First long ride in Moab, "Behind the Rocks" trail, past Prositute Butte, overlooking Kane Creek Canyon, and out Pritchett Canyon.
The group did this ride as a point-2-point shuttle ride. We loaded up and down south out of Moab to the drop point just off Hwy 191. This means that it would be a one way ride - once you're in your IN for the full ride.
The opening portion was a lot of desert road, so wide open 'double track' with sandy stretches, but generally downhill and otherwise fast and easy riding.
At the lunch break (pictured) it was a great view, and we could see the sand blowing up on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CANYON! The winds were insane! I remember that the weather forecast was wierd because of a very strange low pressure system that had settled over the region which was NOT storm brewing. This caused high winds the whole week, record high winds in some places and dangerously high winds in some. In some of the canyons and on the crests it was expected to have 65 mph winds or higher, wow!
After lunch the trail descended a bit more but then moved into being a mixture of singletrack and sandstone work, which was very rough but a lot of fun. We ran across some jeepers working an interesting terrain feature at one point and it was interesting to see what theys guys could do to get their vehicles up obstacles. Some of them could simply drive up the features - having highly customized vehicles - but some needed to use winches or other forms of support.
The two most challenging portions of the ride that I remember were two areas where the sand had gotten a bit deep. In the first, up near the beginning of Pritchett Canyon, it was moderately deep sand but with very large tomb-stone rocks buried in it. This meant you could not just go straight through it, but had to steer and navigate through. It was in a portion like this that Thom fell. The other really challenging part was in the bottom of Kane Creek canyon where the sand was easily six or eight inches deep. Once you stopped rolling, there was simply no getting going again and it was a walk-out to the road from there - almost a mile.
We had one demi-casualty this ride, Thom took a big spill near the end as we were exiting Pritchett Canyon and partially dislocated his shoulder. Shippers was able to help him out and Thom was able to finish the ride, albeit cautiously.
26.95 miles end to end, mostly riding, long lunch break though, some jeeper observation.
3084 ft total
climbing, 4564 ft descending, starting elevation about 5500 ft, ending around 4000 ft.