Grand Loop Tour
hmm... where to begin?
after heading out to utah last year for the ktr with alex, the seeds were set for a return to finish riding all the trails that were missed due to dnf-ing the race ~110 miles in. yuk. so in the usual fashion of setting out to take a bigger bite than you can chew and suffering the choke-fest along the way, the 'grand loop tour' was born.
the grand loop consists of 3 trails- the kokopelli, the paradox and the tabeguache, plus a short paved 'prologue' section from the tabegauche trailhead near grand junction out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. 340 miles of trail, 20 miles of prologue, all above ~3800'. one store on the route, in bedrock, so either you have it with you at the start or didn't need it in the first place. unless, you're willing go off course to a larger town with more services. :)
the plan was to do ~4 days of riding to cover the 360 miles with a 5th spillover day just in case. the reality was that we rode for 5 consecutive days, didn't cover the whole loop, met some old friends, made some new ones, got in some good miles and lots of awesome technical riding!
day 1 - travel day
flew into slc and drove to grand junction in the pfadt-mobile. thanks again for the hookup guys! rei, grocer, dinner, pre-pack, etc. and it was anxious lids in anticipation of the sun.
day 2 - start
rolled out of the motel early for the 20 mile trek out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. easy pace with a tailwind, a great way to start the day. with the plan of getting breakfast in loma derailed and a quick regrouping/status check at the trailhead, we ascended the first ridge and were quickly on the singletrack of mary's loop. over hill and dale, we encountered the first bit of hike-a-bike as the trail descends, crosses and ascends the salt creek section.
after this, the trail smooths out a bit into rabbit valley with a sandy coating over areas of slickrock, onward into a few small canyons and into westwater, where i didn't feel so great. i dawdled a bit to eat and drink water as we were set for the next leg of flat, sandy and windy over to cisco landing.
a few hike a bike sections along the colorado river and we were finally nearing the final section for the day, yellowjacket canyon. normal long ass sandy, rocky climb up to the ridge, then descend into the canyon for more ups and downs and climb back out the other side. luckily one of my straps wrapped around my rear hub and snapped, which necessitated stopping to fix. in the onslaught of darkness, we descended the far side, rolled across dewey bridge and into the campground. the view of the stars and moon was really cool. no pollution and no humidity. :)
- starting out in grand junction, leaving civilization behind
- alex rides the singletrack on mary's loop
- serious hike-a-bike on the salt creek section
- lowest part of the trail along the colorado river - mcgraw bottom
day 3 - climb-o-rama
thump thump thump...
yep, there it is. the ol' heart beating like crazy all night long from the altitude. been here before it seems...?
today the climbs get serious. the previous day was as flat and speedy as i-96 at 2am compared to what's coming. they call it 'shandy'. rocky, sandy, ledgy, you name it, it's got it. including having lots of spots of walking/pushing. at least for me. mr. rock star just powered up the climbs. this section also contains two canyons to traverse and a long climb from fisher valley up to beaver mesa, where the paradox turnoff is. the terrain here varies from sandy desert and shrubs at the bottom to grassy fields and trees at the top. lots of blue skies and exposure.
a slight dnf-ish left my penance as filtering out of a mucky livestock pond at the top of the day's final climb and then it was all downhill to the rock castle campground right off the trail. the sunset was awesome and the stars/moon as bright as the night before.
- rise and shine! - starting out day two at the dewey bridge campground
- the entrada bluffs section
- standard wide open views - nowhere near the top yet
- riding through fisher valley
- looking down at fisher valley as the climbing continues
day 3 - riders split
thump thump thump...
yep, there it is again. with un-restful sleep, i was feeling rather flat-ish. i told alex i would filter upstream at the creek and then descend the alternate route, 30-ish road miles down castle valley road to 128 along the colorado and into moab. i gave him the gps, maps and the camera and wished him luck. he continued on back up the climb and onto the paradox trail over to bedrock.
it was a strange experience, going from seeing very few people over the past few days to an ever increasing flow of autos-along-the-bahn the closer i got to moab. i strolled into town on sensory overload with all the goings on and finally stopped at micky's for some serious grease and sugar water. seeing myself in the mirror for the first time in 3-ish days was scary!
another hour of wandering around motel to motel, i finally had a room and a shower. alex rode in from bedrock that evening and it was eat/tv/sleep. mmm, a nice comfy bed!
pics here courtesy of alex.
