Magnificent 7 ride - wow! Harps has provided
a detailed description of the ride in his log. In a nutshell, this is a relatively new route that links newly built and existing trails. It's scenic and incredibly diverse; it gets tougher as you go along. If I could only do one ride around Moab at this time of year, I would give Mag 7 a slight edge over Porcupine Rim - although ideally, I would do both!
We started at the Gemini Bridges Rd. parking lot off Hwy 313 west of Moab. Big thanks to Amy and Sara for dropping us off!
The first section of new single track took us past Bull Canyon.
So fun and rideable!
'Bent crashed on a short rocky climb in this section - the first fall of the weekend for any of us - and banged his bad knee. The first single track was a mix of rock and loose sand that sometimes caused his wheels to slide out in unpredictable ways on slopes. When the trail became rockier after the first hour, he had more control and started blasting ahead like yesterday.
The first stretch of trail is marked with yellow paint at irregular intervals.
Harps put on a clinic in Slickrock-style riding.
We took a break at the Gemini Bridges rock formation. Beautiful shapes and colours!
When I'm added to the photo, you can appreciate the scale a little better.
Another stop at Bride Canyon.
Around this point, we saw a sign that suggested turning back and provided considerable detail about the implications of continuing. The rest of the route was only for "Experts with Endurance". Hmm, well, we have endurance... There were different variations of the sign as the trail continued but when it became too late to bail, the signs stopped appearing.
Just as the route became tougher, it also became more difficult to follow. Markings weren't always easily visible and other jeep trails confused matters.
Luckily, we had two navigators working on the problem.
The route loses over 600 m from start to finish but Garmin says that our elevation gain was almost 800 m. Although one should never trust a Forerunner on altitude, there was a lot of climbing and descending so that doesn't seem far off.
My rental bike is great but it only has two front chain rings so I'm missing the biggest and smallest gears I have at home. I missed the big gear a little coming down from Porcupine Rim but today I missed my beloved granny gear. Normally, I can spin up almost any hill even if I'm reduced to a crawl. With this bike, I had to push so hard that my knees started to hurt and I had to walk some slopes that I could ride with my own bike. This does not bode well for riding the Slickrock Trail.
We eventually reached the top of the cliff where we could look down onto the main highway into Moab.
Note that only one of us had a beet-red face after this climb.
Since we hadn't brought our paragliders, we followed the trail away from the cliff and made our way toward the Poison Spider jeep trail which would eventually take us down the cliff to our car - but not for awhile yet!
'Bent was in his element in the rocky stuff.
We met surprisingly few other bikers - and they were all coming up (maybe because they didn't have Amy and Sara to drop them off at the top!)
We met some jeeps and ATVs. It is insane what they do in those vehicles.
Some of the Jeep/ATV riders looked surprisingly unadventurous - older couples and families out for a nice Sunday drive.
We came across a gravestone with numerous offerings - coins, gels, flowers, Chapstick, etc. It was the grave of Mary Jane Francis, age 7. I looked her up, and legend says that she was killed by a poison spider. The trail was named after this incident. Tradition dictates that passersby should leave an offering to ensure their safe passage. We didn't know but we would have left something for sure!
The scenery changed as we lost elevation.
Toward the end, we had to walk sections of the Poison Spider jeep trail because the sand was so deep and fine. (Note that Harps hopped onto his bike when I mentioned that I was going to take a photo of the guys walking.)
Amazing, tiring, tough ride. A day later, I feel it most in my arms. I should have done more push-ups!
Once again,
Harps' log is the best place to read about the trail itself. Thanks for organizing an excellent weekend for us, Harps!