Moab - October 2012
Day 4
Day 4 - The Big Loop
(Onion
Creek Road, Mesa Road, North End Road, Gateway Road, Castleton Road, Mountain
Loop Road)
Joel, Ersin, Ben, John and myself left Moab at about 9am on Thursday for this
Big Loop ride. It's about 20 miles of pavement (mostly following the Colorado
River) to get to the dirt on Onion Creek Road, which is a beautiful and fun ride
with sweeping turns and multiple water crossings.
John on Onion Creek Road
Ben
Ersin
Ersin and Joel
It was a great day for a very scenic ride!
Continuing along Onion Creek Road
So
where do we go from here - there's an easy way and a hard way...
We, of
course, choose the hard way to go check out Rosegarden Hill. The first half mile
wasn't too bad, but then the trail got pretty gnarly and rocky in parts with a
lot of up-and-down washouts to cross. Fun, Fun, Fun!
John
Ben
Joel
Ersin
After a
few miles of technical riding, we took a break...
Joel
was getting a little worn out, so he decided to take a longer break while the
rest of us continued on towards Rosegarden Hill. I'll post video later to give a
better idea of the terrain here. Eventually we made it to Rosegarden Hill.
We
could probably have made it up the first half, where's there's a rideable route
up the left side. But about halfway up the hill, it turns into a giant rock
garden across the entire trail. We decided not to try. John took a hike part way
up the hill to check it out...
Good
place to take a pic of the Berg!
We had
noticed another easier route to get back to Onion Creek Road, so I rode back to
get Joel; and then we met up and continued on our big loop ride. We found a spot
at a higher elevation with a small amount of shade to eat lunch.
After
lunch, most of the rest of the day was on forest roads, and more beautiful
scenery...
We
passed the Slick Rock area just before getting back to Moab, and took a short
ride.
Ersin handled it just fine on his big 990...
It was a fitting end to a great week of riding. We headed back to Moab, and enjoyed a great meal at the Moab Brewery. A special thanks to my friends that joined be during the week - Joel, Ersin, Ben, John, Jon, Pat and Tom. It was an epic week in Moab!!!