- the back side of the la sals on the paradox trail
- the dolppinator, touching the clouds high above the paradox valley.
day 4 - amasa back
after a lazy breakfast and a trip to the laundromat, i spent a better part of the late morning/early afternoon at the bikeshop to get some stuff fixed up and worn parts replaced. we finally went for a ride about 4pm, an out and back from town to amasa back. it was a fun ride, only a few jeeps and motorcycles. one kid, who looked to be about 10 yrs old, was whooping it up on a tiny 80!
a quick post-ride cleanup and our 'cab' was waiting at the door. our friend scotty picked us up and took us to the final leg of the tour, where we bivy'd again before our last day of riding.
- alex starts the climb up the slickrock ledges
- more views on the way up
- spectacular views from the top
day 5 - fruita singletrack
our final day of riding put us on some sweet singletrack in fruita. with names like zippity-do-da and chutes-and-ladders, i knew we would be in for an exciting ride. funny, the ledges and cliffs of the canyons aren't as scary as spine riding. fall either way and you're going way, way, way down...
after the ride we packed up our crap, got the car from grand junction, split ways with our crew for the 4hr drive back to slc and packed the bikes for the flight back home.
- the wreaking crew attacks the singletrack of fruita
l->r: scott, chris, alex and randy
- scotty shows off the effects of sunscreen avoidance in the high desert
- how high is this hill? here randy takes 2nd wheel as chris is a speck near the center of the pic.
- and then you see him ant sized way down the spine as alex prepares for takeoff
day 6-7 - travel days
after getting blown out of the airport with delays in denver, we spent another night in slc before finally flying back to dtw, a day later than anticipated.
epilogue
wow, another great trip out west. too bad i wasn't more prepared for the altitude (lungs) as i was for the climbing (legs). i cramped a bit the 2nd day and was able to stave that off but not the heavy breathing. going slow and sucking wind, well... sucks!
so now that i've *cough* ridden the kokopelli in both directions, i would have to say that going west to east is much easier as you get the high elevations out of the way first. at least for a lifelong flatlander like me.
well, more time to practice and think about the next move up the training ladder. the trails are way too much fun to stop trying until i can complete the loop.
anyone wanna go bike-packing?
after heading out to utah last year for the ktr with alex, the seeds were set for a return to finish riding all the trails that were missed due to dnf-ing the race ~110 miles in. yuk. so in the usual fashion of setting out to take a bigger bite than you can chew and suffering the choke-fest along the way, the 'grand loop tour' was born.
the grand loop consists of 3 trails- the kokopelli, the paradox and the tabeguache, plus a short paved 'prologue' section from the tabegauche trailhead near grand junction out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. 340 miles of trail, 20 miles of prologue, all above ~3800'. one store on the route, in bedrock, so either you have it with you at the start or didn't need it in the first place. unless, you're willing go off course to a larger town with more services. :)
the plan was to do ~4 days of riding to cover the 360 miles with a 5th spillover day just in case. the reality was that we rode for 5 consecutive days, didn't cover the whole loop, met some old friends, made some new ones, got in some good miles and lots of awesome technical riding!
day 1 - travel day
flew into slc and drove to grand junction in the pfadt-mobile. thanks again for the hookup guys! rei, grocer, dinner, pre-pack, etc. and it was anxious lids in anticipation of the sun.
day 2 - start
rolled out of the motel early for the 20 mile trek out to kokopelli's trailhead in loma. easy pace with a tailwind, a great way to start the day. with the plan of getting breakfast in loma derailed and a quick regrouping/status check at the trailhead, we ascended the first ridge and were quickly on the singletrack of mary's loop. over hill and dale, we encountered the first bit of hike-a-bike as the trail descends, crosses and ascends the salt creek section.
after this, the trail smooths out a bit into rabbit valley with a sandy coating over areas of slickrock, onward into a few small canyons and into westwater, where i didn't feel so great. i dawdled a bit to eat and drink water as we were set for the next leg of flat, sandy and windy over to cisco landing.
a few hike a bike sections along the colorado river and we were finally nearing the final section for the day, yellowjacket canyon. normal long ass sandy, rocky climb up to the ridge, then descend into the canyon for more ups and downs and climb back out the other side. luckily one of my straps wrapped around my rear hub and snapped, which necessitated stopping to fix. in the onslaught of darkness, we descended the far side, rolled across dewey bridge and into the campground. the view of the stars and moon was really cool. no pollution and no humidity. :)
- starting out in grand junction, leaving civilization behind
- alex rides the singletrack on mary's loop
- serious hike-a-bike on the salt creek section
- lowest part of the trail along the colorado river - mcgraw bottom
day 3 - climb-o-rama
thump thump thump...
