Fruita and GJ - The Land of Schweet Singletrack and CO Douchebags

With the lack of snow in the Wasatch, and temps averaging in the mid-60's in Moab and Fruita, we decided to get out of town last weekend. James and Traci were up for it, as always, and Fruita was on the agenda since everyone seemed to be in a downhilling rut (not that there's anything wrong with that) and we needed some pedaling.

Friday
Josh and I left town on Friday afternoon (since Josh came down with a mysterious vision problem that morning - he just couldn't see himself going to work). We loaded the Element to the gills with bike and Maddie crap, and rolled into Fruita around 6:00.

Since we had no beer in the car we stopped at the City Market to pick up some firewood and a 12'er of PBR. As we're checking out, the lady asks Josh for ID since he was paying. He obliges and she turns to me and asks for ID. Since I stupidly lost my ID the night of the Aussie Pink Floyd show (don't ask), I didn't have anything to show her. So, instead of accepting defeat, I went into instant defensive psycho-bitch mode.

"Why do I need to show ID? I'm not buying the beer."
"There is a good chance that you will be drinking it, so I need ID."
"WTF? What if I was his 12-yr-old kid? Would you not sell the beer to him because he's with a minor? And how do you assume I would drink this?"
"I'm sorry, that's our policy."
"This is a bunch of crap. That can't be the law. WTF. We're going to the liquor store and I'm staying in the car."

Granted, the lady felt really bad and kept apologizing to us. On the way out of the store, we kind of got the idea that there was some police sting action going on and the checkers were under surveillance. So, it wasn't really her fault, but it still felt good being a bitch.

So, after a stop at the liquor store for some 2 Below and 90 Shilling, we're off to 18 Road. We got one of the last camps (CO people were arriving in droves), yanked the bikes off the car, and busted up the road with Maddie for a quick Kessel Run before dark. Perfect timing...we rolled back into camp with about 20 minutes to spare. Maddie was a Kessel superstar, staying right on my wheel the whole way. Needless to say, she crashed pretty hard that night.


How sweet is that?

An awesome turkey burger and potato salad dinner, a pack of firewood, and 3-4 beers later, James and Traci showed up. A little planning for the next day, and we called it a night.

Saturday
We rallied a Kessel Run with Maddie before breakfast to wear her out for the day. Josh "Rachel Ray" Petersen cooked up a mean breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and the morning warmed up nicely into the 50's by 10 o'clock. As we passed other camps on the way out, there seemed to be a large ratio of spandex, weeny bikes, and Colorado plates. Hmmm....

All of us were psyched to check out some of the Grand Junction rides since none of us had been over there before. From the descriptions and reviews we'd heard about the Ribbon, we were very intrigued. We spent an hour looking at maps and trail descriptions trying the figure out how the hell we were supposed the ride the damn thing. Eventually, we decided that even if the book didn't mention it, we could shuttle it. Perhaps the lack of shuttle info could be related to our morning observation of the Colorado spandex phenomenon?

We rolled into the lower Tabeguache parking area and piled into the Suby to drive up to the upper Ribbon parking lot. As we're gaining thousands of feet of elevation, I'm looking at the map thinking "why the heck does the trail description say to go UP the Ribbon and DOWN the paved road we're on now? Are we missing something?" James and Josh strapped on their armor, and we hoped we made the right decision. Well, it ends up the author of the guide book must have been a local CO masochistic douche, because shuttling was DEFINITELY the way to go.


The huge slickrock slab. The views didn't suck.

Instantly we were whooping and yee-hawing as the trail opened up onto a huge slab of featureless slickrock. It was incredible! One slab ended, and we traversed an exposed ridge of singletrack. Then it opened up again onto another slab! The upper section continued like this for a couple of miles, with some gnarly drops (portages) and singletrack in between. Eventually it spit us out into a dry creekbed. And who knew a dry creekbed could be so fun to ride? The remainder of the trail was a combination of loose and not-so-loose singletrack, some technical rocky sections, a huge portage, and some exposure. Very, very fun day.


Josh on the singletrack

On the last big singletrack decent, we ran into a guy coming up the trail. Full tighty-whitey race gear and a wimpy bike - surprise, surprise. He asked whether we were enjoying the trail and how we liked the climb up. Uh...we didn't do the climb. He shot us a look of pure shock and proceeded to tell us that the only way to truly experience the Ribbon is to climb it. Uh, OK. He'd never heard of anyone shuttling it before. What kind of weird, retarded world of mountain biking had we been warped into here??

Finally, back to the trailhead, and we're surrounded by spandex, moose knuckles, carbon frames (whaa??) and too many people with a body fat % less than a gallon of skim milk. The jaw-drop looks we got as we rolled in with armor and bikes with more than 3" of travel was priceless. Again, after telling people what we had done, we mostly got deer-in-headlights looks. Wow. Can't wait to bring more of the Utard crew to rip the shit out of that ride - as a shuttle.

But the day was not done yet. Back to camp for an awesome dinner and a few beers around the campfire.

Maddie wanted a better view of the fire

Around 8:00, it was time to bust out the lights for a little night-riding action. I'd never done it before, so I was extremely excited. We decided that Joe's Ridge would be a good choice, since there were a few spicy descents, some exposure, and we could finish it off with the bottom half of Kessel.

Night riding on Joe's

I was hooked! My light died at the bottom of Joe's, but Josh decided against another lap and gave me his. Traci, James, and I did one more lap on Kessel before calling it a night. Damn, I wish those lights weren't so expensive!

Sunday
Kokopelli is a great spot to hit on the way out of town. James and Josh were dying to try Moore Fun, a highly technical loop that meets up with Mary's. Traci and I weren't into it so we rode Horsethief Bench. Traci told me it was her favorite Kokopelli ride and it did not disappoint! The singletrack was buff and beautiful with just enough technical rocky sections. The views of the river were beautiful too.




We finished up on Mary's Loop and met up with James and Josh. Apparently Moore Fun was an ass-kicker, but they had a good time (see Josh's blog - I'm sure he'll have his trip report up soon).

Love, love, love Fruita.