Fruita day 5: 18 Road

I’d never done five days of MUni in a row before, but here we were on Sunday. Nathan and I were sore but doing generally well, while Chris and Dragon were still itching to ride more. Today’s plan was to go to the 18 Road trails at the foot of the Book Cliffs, which were repored to be mellower, flowy trails. Because it was warmer, and the trails were supposed to be easy, most of us decided to go without armor.

Nancy was going to hike in the park, but probably couldn’t keep up with us on the flowy sections, so she drove us to the upper trailhead where hiking would be more fun. That set us up with a nice climb to Zippity Do Dah through a juniper forest with occasional rocks. It looks like almost no one goes out that way because the parking lot was full and we only ran into a couple of people on the trail.

Zippity is mostly smooth, with some very steep chutes and occasional features. I got First Blood on the same damn biff I had twice on Palisade, a pedal hit on an unexpected rock. But Dragon won Best Biff later on one of the rock features, with a bonus for potentially sending himself over the cliffside (though he managed to stop in time).

From the trail bottom we rode Prime Cut back up the hill, which turned out to be quite a pleasant climb through the forest, steady but not too hard. At the top, Nathan met Nancy to drive down to the lower parking lot, while the rest of us took the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Kessel Run was pretty fun, fast, swoopy, almost as fast as Endor in Tamarancho, and a lot longer. I made it in no dismounts, which took about 20 minutes. We had beers and snacks in the parking lot, and Nathan and I felt that was a fine way to end the riding for the week, while Chris and Dragon decided to go do a second ride on Moore Fun back over at Kokopelli. Nathan, Nancy and I went for disc golf instead.

Chris won a bonus Best Biff on the second ride, and put himself in the competition for Best Injury for the week by breaking his finger, although Dragon may have come away with a broken collarbone too from his fall on Ribbon Trail.

In summary, Fruita has some righteous riding, and we will definitely be back. Kokopelli has some cool stuff, especially Horsethief Bench and Moore Fun, and Mike also recommended Stephen’s Trail. But the real winner is Ribbon Trail followed by almost any of the lower section of Lunch Loops; totally worth the shuttle and the trip.

Next year!

Zippity Do Dah

Dragon in the chute

Kessel Run