On Tuesday, we gave up camping at Up The Creek Campground due to the heat and checked into the Ramada for two nights. We were supposed to be able to sleep in, enjoy a lazy morning with coffee and breakfast, before heading out to the trails late morning. Instead we have been waking up at 7am and heading straight to Love Muffin Cafe (5star rating) for breakfast each morning.
Utah is real low on snow, so the upper trails on Porpucine Rim were open for riding way earlier in the year than normal with the 90 degree heatwave in progress. The shuttles were not making it to the top of the Hazard trail, but were dropping guests off at the bottom of the trail. So, we caught the 9am shuttle with Chile Pepper Shuttle to the top of the Kokopelli section. We rode up Hazard trail to 9500 feet, 2.6 miles. Nice climbing on dirt. Had a sweet descent to the bottom, down Kopopelli, UPS & LPS.
Originally, we were going to bail out at the end of LPS and ride 10 miles out the gravel Sand Flats road to our hotel at the Ramada. But some guys at our resting point said you still had to pedal on the 10 miles out. We were only 13 miles into our ride, had a nice breeze and cloud cover, so we opted for the 5 mile jeep road to the Porcupine Rim Trail. Unfortunately, about half way thru the 5 miles, we were regretting our decision due to the continuous rough and rocky road. Everyone that came by us looked like they were enjoying the jeep road. Hmm.
Porpucine Rim trail finally came, and we were quite happy to roll on dirt. When we hit the pavement for the 6 mile ride back to the hotel, we faced a stiff head wind. Luckily, they put in a paved bike trail along a portion of our ride on Hwy 128 back into town. 30.6 mile day. We were pooped.
Lots of pictures, incredible day if you take out the fire road in the middle.
 |
| Francine & Kevin on road after shuttle drop off |
 |
| Francine climbing Hazard Trail |
 |
| Francine resting after steep portion of Hazard Trail |
 |
Kevin near top of Hazard Trail with the La Sals in the background
We are at 9,500' and the La Sals top out at 12,000'. Our ride will drop
down to the Colorado River at 4,025' in about 25 miles. |
 |
| Francine cruising down Hazard Trail |
 |
| View out Castle Valley from UPS Trail |
 |
| Kevin on slickrock on UPS |
 |
| Francine walking steep slickrock section on UPS |
 |
| Kevin at classic overlook picture on LPS |
 |
| Francine with La Sals in background. Castle Valley below. |
 |
| Porcupine Rim Trail |
 |
| Porpucine Rim Trail |
No comments:
Post a Comment