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KANSAS BOB: ZION AND GOOSEBERRY
Kansas Bob
December 16, 2008
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My buddy Rob emailed me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I could meet him in St. George, Utah for a few days of riding. Rob’s family owns a ranch on the East side of Zion that’s about half the size of Rhode Island, and he’s spent a lot of time exploring the mountains, mesas, and canyons in that portion of Utah. I jumped at the chance to see some new terrain, and talked another friend, Brian, into sharing the driving (and paying half of the gas).
 Kansas Bob, Rob, and Brian
We loaded our road bikes and mountain bikes in my van and headed towards Hurricane (pronounced Hurrican), Utah. The Super Eight in Hurricane offers a $49.95 week day rate, which is about as cheap as you’ll find any where, and there are several restaurants in the area that are also inexpensive. The plan was to ride mountain bikes the first two days and then to head to Zion for a road ride on our last day.
The last time that I checked, www.utahmountainbiking.com, I counted at least 30 trails in the area, and I knew that Rob was familiar with most of them. The first day he navigated while I drove to Little Creek Mountain. It’s a mesa area just south of the more famous Gooseberry Mesa (my all time favorite trail), and a trail system that I first heard about from one of the people that laid it out, Morgan Harris. Morgan told me that he and his brother Mike had worked for many years building the trails on both Mesas, and I can tell you that both trails are a mix of genius, artistry, and vision and they are unlike anything that I’ve ever ridden before. You’ve got to experience them for your self.
Rob got us to the trail head after passing more dirt intersections than I’ll ever remember (I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast), and promised to send me a GPS route to get me there next time. Once under way, I looked back to visualize where my van was and tried to focus on a rock and cedar tree to guide me back. Through out the ride, I noticed that every other rock and tree looked exactly the same. If anything happened to Rob, Brian and I were buzzard bait.
Rob set a good trail pace and rode with skill, speed, and expertise, that would surprise most people, after taking their first look at him (actually he’s not bad looking), he’s just BIG. Not tall and slender like most beanpole bicyclists, he’s really big! He claims to be only 6’4”, but I’m guessing 6’6” is more like it and I’m sure he is minimizing his weight at 280, but who’s counting grams at a time like this. But trying to stay with him is not an easy task. He flows down the trail like a butterfly (yes a butterfly), and maintains corner speed like a racer. If I so much as tapped my brakes, he’d put 10 yards on me. During his football career at BYU, I’m sure they measured his speed in 40-yard increments, but I can tell you that now his speed is measured in miles-per-hour over full days in the saddle.
His bike is a dual-suspension Niner, which serves him well. The larger 29” wheels hold him in the corners like a 26” never would (he replaces wheels every six months), and was telling us that, in the past, he’s tried about every rim, hub and lacing pattern that you might imagine. His favorites are Industry Nine wheelsets that have been holding up really well. While Brian and I carried little more than an energy bar, pump, multi-tool and water in our Camelbacks, he was carrying all of that and a spare chain.
Little Creek Mountain’s trails are very tight and wind through cedar trees and slick-rock outcroppings, with just enough loose rock to keep things interesting. Instead of long climbs and screaming downhills, which seem to characterize much of the west, you’re served up a cross-country experience at about 5000 feet in elevation. About an hour into the ride, I came around a corner to find Rob waiting for me with his camera out (I told you he was fast), and motioned me to a stop. It was the edge of the Mesa, looking West – North West, and the view was simply astounding! Hurricane was twenty miles over, and below, and beyond that was St. George, a corner of Arizona and maybe Nevada in the distance. You could see forever! I’m sure that I even saw Wheeler Peak in Nevada (that is home to one of the 100 toughest US climbs). To our north was Gooseberry Mesa, and just below that was the J.E.M trail leading over towards the Hurricane Rim trail. And here’s the cool part, Rob wanted us to ride both of them later in the day after he trashed us on Little Creek Mountain for more than four hours. Two saps that just drove up from sea level and this mountain (of a) man living at 6,000’ feet near Denver was going to give us a whuppen we wouldn’t forget.
