When we picked up our bikes at the shop
the day before, the guy told us about a shuttle they were runinng to
a new trail that connected to the Porcupine Rim trail. The new
one was called the Kokopeli and added eight miles of
singletrack to the Porcupine Rim trail. Our original plan
was to suffer the climb to the start of the Porucpine Rim and ride
it back to town, but why suffer when we can enjoy eight miles of new
singletrack? So we showed up and loaded up to head to the top.
Here we are at the
trailhead.
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We had gone up a little over
4,000 ft from Moab to a little over 8,000ft into the La Salles. As
you can see it was a little chilly up here. Behind
me you can
just make out the towers in Castle Valley. A little furthor down the
trail, we'll get a lot
closer.
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This was the closest we would
get to the La Salles all weekend. On my previous trip to Moab, we
actually drove up into the snow at
10,000ft.
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The
Kokopeli was a blast. It was mostly downhill and
singletrack with some interesting technical sections thrown in.
Overall the entire ride
was going to be
downhill.
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Craig taking some pictures of us on the Kokopli.
Here's jeff - feeling better than the day
before.
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The trail ran very close to
the canyon edge in many spots. Most of the time we didn't pay
attention and blasted on down the trail, but
sometimes the view
was just too spectacular. We were still pretty high up at this
point, as
I appear to be a little
chilled.
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Already a few miles
from the starting point in the snowy mts. We were really surprised
at the number of people that shuttled up with us in full
downhill
gear. They had fullface helmets, elbow pads, shin and knee pads. It
was crazy. After passing most of them on one of the short
climbs
we never saw them
again.
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You can see just how
close the trail is to the edge. Looking at the topos, I think it's a
1,000ft
drop.
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Speaking of drop... Near
the end of the Kokepeli we came to this sharp turn that dropped off
a ledge then ran down this steep slippery trail.
My posture
almost indicates how hard it was for us to even walk down it. While
discussing at the bottom how impossible it would be to ride
this thing some guy on a downhill rig did just that. I didn't
quite see him at the top on the turning drop, but he smoothly rolled
down the rest
of it. He wasn't in the group that
shuttled up with us and we never saw him again, so he obviously knew
the place
well.
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