White Rim Trail

[Deuce]

Not exactly sure how this works, but here is my attempt at a trip report. I just returned from a 4 day/3 night ride around the White Rim Trail. There were 10 people, 5/5 and 3 support vehicles. I am sure we could have done it with 2 support vehicles, but we had a couple leave a day early, cutting off the last day’s short ride.

Not that it matters, but we group shopped, planned for dinners each night(hobo dinners, chili verde, spaghetti), lunchtime stops with lunch meat/sandwiches and continental breakfasts every morning, save for one…where we did it right, eggs, bacon, toast, breakfast burritos ect.
The truck was packed up with general camp supplies, food, beer, wine, cigars, snacks of all sorts and A LOT OF WATER…..on yea & our bikes.

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We did the clockwise ride, dropping in at the Shafer Trail. Speaking of the Shafer trail, it is a riot to ride and I enjoyed every bit of that drop in.

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We rode to the Musselman Arch where we stopped for lunch the first day.

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[Deuce]

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We then rode on to the Airport Campground for our first nights stay. Total ride was 19ish miles and easy. We had a dinner of chicken hobo dinners and enjoyed stories from the days ride. There was just one crash and no blood to speak of. There was a nose injury(more pride than damage) at camp due to slipping trying to get into the beer cooler.

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[Deuce]

Up the next morning and decided that we would ride to White Crack to have lunch, then on to our campsite at Murphy Hogback. So we had a light breakfast, loaded our packs with snacks and hit the road.

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The Hogback climb was a bugger IMO….

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[Deuce]

It was difficult enough, that our bikes curled up next to a rock and went to sleep shortly after at the Murphy campground. Total ride today was 26ish miles and IMO, the toughest of the trip. Guess you can also add in about 3 miles of riding that we did into White Crack and back out to the WRT, so 29ish miles for the day. Dinner was the Chili Verde and we had our only weather, which was a light rain for about an hour or 2.

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There could be worse places to wake up and drink your morning coffee. The overlook at Murphy is amazing and makes that climb worth every pedal stroke or hike up....

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[Deuce]

We then hit the road in the morning after a REAL BREAKFAST. The breakfast burrito that I made was as impressive as the surroundings. Wish I would have had a picture of it….. Plan is to ride for about 2 hours and then stop for lunch…..then finish at our campsite, Hardscrabble. First pic is a support vehicle bringing up the rear…

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WE HIT THE RIVER!

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The last camp, as stated, was Hardscrabble…. EVERY camp was great, but this was my favorite. I think some of that was due to finally having some shade and more so, having a natural bath called the Green River. I spent a fair bit of time swimming around in what I assume was approx. 60F water…. Felt great after the hardscrabble hill climb up and over(down) to get there. Total miles day three was about 25. Not a bad ride, but there was some climbing that had every one of us doing some hike a bike.

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Michelle and I on the last night….

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[Deuce]

Our camp host….

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We woke up, ate a quick bite, packed up camp and hit the road for the short ride out. I think the total mileage day 4 was only 10ish miles. All easy, except for the Horsethief trail. We had shuttled the other vehicles there day one, so at the top….didn’t ride the road back to wherever you start.

...and that is a wrap. This last pic is from the top of Horsethief trail.... It was the final climb. You can look down and see the road there by the river... You can't really see the switchbacks up....but it was a leg burner....

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I’d do it again in a heartbeat and I think we already have pretty much decided we will next year. What an amazing place we live…..

[fourtycal]

Epic :hail2thechief: and a great trip report, thanks for posting it :popcorn:

[accadacca]

Sweeeeeeeeeetnessssss. Great report and photos. Congrats and tks for posting it up. :popcorn::hail2thechief::cool2:

[Sombeech]

Excellent. :cool2:

[nd11nc]

Thanks for the trip report, looks like you all had a great time. Reminds me of our trip about two years ago, we did it in two days while camping on Hogs back. The views from Hogs back in the morning are amazing! We are planning another trip for next year, this time I will be on a soft tail unlike the last time I was down there. Again, thanks for the post!

[WinterGalactic]

Its nice to see photos of this ride. I rode it on the 8th going the other direction. My camera died the first day. What a blast of a ride!

[Deuce]

[QUOTE=Deuce;402412]

[SIZE=3]I

[blueeyes]

:(

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[live2ride]

Man that really sucks that good old Mother Nature said no! Hopefully they get it fixed before it gets worse and is back up rolling next year! Or sooner.

[greyhair biker]

:2thumbs:NICE trip report! This one's on my to do list!