Monday, October 16 - Klondike Bluffs and The Sovereign Singletrack

We decided the night before that we would remove the two back bench seats from the van and load the bikes in to drive out to trails north of town. This worked quite well and we were pleased that we did not need to pay for a shuttle. The day broke cool, but promised to be a gorgeous fall day in Moab.

We don't need no stinking shuttle!

The Klondike Bluffs trail started for us from a parking area just off Hwy 191 a few miles north of Moab. We rode along a dirt road before heading up a sandy wash to the trail. The ride is almost entirely up hill to the bluffs, and alternates between slickrock and four wheel drive road. The riding was relatively easy in comparison to what we had riden the last couple of days, but it was still very nice. The trails ends at the boudary of Arches National Park where you leave your bike to hike a short distance to overlooks into the park.

Riding up the Klondike Trail

The hiking took us over slickrock covered with shallow pools of water colelcted from rain and runoff. These pools attracted indians in the past as indicated by a scatter of late Archaic chipped stone tools and tool making debris. We walked past these pools and out onto narrow sandstone ridges, which afforded spectacular views of the Park and the La Sal mountains in the background. We rested here for a while enjoying the views. After we made it back to the van we drove into town for lunch before heading back out to ride the Sovereign Trail.

Hiking on the Klondike Bluffs.

View from the Klondike Bluffs

The ride back down from Klondike Bluffs we a blast and took only about a third of the time it took to make the climb up. We stopped briefly to look at some dinosaur tracks in the sandstone where a group of kids from a private school in Colorado had gathered.

Riding back down the Klondike Trail

After lunch we drove north of town again to ride the Sovereign Singletrack , which is variously described as an intermediate or advanced trail. Irv decided to take the afternoon off from riding and see if he could get a massage. The rest of us drove out to the Dalton Wells road and parked in a parking area near the highway. We had a little adventure before starting our ride. While trying to decide where to park, Scott drove the van into an area where recent flooding had deposited a layer of mud on top the sandy soil. The van got stuck, and it took a lot of pushing and swearing at Scott to get the van out of the mud.

The road up to the Sovereign trailhead crosses a wide sandy wash with a short, steep climb out of the wash on the oposite side. From there the road is dirt and today was interspersed with frequent detours around large mud puddles. After a short distance we reached an intersection with a trail map. There was some confusion about which direction to go to reach the singletrack. We chose to go left and stay on the main dirt road, which climbs up the mesa with green shale slopes. A short while later re reached another intersection with a trail, and a couple of riders were there looking at a map. We chatted with them briefly  about which way to go to reach the singletrack, and after some indecision and discussion decided to continue on up the road. We did eventually reach a trailhead that took us over to the Sovereign Singletrack trail at a point where it drops down off of the mesa we just climbed up. This descent is very technical and most of us walked a good deal of it. The trail then wides across a little bit of slickrock and through a valley, dropping into and back out of washes before coming to another mesa with a very steep climb t the top. Again most of us walked the lower portions of this climb. The view from the top of the mesa was adequate reward for the difficult climb, and the ride across the mesa top was a blast. Of course we had to drop down off of the mesa again, and this descent was just as technical and challenging as the earlier ones.

Once off of the mesa the last five miles or so heading south on the Sovereign Singletrack trail is incredible riding with lots of short climbs and steep short drops separated by fast curving sections. If you are looking for less technical, but still challenging and fun riding, I suggest that you start from the southern trailhead, ride north to the first big mesa top climb, and then turn around and go back south. This would be a great half-day ride, and still has great views to the south. Chris B. missed this last section because we links the highly technical riding, and chose to go back up and down the mesa rather than ride south with us. 

An easy portion of the Sovereign Singletrack

View near the end of the Sovereign Singletrack

Once we made it to the southern trailhead, we decided to ride the dirt road back out to the highway, and then ride along the highway to where we had parked. There were some sections of deep sand along the road to the highway, and Jeff did one of those slow motion falls in the sand when he could not keep his tires turning. When we made it back to the car, Chris B. was there, and talked briefly about our different experiences before heading back to Moab.