Gnarly Routes Moab Tour
Gnarly Routes Moab, Utah Tour
Moab, Utah
Gnarly Routes Report:
Guides: Russell Bobbitt and Cole Kirkpatrick
Group: Sold out with six riders
Bikes: KTM 500 EXC-F, KTM 300 XC-W TPI, KTM 350 XCF-W, KTM 250 XC-W TPI
Moab Recap Video
The final tour of our 2020 season was held in Moab, Utah with a group of six advanced riders. Our guests traveled from Pennsylvania, Connecticut, California, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for three days of riding around the iconic town of Moab.
Our first day was spent riding in the Gemini Bridges area. After a riders meeting and dialing in the sag and controls for each of the riders, we headed towards Metal Masher for a warm up so that our guests could get used to the dry conditions and rocky terrain that Moab has to offer. From there, we ventured towards Gold Bar Rim to hit all of the cool trails in that area. The loop concluded with Where Eagles Dare and finally Rusty Nail. All of the riders were having a blast and getting the hang of riding on the miles of endless rock.
After getting cleaned up, we headed back into town to get dinner at a Mexican Food restaurant. Hans ordered some fajitas that were on the menu but for some reasons the staff had to come ask multiple times what he wanted. It was pretty comical and we were all pleased to see his food finally show up!
Day two was the Enduro Loop. A seventy-five mile loop that starts with some dirt road riding near the airport. This loop features a little bit of everything. There’s sandy washes, sand whoops, sand dunes, technical singletrack and a few sections that have miles of red rock that we call red planet. Our lunch spot was in the shade of the tubes, a portion of trail that always has running water and you can ride the edges to stay dry. Following the tubes, we worked our way over to the sand dunes to play around for a bit even though our guest Eric would have preferred to just keep hammering sand dunes. Hans ran out of gas two miles from the trailer (he had too much fun playing in the sand dunes) and Cole used the foot on the silencer trick to push him in the last bit. Dinner the second night was at Zax’s and then we called it a night.
The third and final day was on the Sovereign Trail system. Mileage wise, this day was on the short side but the trail is slow and technical so it provides plenty of ride time. Fatigue had started to set in but all of the riders pressed on and finished strong! This was the first time that Gnarly Routes had a group of six advanced riders so it made for a really special tour. The final dinner was at Moab Brewery and after three long days of riding, we called it early to get some good rest before sending our guests off.
We dropped our guests off Monday morning and then jumped on the Whole Enchilada Shuttle Co. shuttle at 10am to hammer out the iconic mountain bike trail “The Whole Enchilada.” This trail starts at 10,500ft and then climbs over 11,000ft before providing thirty miles of downhill riding into the town of Moab. This ride has it all. Mountain riding, chunky rocks, drops, and flow trail.
This is a wrap on our 2020 tour packages and we are already looking forward to planning unforgettable riding vacations for 2021.
