On the drive out we made a stop at Rabbit Valley near the CO/UT border to check out a trail we might do on day 3. We managed to get the van stuck there momentarily, but we at least found the trailhead.
Maybe getting stuck turned us off that ride, maybe we were just tired after 2 days of hard riding, or maybe it was knowing what exploratory rides with GP_pilot can turn into
but we instead decided to head for familiar dirt and an easy day at 18 Road trails in Fruita. This area has a number of loops that can make for a short ride or a long one, and the trails are relaxing as they're not technical and don't have too much climbing. Parking at the main lot you can either ride up the road or ride up Prime Cut, a rolling singletrack that heads up to the base of the mountains.
Rolling over the drop in we ran into the extended family of our friends from Palm Canyon ride
After reaching the top of Prime Cut we hung a left and headed over to Zippity do da. Aside from a couple brutal short climbs this trail has incredible flow.
In fact, from certain vantage points the ribbon of trail seems to go on forever
Sladnas cleans one of said brutal climbs, but well worth it as there is always a sweet descent on the other side.
Looking back down the opening climb on Chutes & Ladders
That was all the pics I took, but Sean had some nice ones:
Ben, Ben, and more Ben - Zippity
Almost at the top - Stang on Zippity
Stang enters the matrix - Chutes & Ladders
The bottom of Chutes and Ladders spilled out onto the flats a long way from 18 road. With the wind and equine post holes that part of the ride pretty much sucked. Here, jabantik takes the lead after I somehow got stung twice on the tummy by a hornet.
Impressive scenery
I'm trying to count the laps in my head. Lap 1 took us up Prime Cut and down Zippity, after which we all climbed back up the road. At this point the group split - some did Kessel Run while the rest of us headed back over to the top of Prime Cut to ride Chutes and Ladders. Next, we conned Ben and then Mark into driving us back up for more runs. The ride up the road isn't that bad but no one felt like doing it a second time.
Joe's Ridge was the first shuttle lap on the menu. I think our group was down to 5 at this point. Joe's was pretty short itself and dumped us out 3/4 of the way down Kessel Run. While Kessel is normally a blast with high banked corners that meander back and forth down a ravine, the headwind we were riding into made it feel like we were riding uphill not down. After that we still had one lap in us. Back at the top again our smaller group split further with a few deciding to give Kessel another try while Sean and I hit up Prime Cut. This turned out to be a great move as it was protected from the wind and had equally good flow as Kessel.
Fun little air on Joe's Ridge
In the end our short easy day turned into a respectable 25 miles I think? And with a drive to Moab still to come it was time to head out.