Fortunately Rob got us back to my van in one piece, so we loaded up and headed down towards the J.E.M trail. Along the way, we stopped and had some lunch at a convenience store situated between Gooseberry Mesa and Little Creek Mountain, on Highway 59.
The J.E.M trail is entirely different than either of the mesa-top trails, it’s a big-ring, fast downhill single track winding its way through desert plants, made up mostly of a loose sand-dirt combination. It was easy to overcook the corners, and two wheel drift to the outside of the turns, but Rob’s Niner hooked up like crazy. I was running a new set of Kenda’s Small Block 8 tires for the first time and was very impressed with their traction on the variety of trail surfaces that we were experiencing. We were working our way down towards the intersection with the Hurricane Rim trail, which we planned to ride back to Rob’s car that we dropped just outside of Hurricane for a shuttle vehicle.
The Hurricane Rim trail was another neat single track that worked it’s way westward along the edge of several canyon, and cliff sections. It has a lot of climbing; at least it seemed like a lot at the time, because our legs were turning to mush. We climbed, and descended the terrain following the rim, the rest of the day. Yes, we all walked the last climb.
We were all moving a little slower the next day heading out to Gooseberry Mesa. This was my third time riding there, but Rob knew sections that I’d never seem before. The “Goose” is covered with the same Cedar trees as Little Creek, but its South rim is an entirely different surface. Very tight sand stone slickrock trails wind through, and around the most fun domes, drops, cracks, and chutes that I’ve ever ridden. There are overhanging ledges that we had to duck to keep from hitting our heads, tree limbs that could snag the unwary, and always Morgan and Mikes white dots to follow. Put Gooseberry on your must-do list of trails to ride.
My plan for Zion, was to park in Springdale, the gateway town to Zion, and do a fifty miler, climbing out of the canyon, and heading east on highway 9, to the intersection with highway 89, at Mount Carmel Junction, grabbing some lunch and heading back. As rides sometime do, things changed. Rob needed to spend some time with his family, can you imagine? And Brian was under the weather, and wanting to head home at the earliest possible moment.
October in Southern Utah is spectacular, with the cottonwoods turning yellow, and scrub oaks turning a mix of red, orange, and yellow, plus the native vegetation adding their color pallet to the overall picture. I wanted to see it at the magic hour, just before the sun showed it self over the cliffs, so I headed out on my road bike about 7:30 in the morning. The temperature felt like it was in the thirties, but I had a jacket with me to ward off the cold, plus I knew that it was going to warm up pretty quickly. My ride turned into short intervals between photo ops. It was impossible to ride further than a quarter of a mile without seeing a scene that was too incredible not to stop and take a photo. As I worked my way up the hairpin turns towards the tunnel, I stopped at every vantage point just to soak in the view! It’s only five or six miles from the western pay station, to the tunnel where I planned to turn around, because I was warned that bicycles are not allowed to ride through the tunnel, by the ranger. She told me to talk to the ranger stationed at tunnel entrance, and they could help me hitch a ride in a passing pickup through the tunnel. Knowing that Brian wasn’t doing well, I cut my ride short and headed back down to the van.
Maybe next trip, I’ll head on through the tunnel, and make my way down to Kanab, spend the night, and head back. A fellow has to have dreams.
Over The Edge Sports in Hurricane is the place to go for information about all of the trails in the area. Quentin, and his wife DJ, have the latest maps of the trails in the area, or can arrange guides for your trip, or rent your pick of the latest high-end mountain bikes. They carry Ibis, Knolly, Yeti, Pivot, and Kona (and I’m pretty sure that I saw some Ellsworths and Turners in their racks). Here’s what I suggest, fly into Vegas and rent a car, then drive the two to three hours north on I-15 to Hurricane, rent one of Quentin’s wonder bikes, and have a ball. Spend a few days, to a week sampling the many trails, and of course Zion, than head back to Vegas to “re-hydrate”.
Call Over The Edge Sports at 1-435-635-5455, or click on their website www.otesports.com.
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