The acid test for a newly tuned bike...

is an early morning lap at the Slickrock Trail of course! The shop mechanics at Poison Spider Bicycles in Moab are top notch and do terrific work. Highly recommended (no commission earned).

Large-scale trough crossbeds dominate the Navajo Sandstone (Lower Jurassic (201.4 Ma - 174.7 Ma)) and the coarsely etched foresets in the rock adds texture to the rolling landscape. The lack of joints and fractures in this area above Moab makes it particularly fun to ride but there is considerable vertical relief as this image shows, making the trail challenging due to the steep ascents/descents and off camber riding.

View down Grandstaff Canyon from the Slickrock Trail with Arches National Park on the skyline.

Early morning on the Slickrock Trail...

finds one all alone in the cool and quiet part of the day, with potholes filled with rainwater from the day before. Magnificent.

View from Shrimp Rock to the northeast, looking upstream at the Colorado River. A portion of Utah highway 128 and Grandstaff Campground can also be seen.

View north into The Windows section of Arches National Park. North Window Arch can be seen on the skyline right of center and is 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away.

An ocean of rolling sandstone slickrock...

is to be enjoyed on the famous Slickrock Trail. Don’t let the seemingly flat expanse in the image below deceive you but I cranked slightly more than 2,000 feet (610 m) of vertical ascent on the 10 mile (~16 km) trail. I first rode this line in the early 1980s on the upswing of mountain biking and it hasn’t gotten any easier at three score and nine years in age.

GPS track from my Garmin watch, color reflects speed.

The cherry on top...

of my typical daily 18 mile (29 km) ride is the long and flowy descent on the singletrack from this high point on the trail, about 900 feet (274 m) above my residence in the lower valley. It’s all about the downhill flow!

Despite the unalluring name...

that lacks curb appeal, the Mud Springs Non-Motorized Trail System is the newest mountain biking area south of Moab and it is HUGE fun. I explored about nine miles (~14 km) today during its “soft opening” prior to a winter closure that commences 1 December 2025. It’s brilliantly designed and expertly constructed with lots of downhill flowy sections with banked/bermed corners where experienced riders can carry speed through the turns. Once again, it’s enormous fun!

Scenic view from the top of the trail system. (Click on image to embiggen.)

Peering through Eye of the Whale Arch...

on the loveliest of autumn days. This was the destination of a 22 mile (35 km) out-and-back eMTB ride from Utahraptor State Park with friends this afternoon. Life is good.

Eye of the Whale Arch, Arches National Park. (Click image to supersize.)

Rockin' out at Navajo Rocks...

on the mountain bike trail system during a magnificent autumn afternoon in the high desert.

Red beds of the Dewey Bridge Member of the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic (174.1-163.5Ma)) share a sharp contact with the underlying cream-colored Navajo Sandstone (Lower Jurassic (201.3-174.1Ma)). (Click to enlargenate.)

Flipped 1,000 miles...

on the new Trek Rail+8 on the singletrack in upper Castle Valley this afternoon. Perfect place to accomplish this milestone. It’s good to be back on Mars.

The view over the handlebars. Click to enbiggen.

UPDATE: This puts me at 72% of the distance of the Earth’s circumference at the equator (since September 2020)!

The five year anniversary...

of me fracturing my femur and requiring a hip replacement passes with hardly a notice, other than it being memorialized on my calendar on this date. Since then I’ve biked more than two-thirds of the circumference of the Earth, so it seems to be working well.

Closing in on 17,000 miles...

(27,000 km) ridden on my collection of electric mountain bikes since September 2020! My riding style is becoming increasingly aggressive with growing experience and time on the trail, so I’m leveling up with a new enduro-style eMTB. But the acid test of this very capable bike awaits on the considerably more challenging trails around Moab, Utah this fall.

It still has the new bike smell: Trek Rail+ 8 Gen 5 eMTB at Fish Lake on its first ride. The sidewalls of the tubeless tires matches the terrain in Utah!

An early morning start...

on a once-weekly ritual commences from Lions Park, then a six mile (10 km) uphill climb on the Moab Canyon Pathway to the Moab Brands trail network where one can play on the singletrack until near exhaustion, then a nice and long downhill return.

Pedestrian/bicycle bridge across the Colorado River on the Moab Canyon Pathway.

Don't believe everything you see these days...

given that AI-driven functionality is being incorporated into nearly all software and apps. My neighbor and riding companion wanted a snap of himself riding across Castle Creek, however, the flow had been diverted leaving a dry channel at the singletrack crossing. Photoshop’s “Generative Fill” function nicely simulated a gently flowing stream where one does not exist. Remarkable.