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Ride Summary:
Three fun trail put together to make one adventures point to point ride
Trail Description:
The ride starts with an 8 mile downhill on rough doubletrack. Along the way is Gemini bridges (6 miles) Traffic is heavy at this point because of the downhill and view of the arches. At around eight mile turn right to Gold Bar Rim. Here you will drop the crowd and begin technical steep climb with drop sprinkled in. This is manly a Hardcore four wheel drive trail on doubletrack slickrock. follow the blacktire tracks on the rock. At the top of the climb great views of the valley bellow, highway 191 and off in the distance Arches National Park. After a few ups and downs with out looks next to rim to come to an (about 16 miles) intersection. Here you have the option to take the Poison Spider mesa or the Portal Trail down. I recommend Poison Spider (little more than Eight miles back down to the second trail head), the Portal trail can be deadly with 400 foot drops off the edges. Portal trail is slickrock and deep sand at times. Follow the white jeeps paint on the rock. Sometime the jeeps are hard to find so keep a good look out. Follow a bumpy fire road back to the parking lot trail.
How to get there:
Drive 11.4 miles on 191 out of Moab going north to highway 313. drive another 12.8 miles on 313 past pump station to gravel road on left. Park on top of hill. Leave second shuttle car at Poison Spider Trailhead, down highway 279.
Additional Notes:
Bring LOTS of water, food and Safe supplies. This is an epic ride! Bring topo maps with detail trail information. CAN BE EASY TO GET LOST!!!
| Posted by: Raph de Rooij on 11/1/2009 |
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Did this trip with my buddy Michel on new year's eve of 1993, without using a shuttle (we came to Moab by bicycle; the trip started in LA).
The day turned out to be just too short to make it to the Portal Trail before nightfall. Our plan B backup plan, the Poison Spider Mesa trailhead, failed. The reason: in the dark we got lost on Poison Spider Mesa, punctired our tires on the cactus needles and had to 'celebrate' the new year on the plateau in freezing conditions. It was also a bummer for the people at the Lazy Lizard hostel, because we had promised to buy the beer...
The ride itself was great, albeit pretty tough because of the low temperature and occasional snow patches. And of course the less-than-happy ending was unfortunate. That's why I rated this trail only 'fair'.
For more, see www.raph.nl/trips/1993-usa/80.htm
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