White Rim Trail Trip Report

[E.J.]

Here are a few pics and my little report of a 4 day/3 night vehicle assisted mountain bike ride my wife, some friends and I did last Thursday-Sunday.

There were 10 people, 5/5 and 3 support vehicles. I am sure we could have done it with 2 support vehicles, but we had a couple leave a day early, cutting off the last day’s short ride.

Not that it matters, but we group shopped, planned for dinners each night(hobo dinners, chili verde, spaghetti), lunchtime stops with lunch meat/sandwiches and continental breakfasts every morning, save for one…where we did it right, eggs, bacon, toast, breakfast burritos ect.
The truck was packed up with general camp supplies, food, beer, wine, cigars, snacks of all sorts and A LOT OF WATER…..on yea & our bikes.

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We did the clockwise ride, dropping in at the Shafer Trail. Speaking of the Shafer trail, it is a riot to ride and I enjoyed every bit of that drop in.

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We rode to the Musselman Arch where we stopped for lunch the first day.

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[E.J.]

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We then rode threw to the Airport Campground for our first nights stay. Total ride was 19ish miles and easy. We had a dinner of chicken hobo dinners and enjoyed stories from the days ride. There was just one crash and no blood to speak of. There was a nose injury(more pride than damage) at camp due to slipping trying to get into the beer cooler.

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[E.J.]

Up the next morning and decided that we would ride to White Crack to have lunch, then on to our campsite at Murphy Hogback. So we had a light breakfast, loaded our packs with snacks and hit the road.

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The Hogback climb was a bugger IMO….

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[E.J.]

It was difficult enough, that our bikes curled up next to a rock and went to sleep shortly after at the Murphy campground. Total ride today was 26ish miles and IMO, the toughest of the trip. Guess you can also add in about 3 miles of riding that we did into White Crack and back out to the WRT, so 29ish miles for the day.

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There could be worse places to wake up and drink your morning coffee.

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[E.J.]

We then hit the road in the morning after a REAL BREAKFAST. The breakfast burrito that I made was as impressive as the surroundings. Wish I would have had a picture of it….. Plan is to ride for about 2 hours and then stop for lunch…..then finish at our campsite, Hardscrabble. First pic is a support vehicle bringing up the rear…

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WE HIT THE RIVER!

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The last camp, as stated, was Hardscrabble…. EVERY camp was great, but this was my favorite. I think some of that was due to finally having some shade and more so, having a natural bath called the Green River. I spent a fair bit of time swimming around in what I assume was approx. 60F water…. Felt great after the hardscrabble hill climb up and over(down) to get there. Total miles day three was about 25. Not a bad ride, but there was some climbing that had every one of us doing some hike a bike.

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Michelle and I on the last night….

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[E.J.]

Our camp host….

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We woke up, ate a quick bite, packed up camp and hit the road for the short ride out. I think the total mileage day 4 was only 10ish miles. All easy, except for the Horsethief trail. We had shuttled the other vehicles there day one, so at the top….didn’t ride the road back to wherever you start.

...and that is a wrap. This last pic is from the top of Horsethief trail.... It was the final climb. You can look down and see the road there by the river... You can't really see the switchbacks up....but it was a leg burner....

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I’d d it again in a heartbeat and I think we already have pretty much decided we will next year. What an amazing place we live…..

[pnoon]

Great pics, E.J.
Thanks for sharing them.

[Ranger_B]

Looks like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.

[mariogolbee]

Looks like a lot of fun. What a remarkable place. Thank you for sharing.

[Wanger]

Awesome. Looks like an absolute blast. :)

[leasingthisspace]

Thanks for sharing the awesome pics.

Looks like a great time.

[md4958]

great pics, thanks!

[Pistol]

Kick ass pictures man! Jenn and I would love to do that ride too. We did Moab for a few days last year and had a blast, I should post some pics... My wife is pretty bummed that she can't ride for the next year or so due to the pregnancy, but I'll get some good rides in for her :).

[Salvelinus]

Very cool. thanks for sharing.

[E.J.]

Bringing up a dead thread from the past for 2 reasons.... Frist, these pics that were just sent to me are AMAZING with a capital A.:jd They are VERY MUCH worth checking out if you have a few seconds. They are 3D and allow you to move them around... Click and play....

http://www.utah3d.net/panoramas_5/white-crack.html

http://www.utah3d.net/panoramas_3/GrandView.html



Second reason, our return trip took a dump related to flooding that ruined the road it.... Road will not be fixed for our planned trip this Spring... Here is a pic of the damage. In the above pics, this area is shown in pic 3 & 4.

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/9093/wrtmbr1.jpg

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[justonemorestick]

Thats just a little washout aint it?