Fruita Fat Tire Festival (April 2011)

[neilether]

A group of us went down and check out this festival this year. Fruita is an awesome destination for mountain biking, and the festival atmosphere added to that without making the trails overly crowded (I was a bit surprised at this....). A bunch of our guys took out free demos and had free repairs done by various vendors.

Day 1: 18 Road Trailhead. I don't have a lot of pictures from this day.
Prime Cut, Zippity Do Dah, Kessel Run (x2), Joe's Ridge, Chutes & Ladders (~24 total miles)

High on Zippity
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2704.jpg

From a previous trip
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%2008/CIMG0334.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%2008/CIMG0327.jpg

Climbing Chutes & Ladders
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/IMG_8056.jpg

Nice Trail at the end of Chutes & Ladders
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/IMG_8057.jpg

Day 2: Western Rim Trail - Horsethief Bench & Rustlers Loop
35 miles total.

Descending on Western Rim
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2707.jpg

Nice trail for the most part (with a lot of whoops)
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2714.jpg

Western Rim
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2718.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2717.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/IMG_8066.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2720.jpg

Horsethief Bench

Horsethief Drop-in. The vast majority of mere mortals walk this section
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2721.jpg

beautiful singletrack throughout this ride.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2722.jpg

Day 3: The Ribbon - Holy Cross + a repeat of Horsethief (~17 total miles)

The ribbon is a shuttle ride and is fabulous. Fairly technical in places, but great fun.

Seemingly endless slickrock slab descent to start things off
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2727.jpg

Everybody but one walked this section
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/IMG_8073.jpg
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/IMG_8074.jpg

Horsethief Version -02
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2729.jpg

from a previous trip:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%2008/CIMG0313.jpg

It was an awesome weekend all around. A bit cooler perhaps than ideal, but good times were had by all. 76 total miles for the trip and my legs are beat. For those bikers that have not been to Fruita, GO! You will not regret it. It is a more beginner friendly area (in my opinion) than Moab, but it also has lots of technical trails to offer. MTNBKR had his go pro and likely took more pictures. He is editing the video now and it should be ready soon.

[Udink]

Freakin' awesome. :hail2thechief: This part:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/neilether/Fruita%20April%202011/DSCN2720.jpg

...looks sweet. It's really not too far a drive for me, I ought to head to Fruita and check some of that stuff out.

[nelsonccc]

There is a sweet video of a guy clearing that section on the Yeti Site. Awesome stuff. I've got to get up there!

http://www.yeticycles.com/#/video/new/2009MoabFruita/

[Sombeech]

Awesome, I need to get to Fruita sometime, maybe this summer?

[MtnBkr]

The movie:


http://vimeo.com/23455003

[live2ride]

sweet video and pics, the trails look awesome I need to make it a priority to get down there soon.

[Sombeech]

Cool video. That horsethief dropin looks gnarly. Who's the animal on the red bike?

By the way, I forget what camera you're using, is it the GoPro in 960 r4 mode?

[fourtycal]

Great trip report :hail2thechief:

[neilether]

I was going to embed custom Google maps, but I can't get them to display the full route as it wants to split the route into 4-5 pages on google maps. I know this has come up before, but does anybody have any advice??

[neilether]

Cool video. That horsethief dropin looks gnarly. Who's the animal on the red bike?

By the way, I forget what camera you're using, is it the GoPro in 960 r4 mode?

Yeah, the drop in is sketchy. It's actually much worse in person than it looks on film. The guy on the red bike is a co-worker of mine. He made it the first time without the cameras rolling, but couldn't repeat the feat when the pressure was on. :lol8:

[greyhair biker]

Ahh yes....MUST do this trip. Our local club went too but I couldnt get the time off(dammit). Lets GO!

[accadacca]

Epic report and ride. :cool2:

I think we may have just found our next BogleyFest destination. :popcorn:

[recinutah]

Looks like a barrel of fun. Be sure to invite me next year.

[accadacca]

:lol8: Awesome video man. The vid is what sold it to me. Boy did that guy hit the ejector button. :haha:

[blueeyes]

Yeah, the drop in is sketchy. It's actually much worse in person than it looks on film. The guy on the red bike is a co-worker of mine. He made it the first time without the cameras rolling, but couldn't repeat the feat when the pressure was on. :lol8:

I got to take a first hand look at that section last May. :eek2: One of the girls I was riding with attempted it. The rest of us spotted her. She flew superman style over her handle bars and we cradled her. :lol8: I second a Bogley fest to Fruita ! Love to get back there and ride.

[IntrepidXJ]

I think we may have just found our next BogleyFest destination. :popcorn:

It's been talked about a few times on the forum before....but so far hasn't happened....

[MtnBkr]

I use the r4 mode on my GoPro Hero because of the increased vertical capture. When I get more used to it it would be nice to use the wide mode. But then it would be nice to set my point and shoot to wide mode so those pictures integrate nicely. But then just move up to wide 60 fps on the Hero, capture stills, and forget about my point and shoot. Too many variables :nono:

Google Maps is too restrictive for those of us who do epic rides :roll:

Here is an annotated Google Earth file (and a preview jpg) showing our tracks for the weekend.

[Udink]

Google Maps is too restrictive for those of us who do epic rides :roll:
If you grab the Bogley URL for the KMZ attachment, paste it into the search box in Google Maps, then use the "Link" button to grab that URL, you can come back to Bogley and paste it between the MAP tags and it should show it all:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.bogley.com%2Fforum%2Fattachment.p hp%3Fattachmentid%3D44197%26d%3D1305060347&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.572881,86.572266&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=10

I'm seriously thinking about getting over to Fruita before it gets too hot. :cool2:

[live2ride]

when does it get to hot in Fruita? Soon? looks like it would be worth a weekend trip to hit some sweet trails, I am with whoever sid the video sold them....Some great work on that video it is great.

[MtnBkr]

Udink, excellent map posting advice!:2thumbs::2thumbs:

[REDFOX]

Fruita and Grand junction tempeture wise are very similar to Moab and St. George, Ut. I prefer riding from October thru March and sometimes April. Any other months are too hot for me to be pedaling. I have never seen anyone even attempt to ride the drop in at Horse thief. Everyone that we saw carried their bikes. I even walked my bike on one of the more sketchy areas. Some of the bogley members might attempt the first 30 feet of the entrance which would account for about 1/10th of the total entrance. If you would ride the Portal trail in Moab by moonlight and not walk your bike, than I think you could ride Horsethief.

[tanya]

Nice :2thumbs: