Fruita vs. Moab. Which is better? Which place has the best trails? Which "Mecca" is the best place on Earth to ride a bike? The answer to all of the above is… BOTH! The beauty of this media hyped competition is that if you ride a mountain bike, it doesn't matter. Fruita and Moab are world class riding destinations and you should ride BOTH!
So the staff of Over The Edge, Fruita left our "mecca" and went riding at the "other mecca." MOAB! Since we are normally open 7 days a week, it is rare that all of us get a chance to ride together. Luckily, our Summers are slow due to hot weather so we closed the shop on a Wednesday and took off for Utah.
With only one day to ride together it was unanimous that we would ride the "Whole Enchilada." We booked a shuttle with Kyle, from Whole Enchilada Shuttle Company, http://www.wholeenchiladashuttlecompany.com and eight of us took off for the top of the La Sal Mountains. Our technician Gregory Luck captured the day with his amazing photog skills. You can check out his blog here…http://www.dirtanddogs.blogspot.com
The Whole Enchilada is a ride through many distinct life zones. At Warner Lake we made the transition from high alpine Aspen and Pine forests to the scrubby Oak of Hazard County Trail.
After Hazard County you enter another life zone. High desert Juniper trees and the famous Moab slick rock appear and the riding gets Moab technical and its hard to stay on the trail because of the jaw dropping views.
After descending through the tech and flow of UPS and LPS singletracks we dropped out at High Anxiety point. All of a sudden the heat was upon us, the morning clouds were gone and the gnar of Porcupine Rim seemed best saved for another day. With six flat tires on the day already we decided to descend "the climb" and head for town down Sand Flats Road. So what if we didn't do the "Whole Enchilda" we were happy with the "Large Burrito" that we had already been riding all morning. With food on our minds we headed for Moab and a very late lunch at Pasta Jays.
So pick our mecca or theirs, or both. What ever you choose have a good time and keep riding bikes!