New Years Eve's Kokopelli ride

It is rare to have good biking on New Year's Eve. Moab occasionally has lower level trails rideable, St. George may have a few of our non-favorites and other than that, locally, there just isn't much available.

We have been wanting to explore the Kokopelli trail system near Grand Junction Colorado for some time. So with the weather holding, Guthrie wanting to test his new Christmas bike  and the trails in decent condition we decided to head down Saturday morning at 4 A.M.

The trail system around Loma (near Grand Junction/Fruita) is quite expansive. We wanted to ride as much as possible so we hit Mary's Loop, Horsethief, Steve's Loop, Lion's Loop, Mack's Ridge and returned on Moore fun.

The views are gorgeous with the river, the red rocks and the light dusting of snow.

Testing out the suspension and seatpost that drops at the touch of a button.

Mack's Ridge, the trail follows the Rim. The climb up was a steep fire road, but the sweet singletrack on top and the descent to the bottom was worth it.

The look out off Moore Fun or Mack's Ridge, I forget. The day began windy but by afternoon we only had a long sleeve shirt and leg warmers. Actually a great day for riding.

This is a section of trail on Moore Fun, or as another rider put it; "ain't moore fun". It stood out in my mind because I was on a hard tail (no rear suspension) and it was a little rough, but still worth it. The ride/hike in the snow up moore fun was a little tedious as the trail is steep, rocky and had about 4 inches of snow on it. But the riding at the top and descent was worth it.

Grand Junction is worth trying out. With Tabegauche and these trails it could easily provide an enjoyable and long day of riding. Plus, any time you can ride 25 miles on New Years Eve in 30-40 degree weather it is worth it.

A



Tabegauche - 18 Road Trails - Fruita, Colorado

Starting out

I love new trails, new adventures and new places. Because of that for some time I have been wanting to ride Tabegauche and 18 Road in Colorado, close to Fruita and Grand Junction. We were planning another trip to Moab to test out the new Pipe dream - Hidden valley - moab rim trail, but the weather looked decent so we opted for Fruita instead.



G heading up andy's loop.

Heading up Andy's loop


I used my phone (Very cool having a smart phone, I used it for pictures, video, trail directions and maps, gps and music) to find directions and the trail maps on juicyfruita.com. So off we went. Rolling into and past fruita there was frost on the ground and a heavy mist in the air. We began questioning our decision, but decided that we were here and there was no turning back. 

 More of andy's


We started off climbing up the tabegauche trail, but it was a double track and we didn't drive four and a half hours to ride up a road, so we left the road on pet-e-keys went up to eagles wing then down to Andy's loop. Andy's was gorgeous, it involved a lot of steep climbing, and some walking, but it was worth it. (at the tops we saw another trail that went around the mountain we climbed and ended up in the same spot - next time we will try that). After climbing over and back down into a wash, we carried our bikes a little up a very unrideable section. Still worth it...We were finally at the top. There we picked up Lunch line to eagles wing, and climbed to the highest point. The view was amazing.

These are all views from Eagles wing.

From there we descended eagles wing to Holy Cross. All these trails are technical, but Holy Cross was our favorite, ramps, small drops, chutes, tight turns...it was awesome, the kind of riding I would drive 4.5 hours to repeat. 

From holy Cross we descended via Ali Ali, then Curtis lane. We ended up riding about 15 miles and climbed about 2000 feet. What a great ride. This is one we will do every year.

But we weren't done yet...

We had heard a lot about 18 road...ridge line riding...fast descents...so I found the trail map again on  Juicyfruita.com...it turned out to be more like a glorified lambert park in Alpine. It is fun, just not what we expected.

We rode up Prime cut and came down kessel run the first time...a short 7 mile loop. Kessel run is very similar to rodeo in lambert, descends a gully and curves up each side, but much longer...it was fun, but after tabegauche kind of a let down.

The next loop we ascended prime cut again, this time a little bored, then headed over to Zippity Doo Da, just as we were getting to the good stuff, ridge line steep descents, I snapped my rear shock linkage in half...that is the second time,  it wasn't fully broken however, so with some zip ties, wire and duct tape I was able to lightly ride my bike to the road and return to the parking via th dirt road.

G went on and rode the entire loop.

G riding down a fairly common section on Zippity. Very Cool.

We were going to do a little more riding, but my broken bike negated that possibility.

Back in the car.

Change in Green river at our favorite gas station with clean bathrooms.

Buy mountain dew to stay awake.

Cross the street for dinner at Arbys.

Return to Orem.

It was an amazing trip and we will definitely ride those trails again.

Now on to the next adventures...Moab in April, San Rafael in May, Boulder Mountains in June, Rainbow Rim, Virgin Rim...

It's going to be a good year...