Dirty BARFers at Moab Fall 2016

[HadesOmega]

Not far from the getting back on the road I saw this cool rock and went to go check it out and I wound up riding around it.

This is called Balcony Arch

You can tell people have been utilizing this fire ring here, the rock is all black.

Balcony Arch

I ran into these two dudes from socal. They were exploring the area. They told me they were looking for Gemini Bridges, they were way too far south to see that. They were riding on a Husky and a KTM.

Panoramic of the BIG ROCK

This is the road in to the big rock.

Luckily these guys had a smaller more detailed trail guide than the one I had and point out that this was called Balcony Arch and Picture Frame Arch is right around the corner

690 Enduro

Not far from the Balcony Arch is this kinda awning type rock.

You can see Balcony from the distance.

 

[Jackson]

Yesterday (Thursday) Eric found the only water left in Moab that's not in a river.

[YOUTUBE]loDqr-00ovI[/YOUTUBE]

 

[HadesOmega]

I ride around the rock to Picture Frame Arch

The world from the Picture Frame

Closeup of Picture Frame Arch

I attempted to climb Picture Frame from the side and it was too steep an angle, like a slide I didn't wanna risk slipping off it but I got this panoramic from it.

On the other side of Picture Frame someone had stacked a bunch of rock up so I climbed it from here. It was a really sketchy climb it was so smooth and almost a 45 degree angle. I kinda climbed it crawling backwards until I could get to a flat section. The most sketchy sections was pulling myself up that ledge and crawling that section, with riding gear on

View from inside the Picture Frame

The inside of the Picture Frame

Picture Frame from different angles

There's Wall-E

These are the two sketchy section I was sweatin pretty good here. I didn't expect to do any mountain climbing today

 

[HadesOmega]

Moving on I ride along this ridge where you can see the Kane Creek Canyon where I will be riding later.

 

[HadesOmega]

The next section is a pretty gnarly section with sand, slickrock, some ledges, and a lotta fun. Gotta work for that view. I crawled around to a couple view points as you can see on this map.

View from the first viewpoint I chose.

Wall-E on top of the world.

Canyon

Yamaha ride it!

This is where I was riding through

Panoramic

 

[HadesOmega]

Pictures from the 2nd viewpoint

This looks like where several canyons intersect

Enjoying the view

The in the other direction

Panoramic

That's a nice parking spot

That's probably Kane Creek Canyon

 

[HadesOmega]

So I took the ridgeline coming up here, there's a dirt road that goes straight to the main road. I just blast through it at about 40mph. A little tough on the quad because it seems like 4x4 made this crest in the middle of the road that didn't fit the quad track.

So my next goal was to find the sand dunes that was around here. I pretty much made it back to the van already but I check my map and GPS and set back to find it and I did.

There it is. It's a little weenie sand dunes. If you'be been to Pismo Beach these are a little playground.

Another smaller dunes section.

Road I took going to the dunes

There it is! So these tires are not very good in the sand so the quad was just swimming in the sand.

This goes to some kinda rock crawling section I rode it for a little bit and turned around.

Dune Panoramic

Rode to the edge of this dune.

This is probably the tallest dune a good 20 or 30 foot dune. And I cleared it! Barely anyway...

From the bottom up

That was it had a lotta fun sorta easy riding on the quad. Got to putt around on the dunes too.

Total trip 26 miles,
5500ish ft elevation,
max speed 47mph,
2.5 hours total time,
1.5 hours moving

 

[Lunch Box]

Yesterday (Thursday) Eric found the only water left in Moab that's not in a river.

[YOUTUBE]loDqr-00ovI[/YOUTUBE]

That's his one misstep this whole week, but it was a good one!

 

[Cabrito]

Good stuff Merlin, is that the same quad you flipped in front of me last year at Stony?

 

[Leo_jb]

Its really hard to read through this ride report - needless to say I wish I was there too! The riding and scenery look amazing. Thanks for all the stories and pictures. Have a safe ride back.

 

[HadesOmega]

Yep it sure was. I hadn't of rode it since that time at Stony. Now it is equiped with a Honda TRX250 thumb throttle Suppose to be easier on the thumbs.

Good stuff Merlin, is that the same quad you flipped in front of me last year at Stony?

 

[HadesOmega]

After I drove south like 2 miles to this place called Hole in a Rock. It was a house a dude built into the rock there. It was nearby why not?

This is the chimney for the house

The creator of this house was burried here with his wife.

The back section

Some interesting steel sculptures.

Why would I want to tell myself my fortune?

They had a Jeep way at the top of this rock.

 

[HadesOmega]

There was also a little zoo there you could feed the animals. White Turkeys

Sheep sheep!

Pot Belly Pig

The first time I've seen a real Zebra!

Huge African Bull type animal, I forgot the name

Peacocks, they were shy.

A 2 hump camel, this guy was huge!

Buffalo

Ostrich I know to be careful around this guy

Emu

Mini horse and donkey

Here buddy yum yums

Wallaby

 

[Jackson]

HadesOmega I think you've exceeded your image allotment.

 

[gixxerjeff]

HadesOmega I think you've exceeded your image allotment.

Not even close.
Keep 'em coming.

 

[Eric B]

A few from our day on Steel Bender trail -

 

[Eric B]

 

[Eric B]

 

[OaklandF4i]

For the love of God Merlin..... We r on a dirt biking trip not a petting zoo field trip. Less is more.

Notable quotes from the trip this far

"Merlin cleared it"

"He is big in Japan"

"I should just have stayed at home"

Sally the Purple Unicorn
"My relationship with CJ is purely physical, I have an emotional connection with Daniel. He smells like week old mozzarella"



"I'm felling winter in top, summer on the bottom, and contemplating socks"

 

[2strokeYardSale]

The Badass MFers recruited Jackson and Lunch Box and rode out from the house to Steelbender.

I don't think there's a trail here without scenery.

Eric B below a minor obstacle.

Lunch Box after clearing a minor obstacle.

AntTwoWillDo descending an intimidating obstacle that turned out to be easier than it looked, like most.

Lunch Box on the same descent.

Another lousy view.

We gathered below a major obstacle, perhaps the hardest of all week, when Lunch Box threw himself at it. He did not succeed in clearing it on the first attempt.

Jackson wheelied up one of the ledges and didn't make it.

AntTwoWillDo walking back down after scouting and helping. The view did not suck.

And his run at it...

We crossed the creek for the last time and came to a dead end at some indian paintings.

Another trail exited to a reservoir and campground, where we got on the OHV corridor road back to the house. It was a good ride to end a great but tough week. Meanwhile, it seems the other group went to a petting zoo.