Blindfold Trails, Secret Slickrock
We venture further and further in every direction and we find more great Stuff to ride. We don't tell people about this Stuff. Sometimes we get commercial permits for this really cool Stuff, so we can charge you money to take you to the Stuff. When someone calls our office and says, "I came to Moab and rode all the best stuff and there are no secret trails out there" . . . I thank God our Stuff is still secret.
Yes, we offer secret trails and slickrock freeride areas around Moab. We even hold permit for most of them. Areas that do not allow commerical access are ridden by private invitation only free of charge. Areas that we hold commercial permit for are kept secret through agreements and blindfolds.
Dreamride holds the sole commercial permit for all legal trails, roads and a good amount of open freeride areas in the southeastern corner of Utah. The classic trails of Moab are the blunt tip of a paradise for mountain bike purists, people who enjoy the challenge of technical and varied terrain impossible to navigate without a very knowledgeable guide. These carefully held mountain bike delights deliver the thrill of being in as close to real wilderness as we dare provide. We evaluate each area and trail for the quality of the riding, impact on wildlife and complexity of logistics. This Stuff is for those who care to learn about how to treat it. These areas are "Limited Use." LImited Use means that we don't camp. We keep visitations to a minimum. Our groups are always no more than five including guide, but in some areas we reduce that size to three or four. We also carefully evaluate rider skills and awareness. If you don't want to work to get somewhere, then these places are not for you. There is sand, some distance, extreme ledges and loose rock. There is exposure to vertical heights and dangerous weather. Sometimes there are stretches of deserted dirt road to get to and through to The Stuff. Our job is to know and protect The Stuff.
To our jaded senses Moab's classic trails have become less rewarding due to overuse. Seeing a rider around every turn is not like seeing a deer or a badger. Good old nature-loving solitude is no longer common ground. There are just too damn many mountain bikers out here, especially on weekends during peak season months and special events. The herd instinct has taken over, and the herd is on Porcupine Rim Trail most of the time. Now, they call it Porcupine Rim Road. It used to be The Stuff.
THE JAGGED PILL
Facts of life: When you ride off trail in Moab, you create more trail. You fresh track will widen with every new mark that doesn't fit right into your track. Moab sits in a rare subdesert environment. The ground is lichen covered rock or fragile soil crust, not moist top soil. The crust is alive and, if you hurt it, it struggles to heal itself. If it succeeds at all, it takes over 250 years to fully recover. Revegetation takes many lifetimes. We have periods where it just does not rain, then we get one rain storm where it dumps twelve inches in an hour in one spot. The place dries out, then it is washed away. Bike tires make greatly accelerates erosion. Every time you hit the edge of the trail, it gets wider. Wider trails mean the riding is easier, . . . and here come the tour buses and shuttle jockeys. Expanding access into remote public lands for the first time means we have an environmental role to play. Dreamride's environmental, educational, high quality, extreme-small-groups methods are as gentle on land and land management as commercial mountain biking is going to get. We are forcing land agencies to prepare for a future where a lot more people have mountain bikes than have brains. Our tour methods are state-of-the-art. We use real world experience and education to guide riders through an understanding of the ecosystems we intrude upon, so that we show extreme respect and have little or no impact. We ARE a hazard to wildlife as mountain bikers and it is very important that we time our visits and ride with respect for the living beings who are NATIVE to each system we enter.
Dreamride LLC holds permit to THOUSANDS of miles of southern Utah trails. Most of which are unknown or relatively unknown to the mountain biking pubic. Guiding on these trails is only available as part of the ELITE GUIDING UPGRADE.
The dot in the upper right hand of this photograph is Jerry Daniels, our Fruita, Colorado guide. Jerry is 6'7" tall. The ridge he is on is a lot taller. This is a small section of one of our newly added slickrock areas, a place that mountain bikers know nothing of. This is what we are talking about here. This slickrock formation is 50 miles long with countless freeform areas throughout its length. Where is it? We ain't gonna tell you.
THE REAL SECRET STUFF
The Not Secret Stuff:
SKILLS TIPS FOR MOAB | HIKING TRAILS
Call 435-259-6419.
FAX number is 435-259-8196.
or write to:
Dreamride
P.O. Box 1137
Moab, UT 84532