride them again!

Roll on October eh Miss Notax

Damn right 8)

Fruita is worth the trip in my mind. More so for the stuff south of the road than for the northern stuff. Also the coffee shop on Fruita high street is very good.

For me the classics are:
Slickrock
Porcupine rim
Amasa back (make sure you follow the trail across to the Porthole arch)

Then options for second ride of the day:
Pipedream (Literally just outside Moab) is a lot of fun and more technical than it initially looks.
I also liked Monitor Merrimac bike trail – nice scenery and fossilized trees.

Great, thank you! Having seen the advice here, I think we are going to spend our first day riding in Fruita before heading down to Moab for the rest of the week.

Is it worth getting a guide for Fruita?

If you like technical riding I recommend Fruita. We rode both and though the final section of Porcupine Rim was just brilliant I actually preferred a lot of the Fruita riding.

In Fruita we rode Horsethief Bench and Morefun. Chasing someone down the final descent of Morefun at sunset was one of the standout moments of the holiday.

Also make sure you take an evening trip to Arches national park for sunset. Not normally into that sort of thing but pretty scenic spot (along with the 500 photographers).

Cool, sounds fab 🙂

I like technical riding but within certain parameters – when it gets to the ‘if you make one wrong move and your dead’ riding I tend to leave it well alone!

Leave Amasa Back and the Portal trail until last then!

Ha ha, fair enough!!

There is a new trail off amass back called captain ahab. Most fun trail in moab imo. Grand junction has better riding than fruita. Check out the lunch loops area.

The UPS trail extension to Porcupine is well worth taking in (shuttle bus available!). Hurrah Pass, Jackson Hole, portal, Amasa Back is a great longer ride.

I went to both places back in 2007 and Fruita is right by Grand Junction so definately worth a trip there. It’s got lots of trails from the car park area and varying dificulties. It used to be you could ride them up or down so if that hasn’t changed then beware.

Fruita Trails we loved included Joes Ridge, Zipperty Do Dah and kesslers Way, the latter we did multiple times including ‘one last go’ just so we could say we crawled on to the return flight knowing we’d maxed our time out there.

Grand junction food wise is (was) a bit rank bar the micro breweries which have a restaruant attached to them and there is (was) a really good deli place we found that did fresh smoothies / scrambled egg bagels for breakfast as Dennys etc make Little Chef’s seem like health emporiums! Moab is way better for proper food aswell as bike shops for those downtime moments.

Moab trails we loved were Porcupine Rim but see if you can get an uplift further up as it joins Kokopelli trail thats supposed to be stunning views thats higher up. Slickrock is great but only a couple of three hours fun really and gets packed at weekends so avoid then plus use old tyres on there as it eats rubber literally. Moab Rim, & Western Rim trail. All good fun!

It’s not ‘that’ cheap either compared to UK, go armed with costs of items you want to buy and then compare but buy on credit card so insured too 🙂

Hope that helps

We’re going for the first 2 weeks of october too, having been a couple of times before. Definitely doing Whole Enchilada at least once, a trip to Frutia and the new trails near Amasa Back.

You might want to get tickets for the Outerbike festival if you’re there between 2nd and 6th. Also, make sure your accommodation is booked for that week.

Good call on Arches National Park. I had nine days in Moab in 2006 and broke up the MTB’ing by hiring a nice Ti Litespeed road bike and riding around Arches – as a closet roadie it was great 🙂

Thanks again guys – some really useful advice there!

Yes indeed, some great advice. Unlike Miss Notax, I love the Do-or-Die moments but lots of these are brought about by the speed at which you ride them.

Fruite for sure. Slickrock is so short, I usually treat that as an end of the day ride if you’ve got 90 mins before the sun goes down. Not something you focus the whole day around.

I’ve ridden in Moab several times and I’d offer two pieces of advice:

(1) If the Whole Enchilada is open, do it as soon as you can. It’s a full day out and tops out ~ 11,000ft above sea level. That time of year, it could snow and effectively close the top part of the trail. I once went to Moab in April and that was too early. I also went early October and it snowed up in the La Sals the day after we arrived, so I’ve yet to do the full trail (it can be started lower down and eventually joins Porcupine Rim). Bikes shops and shuttle companies in town can offer more current advice when you get there.

(2) If it rains (and it does!), certain trails will be off limits because they turn to thick, sticky clay. So, again, check with the locals. For instance, if you know rain is forecast for the next day, do Sovereign area trails before the rain arrives…

(3) Start early – even in October it’s gonna be flipping hot by mid-afternoons

Thanks. I was a bit worried about doing such a high trail in October, but as Outerbike are running shuttles at the start of October, fingers cross it will be ok. October is the driest month, and not stupid warm, so 2 and 3 hopefully wont be an issue.

Having said that, I have been there in heavy rain and it’s pretty impressive.

I made it to Moab a few days ago and rode Porcupine Rim from Hazard. Great day out, and the weather was not too hot/cold. Ruined by the end, though!

October is a great time to go, weather was spot on when I was there.
Hazard county into porcupine rim is a must (there’s a forum member on here who snapped the frame of his rental Ibis Mojo down there, but I won’t point fingers).
IMO the rest of the Moab trails aren’t up to much in comparison.

Oddly the best trail we found was a random unnamed and unmarked trail. As we were heading back to Denver we had popped into poison spider bikes in the Vail valley, just off the I70 and they recommended their local trails on the south facing slope of the valley, they were quality.

On a septarate note you should go to ‘Big ring’ cycles in Golden, Denver. They’re bike fitting process is called FIST. Fisted in big ring.

There’s a guidebook available for the Fruita mtb trails…we got ours in Over The Edge sports on the high street…also a good place to find out about local trail conditions

The Mag7 trail is nice. Not very techy, but miles of nice flowy sngletrack and slick rock. You can add in the Moab Brands trail network as you head back to town.

I only had 1 day there as part of an epic RV road trip this year – I really want to go back!

Fruita: balanced rock motel, over the edge bike shop, hot tomato cafe-great pizzas. All within a short walk.
2 places to ride close to town, 18 road trails as mentioned above including a trail called zippidy do da, great fun. Also Kokopelli trails which include Mary’s loop, horse thief , Steve’s loop, more fun, as also mentioned above excellent trails.
I was out there 2 weeks ago in Moab, fruita, Cortez, Durango and crested butte. All have incredible riding

You might be there already, missnotax, I hope you’re having as much fun as we had this time last year! If you can get a day on Westwater Canyon with any of the rafting guys in town, do it!