May 23, 2022
Biking and Hiking a Bike on the White Rim Trail
Day 1 White Rim Trail - Moab Utah
Shafer Trail to Airport - 17 miles
According to our guide “You aren’t mountain biking if you aren’t hiking.” It’s all part of a great adventure. He stressed riding within your skill set so we tried to follow his advice, but we learned a lot about off road riding and each of us improved our skills greatly.
Would we do it again? Probably Not (remember we are all 66 or older)!
But are we glad we did it? Absolutely! The scenery was too beautiful for words. The pictures really don’t do it Justice as everything is so vast.
The White Rim Trail is very remote. There are no services, except pit toilets at primitive campgrounds. Everything is packed in and packed out including all water, food, camping equipment etc. There is no cell service, no lights, no electricity, no circle K… You really have to be prepared for an adventure there. Luckily Escape Adventures took care of all of that for us and they did a fabulous job! We ate well, had plenty of water, had a truck to move our bags and camping gear and two guides to keep track of us, give us pointers, cook our food and provide tons of information about the history and geology of the area. There were 13 of us on the tour plus our two guides.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We were quickly immersed in off road riding in the first 10 minutes with a steep, rocky narrow, hairpin curved descent down Shafer trail from the Island in the Sky, Canyon Lands National Park, summit into the canyon in a 1500 foot drop. On those hairpin curves you really had to be careful because if you swung too wide you would go off a cliff… We were really glad that we got to go down Shafer trail instead of up. Amen! The brakes were well used by the time we got down. Very thankful for large disc brakes, full suspension, and 29er wheels. Dropper posts are awesome! (Marcia)
The Bikes we rode were newish Specialized mountain bikes with great big dinner plate sized cassettes in the back. The 29er wheels and suspension allowed them to roll right over the rocks beautifully! Only 30 pounds of pressure in the tires helped ease the ride. Three of us were on Specialized Levo e-mountain bikes and one was on a Specialized Santa Cruz mountain bike.
After descending Shafer trail much of the ride was “cruising” as our guide said. However, cruising for him meant some hilly spots for us mixed with some flowy sections.
The White Rim Trail is named for the white sandstone layer which makes up the white rim around the top of the canyons. One of our stopping points today was Musselman arch where the white sandstone forms an arch.
At lunch time, we all met at the truck accompanying us and the guides broke out chairs and what was essentially a mobile kitchen. We sat around enjoying the views and our lunch of Chicken Caesar wraps, chips, and Oreos.
This evening we camped at a campground named Airport A. It got its name from the rock formation above the campground that looks like a control tower. This formation was visible to planes landing on the plateau and was used as a means of identifying where they were when mining was occurring there.
Our guides prepared appetizers of cheese and crackers and dip and a fabulous dinner of salmon, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and cherry or peach pie.
After dinner we watched the sun set and the reflection of the setting sun on the rim lit up the rocks like orange flames. It was magnificent.
Then we tried to stay up to watch the stars come out but were so tired that we ended up going to bed before the sky was fully dark. However during the night on our treks to the pit toilet we saw the full display of a magnificent canopy of millions of stars.
During the night the wind picked up and it seemed like a hurricane was trying to blow us away! It sounded like our tents were either going to fly away or be torn to shreds. This occurred about 2am….
Today's ride: 17 miles (27 km)
Total: 563 miles (906 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 2 |
2 years ago
Wonderful narrative. I can imagine I'm there....Way to go, Tally Gals!
2 years ago