Moab Trip - Day #1

Bryce and I began planning a couple of months ago... planning for a trip to Moab. We wanted to make our first trip out there to ride the rocks. After a lot of planning, studying maps and the internet and asking on forums, we had a plan. We decided to trailer the bikes to Grand Junction, where we could leave the vehicles with Joy..... and then ride backcountry roads (hopefully mostly dirt) all the way to Moab. According to Google Maps, it would be about 100 miles on the button. Over the weeks of talking with friends and ADV'ers, four more friends signed up for the insanity. Terry and Bill, from Amarillo, would join us for the full trek from Grand Junction, and Matt and Mark would trailer the bikes all the way to Moab..... set up camp and ride the rocks with us.

Waking up at 5:30am and leaving the house at 6am, Bryce and I headed for Joy's house.

Once arriving in Grand Junction, we met up with Bill and Terry.... and led them up to Joy's house. Joy was a sport, posing for a pic on my bike with Bryce and I.

Before departing Joy's house, we gathered to study the maps, to get on the same page, before departing.

Joy lives in beautiful country. This is a pic, atop a mesa, looking down on the Glade Park area and out west toward Utah. If only our plans would have held up. Our first route, ended in a locked gate.... our second route ended with a gate going in to a ranch headquarters.... and our third route, ended with a ranch sitting at the gate, saying we couldn't enter or pass through. This was all very frustrating, as all these roads were county maintained and were supposed to be public access. We were polite and simply went around. The only problem was..... our 2.5 hour trip, turned into 8 hours.

A good portion of the riding was pretty easy, but we certainly hit some very tough areas..... particularly the steep climbs with big boulders.

And then we arrived at Sheep Creek. Endless Switchbacks, and crazy steeps grades and very rocky, bowling ball sized rocks led to.... yeah, adventure riding.

More Sheep Creek.

Several times, we had to pick up bikes. Here, I helped Bill up.... and turned around to take a pic of my bike.

Then the sun went down and it got interesting.

Our last two hours were spent, watching the country go by.... by the light of a motorcycle headlight. We arrived in Gateway at 10pm and decided to bag the trip for the day.