The Whole Enchilada
As I previously mentioned, we have been coming to Moab to mountain bike for over 20 years. Somehow we have never been able to ride the route called The Whole Enchilada before. This ride starts way up in the La Sal Mountains and the high point is 11,126′ so snow can linger late into spring and start early in fall. The Whole Enchilada was 34 miles with 7,794′ of downhill!
Kevin, Derek and I took a shuttle up to the top and rode all the way back into town. This ride isn’t all downhill though, there is 1,328′ of climbing on this ride. We made good time on the first climb and were able to pass a lot of people. At the top we caught our breath, dropped our saddles and let it rip. It’s a chunky, loose, steep downhill with plenty of roots, rocks, some switchbacks and tons of fun. After this section the trail mellows a bit as you roll through aspen forests. This part was really fast and fun. The rest of the ride featured tight twisty trail, called Hazard, and then plenty of rocky ledges, twisty singletrack, drops, and rock gardens galore. The trail spits you out along the river and we cruised the bike path back to town.
To celebrate a successful ride with no problems, we all went for all you can eat pizza at Zak’s and watched the Packers win! Successful Monday. For the record, I ate 9 pieces of pizza. Yes, 9! Had to get my money’s worth.
White Rim Teaser
The White Rim Trail is a big 100 mile loop. We didn’t do that loop. We did a much shorter out and back. The ride was 34 miles with 2,745′ of climbing.
We started at the parking area towards the end of Mineral Canyon Road before the steep switchbacks down to the river are. It was a chilly descent since the sun hadn’t reached down into the canyon yet. At the bottom we hung a left and rode along Green River for the rest of the time. We passed a handful of other riders and a couple jeeps and that’s it. The riding isn’t technical, you’re on a gravel/dirt rode, but you do this ride for the views and boy are there some grand ones.
It’s pretty crazy in Moab with people, jeeps, razors, motorcycles, bikes… so it was nice to get away from it all out there. We spent time at our turn around point just sitting on the rocks overlooking the river and cliffs and relaxing.
Klondike Bluff Trails
We have both ridden the Klondike Bluff Trails quite a few times and it’s always fun. The riding in Moab is different than most of what we’ve been riding all summer. A lot of the trails are just solid rock and slow going with ledges, drops, steep climbs, tight twisty turns, and slow speed skill. We put together a 20 mile loop of our favorite trails and had a great day.
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