Team CA / CO
Brad and I were about to hit the roof. It'd been 3 to 4 weeks of straight cold and snow here in Boulder, and hardly any mountain biking in what felt like ages (except a fat bike adventure...or misadventure). The local trails were either covered in snow, ice or a quagmire of mud, and even middays were frigid.
Good thing we'd planned a winter trip! The thought of a 12-hour drive was not exactly exhilarating, but if you want guaranteed warm weather and good trails in January, it is what's necessary. I kinda enjoy a scenic drive anyway. Plus, we were meeting our buddy Aaron and his (ripper) dad from Santa Cruz in a heartwarming CO / CA Meet In The Middle / Sister City MTB Spiritual Vortex Togetherness thing, so half the fun was going to be hanging out.
The drive was fairly scenic, though much of it is through the bleak martian middle of nowhere, Utah and Arizona. It's also weird to arrive in Moab and not ride.
Spoiler: Sedona is Delightful.
Due to recent rain, we were lucky to ride some of the most grippy, amazing trail conditions I've ever seen. There literally are trails on every side of town. Basically, you can pick any of the rock formations around town and there will be a network of trails on and around it. We had great help from Over The Edge, Bike & Bean and even Duff himself in Sedona with loop recommendations.
Most trails are short segments in a larger loop, and it's very easy to connect the various networks together. The amount of options are crazy. The shortlist of things we rode were: Chuckwagon, Mescal, Cockscomb, Anaconda, Broken Arrow, Hog Wash, Pig Tail, Slim Shady, Templeton, Baldwin, Hiline and Pig Tail again (x3, such jump & berm). And we barely scratched the surface (especially techy steep stuff). I'd love to go back and ride more steeps... maybe next year.
Canyons on the drive down US Route 160
Brad on Broken Arrow.
Aaron and I look for something to jump.
There was a little berm to launch on Pig Tail that was super fun.
It was Aaron who really showed us all how to properly launch LETS ROCKET OVER IT
Sedona Cosmic Vortex radness. I wish we would have photographed more on Hiline, but we were too busy being stoked and slowly crawling down steep rocks.
Packing up with much hero dirt still on the tires... until next time, Sedona.