Moab: Slick Rock Bike Trail

At 5:00am this morning Sarah woke me up saying some animal is sniffing around our tent. Thinking she meant a coyote, I grabbed for my knife and reluctantly went outside to find nothing out there. Later she tells me she just thought it was a ground squirrel. We were told that if we wanted to do the Slick Rock bike trail we should start early or the heat would kill us. So we loaded our bikes, got some breakfast in town and were at the park by 6:45am. As a side note, remember to bring $5 cash to get into the park or you will have to scrounge up every penny you have in your change drawer, just like we did. (the rangers there probably hate us) After a quick tune up we were off on the trail. We had originally planned on doing the 2.2 mile practice loop but Sarah was feeling ambitious and we jumped onto the 10.4 mile Slick Rock Loop. Just in case you have never heard of this trail: The 10.4 mile loop is rated a 4 out of 1-4 with 4 being the hardest. The trail runs almost all on slick rock. Slick rock is a sandstone type of rock in which your tires stick to almost like glue and helps you get vertical on the bike. It is an extremely difficult and fun ride and will get your heart rate pumping to its max. If you’re a mt biker this is unlike any bike ride you will ever do. It takes a little while to trust that your tires will stick to the rock but once you do it makes for a pretty awesome rode. Almost at the end of the ride my rear axel finally gave into the extreme pressure I was putting on it and broke. I was able to bomb down the rest of the ride and finish strong. I ended up taking my bike to an awesome local shop called Chili Peppers and the guys there fixed it right on the spot for a great price. It seems like all the bike shops in Moab are filled with awesome guys who love biking and don’t care what level biker you are or how much money you have. (Unlike some citys...cough..LA.. cough)

Most of the rest of the day was spent enjoying some amazing lunch at a local coffee shop, relaxing and pumping liquids into our body’s to get ready for mt. biking day 2 tomorrow!