Daddy Style Moab Enchilada with a side of Fruita

Good times with good friends! – 18 Road, Fruita

Way too long since I’ve taken the time to journal.  Working too much this year.  After Longmire ended, I jumped straight on to Seal Team and we opened a bike shop.   Go figure.

Working with the brothers on Seal Team.

The last time I took a “guys trip” to Moab, was in 2007.  Sure, I’ve been back plenty since then (24 Hours of Moab, and lots of visits going to/from Longmire, with and without the fam).  But never with “just the guys”.  Back in May of 2007, we got skunked out of the top portion of the Whole Enchilada due to snow, and we had to start at Hazard County.  Dem dukes, dem dukes.  The ride was still epic, but it’s always nagged at me, being the ocd weirdo that I am – we never did the “whole” enchilada.  I knew I’d get back to it… just didn’t think it would take this long!

All aboard!  — To the top of the La Sals, no waiting!

Fast-forward 10 years to 2017.  I now have 2 kids (9 and 4).  Half of the homies I used to go to Moab with moved away, or I lost touch with… probably because I’m a dad now, and dude time has dwindled heavily in favor of family time and daddy date nights.  Luckily, Stu (the mastermind behind our old Moab trips) decided to commit to Moab in early October.  He’s now a daddy too, and finding the time to get away is rare.  So he booked our old camp spot 178, told us all the dates, and said show up if you want.  Boom.

The three amigos, somewhere on the Navajo Rocks trail system.

I NEEDED this getaway, and Angela gave me the hall pass!!  Next thing I knew, John  (another daddy who needed a getaway) and I were carpooling out to Moab to meet with Stu.  I grabbed a Niner RIP9 RDO from our demo fleet (perk of owning a bike shop) – and was stoked to have a full squishy for the trip – Our posse of three was ready for shreddy.

Rain.  The shuttles were not going all the way to the top yet.  So we kept pushing back our shuttle dates, in hopes that it would dry out enough.  In the meantime, we hit some other prime riding spots:

1st up – Sovereign / Klonzo Loop – Sovereign is one of the older trail areas in Moab, and is shared with motos.  Surprisingly, I’d never ridden there before, and honestly, I’ll probably never go back.  It was ok, but there’s so many better singletrack/bike specific options these days.  Sure there were great views, but it was soft and sandy and much more enjoyable for motos than human powered units.  Klonzo, on the other hand, exceeded my expectations.  Right next to Sovereign, bike specific mix of singletrack and slickrock – mellow climbs, with fun flowy descents – now we know to skip Sovereign and head straight to Klonzo 🙂

Stopping for a much needed break on Mag 7

2nd up: Navajo rocks – It rained more on day two… and everyone at the bike shops recommended Navajo Rocks as it’s the first to dry out, and doesn’t get as effected as other areas.  One of the newest trail systems in town, it’s still not too well known.  It’s “hidden gem” status is no longer and we saw Ryan Leech / Norco posse, so we knew we were in the right spot.  Now we’re talking.  This system was fantastic.  We finished with just enough light to get back to our cars.  So good.

Posers.

3rd up – Mag 7 – the “other” sweet shuttle ride in town that some people like more than the Whole Enchilada.  I’d call it a close 2nd, but definitely doesn’t have the magnitute of starting at the top of the La Sals.  Still, it’s a blast, 100% worth doing.  Some tough climbs sprinkled in, great views, etc – somehow got on a jeep trail and missed a small section of Golden Rim Singletrack – so yeah… now we’ve gotta go back and hit that!  The views on Portal lived up to the hype, and so did the exposure.  It’s legit.  DH skills tested after a grueling day and fatigue.

Unloading at the top – after our van broke down for 1/2 hour!

Ok.  Now to the highlights of the trip – this fat dude rockin a GoPro in the jacuzzi at the campgrounds giving John the stink eye.  Maybe he wanted us to jump in and make some Albondigas soup??  All the ladies in Active wear (inside joke)… Rainy day fossil shopping, a Fiesta margarita with carne asada at the mexican joint… pissing off our waitress at the Blu Pig (she mistook my sarcasm and got offended that I called her out for making us wait 2 minutes)… eating at Sweet Cravings for brekky every day.  Getting a chicken sandwich and root beer float at the brewing company… the bike wash at Poison Spider, the far right shower at the campsite, busting air drops, building Stu’s new bike from scratch on morning one, cramming 17 euros in with us on the Coyote shuttle and fuel pump goin out 2 miles from the top.

View looking back from the Burro Pass high point of the enchilada

In the end, we got it.  The whole enchilada.  Other than the long techy rocky crappy doubletrack section of porcupine rim, nothing holds a candle to the whole enchilada – 10 years we waited- and for icing on the cake, we hit a little Fruita action, got some Hot Tomato pizza love and capped off a sick trip.  Let’s make another one soon yo.

The fruits of our labors