yep, there it is. the ol' heart beating like crazy all night long from the altitude. been here before it seems...?
today the climbs get serious. the previous day was as flat and speedy as i-96 at 2am compared to what's coming. they call it 'shandy'. rocky, sandy, ledgy, you name it, it's got it. including having lots of spots of walking/pushing. at least for me. mr. rock star just powered up the climbs. this section also contains two canyons to traverse and a long climb from fisher valley up to beaver mesa, where the paradox turnoff is. the terrain here varies from sandy desert and shrubs at the bottom to grassy fields and trees at the top. lots of blue skies and exposure.
a slight dnf-ish left my penance as filtering out of a mucky livestock pond at the top of the day's final climb and then it was all downhill to the rock castle campground right off the trail. the sunset was awesome and the stars/moon as bright as the night before.
- rise and shine! - starting out day two at the dewey bridge campground
- the entrada bluffs section
- standard wide open views - nowhere near the top yet
- riding through fisher valley
- looking down at fisher valley as the climbing continues
day 3 - riders split
thump thump thump...
yep, there it is again. with un-restful sleep, i was feeling rather flat-ish. i told alex i would filter upstream at the creek and then descend the alternate route, 30-ish road miles down castle valley road to 128 along the colorado and into moab. i gave him the gps, maps and the camera and wished him luck. he continued on back up the climb and onto the paradox trail over to bedrock.
it was a strange experience, going from seeing very few people over the past few days to an ever increasing flow of autos-along-the-bahn the closer i got to moab. i strolled into town on sensory overload with all the goings on and finally stopped at micky's for some serious grease and sugar water. seeing myself in the mirror for the first time in 3-ish days was scary!
another hour of wandering around motel to motel, i finally had a room and a shower. alex rode in from bedrock that evening and it was eat/tv/sleep. mmm, a nice comfy bed!
pics here courtesy of alex.
- the back side of the la sals on the paradox trail
- the dolppinator, touching the clouds high above the paradox valley.
day 4 - amasa back
after a lazy breakfast and a trip to the laundromat, i spent a better part of the late morning/early afternoon at the bikeshop to get some stuff fixed up and worn parts replaced. we finally went for a ride about 4pm, an out and back from town to amasa back. it was a fun ride, only a few jeeps and motorcycles. one kid, who looked to be about 10 yrs old, was whooping it up on a tiny 80!
a quick post-ride cleanup and our 'cab' was waiting at the door. our friend scotty picked us up and took us to the final leg of the tour, where we bivy'd again before our last day of riding.
- alex starts the climb up the slickrock ledges
- more views on the way up
- spectacular views from the top
day 5 - fruita singletrack
our final day of riding put us on some sweet singletrack in fruita. with names like zippity-do-da and chutes-and-ladders, i knew we would be in for an exciting ride. funny, the ledges and cliffs of the canyons aren't as scary as spine riding. fall either way and you're going way, way, way down...
after the ride we packed up our crap, got the car from grand junction, split ways with our crew for the 4hr drive back to slc and packed the bikes for the flight back home.
- the wreaking crew attacks the singletrack of fruita
l->r: scott, chris, alex and randy
- scotty shows off the effects of sunscreen avoidance in the high desert
- how high is this hill? here randy takes 2nd wheel as chris is a speck near the center of the pic.
- and then you see him ant sized way down the spine as alex prepares for takeoff
day 6-7 - travel days
after getting blown out of the airport with delays in denver, we spent another night in slc before finally flying back to dtw, a day later than anticipated.
epilogue
wow, another great trip out west. too bad i wasn't more prepared for the altitude (lungs) as i was for the climbing (legs). i cramped a bit the 2nd day and was able to stave that off but not the heavy breathing. going slow and sucking wind, well... sucks!
so now that i've *cough* ridden the kokopelli in both directions, i would have to say that going west to east is much easier as you get the high elevations out of the way first. at least for a lifelong flatlander like me.
well, more time to practice and think about the next move up the training ladder. the trails are way too much fun to stop trying until i can complete the loop.
anyone wanna go bike-packing?
posted by JimL at 11:06 AM
2 Comments:
cool trip jim. that is a real bummer with the altitude, but you made it into an awesome trip.
just read it again...
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