Anticipation....

Winter arrived 2 weeks early in the mountains above Squamish. It's the time of year where we watch the snow line drop a little further as each day passes. The season transition is one of my favourite times of the year so I like to head high and check out the pow progress.

Last week-end we headed up Cloudburst Mountain just above town.

 

We ate some frozen blueberries in their last efforts to survive.

The following week-end we checked out the Duffey's progress and walked up to Joffrey Lakes.

 

It's only a matter of days and all this will be frozen....    

Red Dirt and Slick Rock....

Danielle's been on me to check out Moab for years now so we finally decided to hit the road and settle in for the 20 hour drive to Utah. I always have a hard time driving such a long distance to ride when there are so many big rides I still want to get done in our own back-yard. That said I realized the last time I was there was almost 10 years ago so it was time to ride some red dirt and slick rock. 

The drive through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah was scenic.



First thing Saturday am we hired a ride from Coyote and headed up to ride Mag 7.  

A full day on some beautiful single-track.

Day 2 we arrived bright and early at Chile Pepper Bike shop and got some great trail advise from Tracy. When we hopped onto the Coyote Shuttle for the one hour ride to the top of the La Sals we were reminded how small a world it is. Our friends Emily and Adrian from Tyax were on the bus as well.              

After about an hour in the bus we were dropped off at around 11,400 ft and climbed to Burrow Pass to begin our massive descent of the fabled Whole Enchilada trail! The fall colours in the La Sals were spectacular....            

 The views of Moab from the Hazard County section were surreal!
 

We then joined up with the Kokopelli trail and found ourselves shredding the Porcupine Rim trail.

 

The views and exposure on the Rim were unreal!  

After about 7 hours we were atop the walls above the Colorado River and ripped the single-track all the way back to town.      

Cheers to a 60km ride and a 7000 vertical foot descent!

Day 3 I decided to take Danielle on the Slick Rock trail and show her why this place became so famous and popular amongst mountain bikers so many years ago.  

There really isn't anything else like it....    

From this vantage we got a great view on the porcupine trail we exited the previous day.  

   
Day 4 we drove home....

Down Down and Towards....

It's turning out to be one of those falls again where everything lines up for some big alpine rides. Perfect weather and temps before the inevitable wet weather takes over. This week-end Juneau joined us for a big loop in the Sea to Sky area. It's an elusive trail that delivers much of what I crave this time of the year. A brutal climb followed by a faint trail in heather meadows to a ridiculous 1600m single-track descent.

             

The day starts as a big FSR climb with some amazing views of the Tanatalus Range and the Squamish valley.

 

After a few hours you emerge into the alpine and the views open up.

Castle Towers and Garibaldi Park.

The Black Tusk and fall colours.

Some great alpine scenery!

And a final big view of the valley we live in before the single-track drop in....

One hour of full throttle bike porn.

And when we finally got spit out of the forest I saw one of my favourite shops that helps make pow dreams come true. This was a good sign indeed!

    
And Juneau found a lazy boy for a well deserved rest.