http://quinnphoto.smugmug.com/MTB-Pics/Moab-2010/12545712_reG7z
Vids are on youtube under my username: iambquinn
I believe they will come up as latest first.
I'll try not to get into too much detail here.
Arrived Friday around 5pm. Rode Posion Spider Mesa to Portal. PSM pretty much sucked. The Portal on the other hand, WOW, what fun. I forgot my camera, but you can watch this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erk4BR2GNPo of the trail from another rider. This is considered an Expert Only trail and they mean it. Three riders have died on this trail, yes I said DIED on this trail because for a good amount you are riding on a narrow ledge that is about 600ft up a straight vertical rock wall. No joke here people, this is serious. If you fall to the left you will die guarenteed! Unfortunately videos never do a trail justice. When you see a small drop those are typically more than just a little drop, more like 1.5ft to flat, and plenty of those lined up in a row which is harder then it sounds when crawling through them slowly. Anyways, the Portal trail was by far right up there as one of the most fun technical trails EVER!
Next day we were supposed to ride the Porcupine Rim shuttle but rain cancelled it out so we head over to Amasa Back trail. What can I say other than 100% pure FUN. This trail has so many options to hit off to the side and we hit them all! Probably took up twice as long as normal to ride this trails because of all the times we stopped to play. Rollers (steep rock declines you go down that take a good amount of technical ability so that you don't flipped over the handlebars) and drops were the name of the game and we took it into overtime! At the top we went over to Rockstacker which is another very technical trail with two descents that were surely +5 rated (meaning it can't get much harder or it wouldn't be rideable). Very tricky stuff but really fun too. Shortly after Rockstacker we got poured on, BAD! Blowing, cold, hail mixture, lightning, thunder (all around us and super close) and nowhere to take cover. Finally we made it to some rock where we could get under a ledge and it quit raining. 5min later and the sun came out, but by then we were soaked to the bone and really cold. The rest of the ride in was fun but also a little miserable with cold hands and feet that stung on every bump. Did I mention we were riding super bumpy rock trails and were about 7 miles from the trail head? Yeah!
Sunday we finally got to do the Porcupine Rim shuttle although not the full Enchilada due to rain up high in the mountains. Got to ride from UPS down (still about 15miles). I had 2 specific challenges in mind that I wanted to try, one being the "Notch". For those who don't know about the "Notch", it's a short, steep, slippery, basically extremely difficult section that not many people make it down. I would guess of all the riders on this trail, only 10% try the Notch, and of those maybe 10% succeed. If fact it's so difficult there is another trail option that completely bipasses the Notch. It took me 5 tries, but finally I made it through clean and very happy. Here is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dowgTYVfcY
The rest of the trail was fun. The 2nd section I was looking to tackle was down at the bottom and I was able to clean it up on the 2nd try. First try was really just a stupid mistake at the top, should've never happened, oh well. Here is that vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd22J2MXYzA
Believe me when I say these are SO MUCH harder than they look! Trust me!
Here are a couple of my favorite pics of the trip. Still waiting on the pics from my riding buddy Andrew. Once I get those might post some up.
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