Moab: Heaven to Hell in a Sovereign state

I always try to visit Moab in October. Best time of year in my opinion, the weather is always great and you don't have the crowds from the Jeep Jamboree's in the Spring. Every year I look for new and challenging trails to ride. This year I was able to convince Brent aka: Riceless950 to join in the fun. Riceless has never been to Moab but has a strong affinity towards singletrack and technical trails....so I knew we'd be perfect riding buddies! My plan was to hit trails around Moab for a couple days, then head north into Sovereign, Arches, Green River, and Temple Mountain/Dick Brass Trails.

Riceless was along for the ride, little did he know he'd be on his hands and knees praying to the Rock Gods...



This is me getting ready to ride the good stuff!



The two of us drove straight from PHX to MOAB and immediately went out and rode the Slickrock Trail. We were got lucky since the week before the mountains were dusted with snow and rains kept the dust down around the lower elevations.




Riceless testing out the great traction with his half-worn Pirelli trials tire on the slickrock:


Poser shot for Day 1 with the Colorado River in the background:


The views were hard for Riceless to wrap his head around:




Riceless had a hard time controlling his emotions...



Off to the Moab Brewery. This is the look of someone that was just told the beer only has 3.2% alcohol by volume:



Day 2: Poison Spider-Gold Bar Ridge-Golden Spike-Portal-Gemini Bridges

We woke up to nice crisp air and rode over to Poison Spider along the CO River while rock climbers hung from cliffs above us:






"Hey Riceless! Are we having fun yet?"


Just about the time we think we are dreaming, the mighty Beta gets a front flat so we pull over and find some shade for a repair:


Lots of Jeep Groups passed us. This one group from Texas had about 12 rigs that were particularly friendly. Everyone kept offering assistance and one guy insisted we use some air from his on-board compressor.


Back to riding and exploring new trails:


Riceless was getting a better feel for the superior traction and started gaining confidence on the bigger hits:


We even stopped at the large Golden Crack to watch some other motorcyclists have a go:


We rode out to this cool arch with a train track that tunneled underneath the mountain into Moab:


You can barely see the train track in the bottom:


The last few obstacles out of the trail required some concentration:


We rode out past Gemini Bridges and slabbed the pavement back to town for more brews and burgers.

Day 3: Sovereign Trail System

The dirt has a cool green and orange tint while the slickrock is more white in color compared to Moab:


The singletrack is tight, fun, and challenging! (video will come later)


Good thing the Beta has a great turn-radius...


We cruised out to see some beautiful terrain near Arches National Park in perfect 70-degree weather:






Towards the end of Day 3 and 60 miles of trails, we headed back to the truck. I wanted to ride some more trails that evening so Riceless suggested I take his 09' Beta 450RR. The Beta is much easier to ride than my DRZ400, and it felt about 50lbs lighter as well! :eek1 I took it out and was immediately impressed with how easy it was to float over obstacles and had a much wider powerband when I opened it up. I did a small loop called Copper Ridge just before the sun went down and gave thanks to the Italian Motorcycle Gods for making a great machine:


Back at camp we sipped on some Polygamy Porter brews ('You Can't Have Just One!') and enjoyed a nice comforting fire:


Time to rest up and get ready for the trail from hell: 5 Miles of Hell coming up next!:eek1

I had never ridden the trails around Green River before but I had heard they were epic. Little did we know Day 4 would provide to be the best yet!

Out in the middle of virtually nowhere....lies the Dick Brass Trail System, or Temple Mountain trails. Deep in the heart of the most wicked slickrock canyons is a sadistic trail called 5 Miles of Hell. Actually, if you do the entire trail, it works out to be 8.6 miles of 'extremely difficult' ranked trail.

Here is the view from the start: A group of riders can be seen on the first uphill obstacle


A sign at the start marks the way with a basket full of broken bike parts and gear: :eek1


Riceless and I aired down our tires for premium traction and started going to work!


Up and Down, twisting trails that require lots of wheelies, hops, and weight distribution:


Riceless soon realized he was over-dressed! He took out his knife and I thought he was going to slit his wrists to put himself out of his misery....:huh


Instead he cut off his sleaves to keep cool while under pressure of the sun/rocks/ledges.


"Ahhh, that's much better!"



This trail does have some ESCAPE routes, but we were manly men, and we weren't giving up without a fight!



Riceless showing perfect form on the Beta:



Don't fall down, the canyons are super deep!



And NARROW:



Riceless working his way up the last big climb of the trail. You had to look 2-3 obstacles ahead at the trail since it would climb and twist up and down, with not much time for pausing:




The good Lord answered our prayers and we were able to make it out of the trail and complete the entire loop in 4 hours.


Needless to say, we were super excited yet exhausted to make it out of the canyon in one piece:


will upload some video later....


No rest for the wicked....off to Day 5: The Waterfall Trail

The ride out was beautiful with relaxing wide roads and blue skies:




We blasted down to the bottom of Temple Mtn and started the trail from the bottom (south-to-north). Here is the sign at the southern end:


The 12.1 mile trail starts off in a narrow wash that winds up into some excellent singletrack:


The singletrack winds around some excellent ridges with lots of views of the valley below:


The obstacles seemed so much easier than the day before.... Here is Riceless hitting the hardest uphill part of the Waterfall Trail:


Going down wasn't too bad either...


off to upload some vids....

WOW Chad! Beautiful pictures and witty, and at the same time, acurate narrative.
I'm having internet issues but hope to be able to add my perspective soon.

Thanks for showing me Utah.

Some video footage of Sovereign Singletrack and surrounding area:

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Riceless let me try the Beta. It was nice....very very nice!
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...more to come from 5MOH...

The sound may be disabled but here is some of the hardest trail I've ridden to date. :eek1

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(nice crash at the end)

Good stuff! I was in the Swell this past april, but I didn't feel like I had what it took to tackle 5MOH. It was our last day in Utah, so we just rode past it on the Orange Trail, which was easy, but I couldn't help wishing I could sample just a bit of it before I bit it off completely. I'll be back next spring, so maybe we'll build up to it.

I remember seeing a good video of someone bouncing around on Slickrock on a DRZ. . . was that you? edit: just checked your other videos. Twas you. While I don't share your taste in tunes, I do in riding.

Sheeeesh..man, you guys do it right....

I rode in MOAB this year too but NOT THERE ... loved your video!

jealous would be an understatement :eek1

that place rules!!!


great report!

Wow, Brent left the state?
What's next for the most awesome rider? Mexico maybe?

I'm JEALOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good riding guys!

Great photos, video and riding!

I have got to go ride those trails one of these days.

My only trip to Moab so far resulted in 4 broken ribs... but I want to go back. What an awesome area!

Bad a** and great video.

That's freaking cool.

Yeah it is.

See the trail?

Yeah but before I left I checked it out. Going from state to state, you don't need a passport.

After the 5 Miles of Hell Trail, I made a "short list" of riding buddies that I would want to take there. You're on it.



My account of the week in Utah is in the works.

Here is the last of my photos and video. I believe this footage of 5MOH is the best yet! This is part two and it shows the last 3 miles of the 8.6 we endured. I intereviewed Riceless at the end since he was halucinating and starting to sing about little orphan Annie (his favorite music).

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