TR - Bootleg Canyon & Blue Diamond (Las Vegas, NV)

[derstuka]

Well, any of you that heard about my trip, yep, you guessed it, we ended up in Vegas. We drove to Hurricane, checked in to our hotel, and it started raining off and on,. We found Shuntavi's shop and I bought a detailed map of the trails. Thanks Shuntavi for the hospitality. Then we went to Chili's in St George to kill time, and it started raining more and more. Then, I wake up a couple times in the night, and it is still raining, even when we got up. St George wasn't welcoming us, we had to do otherwise, or else we would be spending a weekend circle-jerking each other in the hotel room hiding from the rain. Soooooo, we cut our losses short, and drove to Boulder City, NV to ride Bootleg Canyon. Right after we got there, we started to ride up to the trailhead, but we stopped to ask a guy who was unloading his bike about the trail. As coincidence may have it, he was an old old friend from San Diego, who we haven't seen for like 5 years or more. How odd, huh? Small world! Anyways, he told us to ride with him and he would show us around. So us not being the hucker type (freerider), we started off on Mother, then Caldera, then Boyscout, then we bombed down Girlscout. It was a blast. Mother was fun, and had quite a few technical areas which you had to clean, or get off and walk. Caldera and Boyscout were fun as well, but Girlscout at the end was a blast. Downhill with awesome flow. Some of the corners are slighted banked and you can just rail them. Soo fun. It is easy to get to Bootleg. It located in Boulder City. Just take the 93/95 till it ends and turn left at Yucca street (watch for Taco Bell) and drive straight in.

Anywho, after that , he invited us to stay with him (but we ended up in a hotel, a Motel 6, right next to his work) and come by to his work at Boulder Station Casino. He is a bartender, and kept feeding us free drinks as long as we were pumping money into Keno.

Day 2 in Vegas. We drove over to the small small small town of Blue Diamond. Just take the 160 West (Blue Diamond Hwy) then right on Blue Diamond Rd, then a left into the town of Blue Diamond (watch for sign). We started a ride there from a bike shop called McGhies Bikes (I think). Anywho, we started from there, rode a trail called landmine (some was a little sand in spots, and I was told it gets worse during the summer), we then went up a hill called "Hurl Hill" and DAMN, was that a grinder!!! It was a technical grinder, with loose rocks/jagged rocks, rocks, rocks, rocks...it seemed to go on forever. We crested it, took some pictures, then bombed down a single track on the other side. We then tried to extend our ride by riding a reverse part of Landmne (that we had not rode yet) and combined it with Inner, Loop, and some other trail. Overall, Landmine and Hurl Hill was fun, and a workout, but besides that, the trail was not...how can I say...blowing up my skirt. We turned around on one trail after it was taking us out into the wasteland, with a 30-40 mph headwind, sand blowing, and the like.

It was a fun weekend, but, I am sure St George would have been a lot more. Think my next bit mtn biking trip will be Moab, I just love that place.

Enjoy the pictures. Oh, and I learned much more about Utah's odd liquor laws while getting a buzz in Chili's of St George.

[accadacca]

Good to hear you had a backup plan. That rain can really suck in that area. Check out one of my pictures of a down pour near the Broken Mesa trail.



You'll have to try and meet us down there during the summer.

We Salute You!

[live2ride]

Pictures kick ass!! I always wondered what was out by blue diamond for biking ( I am in vegas once a month for work) If you would have kept on heading west on blue diamond road about another 30 minutes you would have ended up in Pahrump (all the bunny ranches) Prostitution is legal, what a crazy little city. Pics look great, I would love to ride with you when you head out to Moab, I want to ride the 100 mile trail, White rim I thnk? Anyway, your pics kick ass!!

[derstuka]

Pictures kick ass!! I always wondered what was out by blue diamond for biking ( I am in vegas once a month for work) If you would have kept on heading west on blue diamond road about another 30 minutes you would have ended up in Pahrump (all the bunny ranches) Prostitution is legal, what a crazy little city. Pics look great, I would love to ride with you when you head out to Moab, I want to ride the 100 mile trail, White rim I thnk? Anyway, your pics kick ass!!

Glad you like the pics. Yeah, half of Blue Diamond was actually pretty fun, the Landmine trail, Hurl Hill, and bombing down the other side. I think that the wind, and heading off on some mediocre trail kinda did it in for us. That little town of Blue Diamond sure did have some religous concert going on or something. The gospel/rock type music was blaring! Thought we might be in some trouble for a sec!

You know what though, we didn't get a chance to ride on the south side of the highway, so that might also have some fun trails on it. Funny that you mention bunny ranches, because I was joking to my friend about them as we were driving out into nowhere. Funny thing is, it doesn't look at all like there would be a bike shop in the town of Blue Diamond.

Riding moab again would be sweet. I have only been on Slickrock, Amassa Back, and Sovereign Trail. That is it. There is a million more to explore I know.

Here are some more pics for ya to take a gander at.

[Sombeech]

Great trip report, and great pictures, man. I've been wondering what the riding was like down in NV.

That sucks about St George and the rain. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out. We've been pretty lucky lately. Even accadacca had a bad spell down there.

That's cool you met up with an old friend. Accadacca and I kind of did the same when we were hiking King's Peak. We ran into somebody we knew from Austria.

Thanks for the addition to the Trail Report Index.

[derstuka]

Great trip report, and great pictures, man. I've been wondering what the riding was like down in NV.

That sucks about St George and the rain. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out. We've been pretty lucky lately. Even accadacca had a bad spell down there.

That's cool you met up with an old friend. Accadacca and I kind of did the same when we were hiking King's Peak. We ran into somebody we knew from Austria.

Thanks for the addition to the Trail Report Index.

You're weclome for the TR sir. We'll have to meet up in St George sometime. Are you guys done with Moab, or just not recently is all?

Oh, and thanks for adding my trails to the Trails Index thread.

[accadacca]

Are you guys done with Moab, or just not recently is all?

No, no, NO! Since rockgremlin just bought a mansion down there we can stay at his place for free. I would love to get down to Moab soon.... ....and get down!

[Shan]

Great photos!

[Sombeech]

Since rockgremlin just bought a mansion

It's time to get up to get down.

[derstuka]

Are you guys done with Moab, or just not recently is all?

No, no, NO! Since rockgremlin just bought a mansion down there we can stay at his place for free. I would love to get down to Moab soon.... ....and get down!

YES...preferably before summer if you ask me. It might be kinda hard fo for you to get that permission slip stamped for approval with the new born pup and all.

Rock has a mansion in Moab...WOOO HOOOO, bring on the porn, the women, the porn, whoops, did I say porn already?!!

[Ross]

wow! Awesome photos.

I've driven right by both of those places, but that was before I really mtb'd

sounds like a pretty good trip, even though things didn't go according to plan.