Another year rolls around, and I am preparing for my traditional spring adventure trip to Utah. Similarly to last year, I experienced some great skiing in Colorado earlier this year. I have shared some of it here, focusing on backcountry skiing. It was a great season, where I mostly skied in a resort with my family and enjoyed some great powder overall! Now is the time to get ready for some camping and mountain biking adventure in Utah again. I have been trying to get out and ride a bike as much as possible, but the April weather was unpredictable. I ended up biking only on paved roads around my neighborhood, mostly.  Oh well, my bike is working, and I must get up to speed as I go. I continued with my exercise routine as planned and felt prepared and fit.

I left Denver with my friend, and we drove toward Loma, CO, to meet with another biking buddy there. The plan was to bike Kokopelli Loops to warm us up and figure out our next move. The drive across the mountains went surprisingly smoothly for a Saturday, as the usual skier traffic declined at the end of the ski season.

The Biking Adventure Begins

We started biking in questionable weather with a strong wind, and we expected to get a little wet on the trail. It was a good start to our adventure as we strolled around the 12-mile loop with about 1200 ft elevation difference on a single-track trail. And there wasn’t even much rain.

We drove to Moab to get a better head-start for another biking escapade in Utah the next day. The wind was getting stronger, it was cold, and I was happy we all ended up sleeping inside an RV. We planned to ride the Slick Rock Trail the next day. The cold weather might be advantageous for biking in a rocky desert. I won’t have any problem with overheating and MS, I thought.

Slick Rock Trail was great as usual, with some unusual puddles of water here and there from recent rain. 10 miles on a challenging up-and-down trail with a 2000 ft elevation difference boosted by the occasional cheering from dirt bikers. I recorded a video that might give you some idea of the flow.

The Easy Day Hiking

After this, we thought we deserved an easy day of hiking—hike from the parking lot to Green River, jump in the river and hike back. This turned out to be one of the most challenging activities of the entire trip. The hike was 18 miles with a 3000 ft elevation difference. And we could not take a swim as the river was not easily accessible. Parts of the trail turned into a rock climbing and it was difficult to find the trail sometimes. The whole trip took us 8 hours, and I got sunburned as we left sunscreen in the car.  But there were some spectacular views!

Mountain Biking on the Edge

The next day really needed to be a resting day as we were planning to continue riding the Porcupine Rim and Magnificent 7, both very challenging MTB trails often following an edge of a cliff. To get ready for the Porcupine Rim the next day, we took an eight-mile loop on fun single tracks at the Bar M trails system.

The afternoon temperatures continued to be around 60-70F, and everything looked perfect. We booked a shuttle from the bottom of the trail and started biking around 11:30 am. It was a great ride as last year, even though it was snowing a little at the beginning. I recorded a video from the bike so anyone can feel the atmosphere and get an idea of the gorgeous view from the Porcupine Rim down to Castle Valley.

The ride was 20 miles with short 1000ft elevation gain at the beginning and almost 5000 ft descent down to Colorado river. Great ride!

It was too cold to swim in the river we thought and went to the swimming pool instead to get ready for the next day. It was going to be the most challenging ride of the entire trip; The  Magnificent 7 Trail.

It started slow and flowy, but it soon became a very challenging rocky trail along the edge of a 1500-foot cliff.  The Mag 7 trail ends on Portal trail, which is a very exposed trail right next to the steep cliff. It also happens to be one of the deadliest MTB trails. One wrong step aside results in a certain death. Enjoy the video!

Recap

I felt really exhausted in the end, but I am also very happy that we completed this biking adventure with a lot of fun and no harm. Overall, I thought this was a decent boost to my cardio fitness despite some serious “overreaching” warnings I was getting from my sports watch. Attached is a fitness summary screenshot from the entire camping week in Utah. I only wish I could do this more often!

My health was great and I did not feel any interference related to MS on this trip either, and that is great! I am looking forward to an amazing summer this year and my third MS anniversary.