Moab, the mountain biking mecca in the desert. Often we travel to Utah to ride with our friend who lives in Salt Lake City. SLC is usually the climatization, buying beer and starting point of our trips deeper into the desert. We often pass by Moab stopping for a day or two to get a red rock fix before heading east to Fruita or farther south to visit more of this vast desert land. While sitting in a bar in Vancouver and talking to Pete Stace-Smith who goes down there twice a year for the last forever I thought… hmmm practically a local. He could probably show us some cool stuff, and he did!
Amasa Back, Rock Stacker was our destination. Having ridden there back in 2003, we were looking forward to exploring more of this twisted desert land.
The Norco uber shuttle vehicle – Lee Lau, Dave Hill, Jamie Wakeling, Sharon Bader, Pete Stace-Smith, Trish Petrella
The road climb takes us up through the Wingate monoliths – created as a Triassic sea – that tower as sentinals over pretty much every ride in Moab.
Trish and Lee cast in the Wingate Shadows.
The area began as a Uranium mining town and as such the area is riddled with roads. These are now actively used by mountain bikes and off road vehicles making climbing and access easier but still technical and ledgy.
Jamie, Pete and Trish.
The La Sals can be seen towering at ~12,000 feet in the background of this distracting climb.
Trish, Jamie and Lee.
Pete.
Lee and Trish.
Trish
Eventually we get to the Slickrock rollers. This is what you come to Moab for.
Jamie, Pete and Dave
The natural bowls made for some interesting riding features!
Jamie riding the wall!
Offering ever more amusement to Trish and Lee!
Nice Jersey Trish!
Further down the Amasa Back we come to the pot hole! A cool little hole in the sandstone. The rock climbers who weren’t wearing clipless pedals were able to get around easily on this feature. We stopped here for lunch only to be joined by a large group which included some Whistler Locals we knew and have run into in other remote places! Hello again Keith and Lee!
Dave and Jamie!
Leave it to the guys to make rocks into toys!
Jamie!
Jamie landing it!
Pete pulling a nose wheelie on this sandstone roll.
Pete, Lee and Jamie
Love the colours!
Pete pulling it off!
We continue on along the twisted Entrada/Navajo sandstone dreamscape.
Trish
After venturing so far we turn back to ride down Rockstacker. The Colorado river guides us to our final destination.
Pete!
One last crossing of this small run off creek. Unfortunately Lee suffered a bit of a bruised rib two weeks before this trip and the constant ledge climbs took its toll so he didn’t have a lot left to get his bike up the bank…
Awe! Little wet Lee!
Elevation profile over distance
Another trail follow this creek to a smaller crossing which the rest of us took. 580m of climbing in 5:50.
Great day!