This past Tuesday marked the last day of vacation and riding in the desert spring weather before heading back to the land of Big Sky. Having ridden the Gander trail the day before, it was time to head over to Goose...after all, what is good for the gander, is good for the goose - little bass-ackwards but close enough!
The Gooseberry trails are as easy or as difficult as you want to make them. Since this was the 4th straight day on for riding, I was keeping an open mind regarding just how long I was going to ride depending on the energy level of the legs. Fortunately for me, my legs bounced back well after a nice long night of sleeping and camping (not to mention the therapy for the mind).
I ended up riding 80-90% of the Gooseberry trail system and was in awe once again of the super fun riding and the phenominal views. You definitely had to be on your game while riding as there was a lot of slickrock with quick steep climbs with sharp turns, etc...just what you expect from riding on rock...it be FUN!
The trails were super well marked with little splats of white on the rock to mark the trails. Look at the corkscrew action below - follow the white dots as they exit down below. It was super fun - it reminded me a little bit of being in a climbing mentality where you had to think 2-3 moves ahead so you did not climb yourself into a place without an exit!
I started on the Windmill trail and hooked into the north rim trail and rode it to 'the point'. The point is a part of the mesa that sticks out and gives you 360 views of incredible country:
at the point:
The Gooseberry trails are as easy or as difficult as you want to make them. Since this was the 4th straight day on for riding, I was keeping an open mind regarding just how long I was going to ride depending on the energy level of the legs. Fortunately for me, my legs bounced back well after a nice long night of sleeping and camping (not to mention the therapy for the mind).
I ended up riding 80-90% of the Gooseberry trail system and was in awe once again of the super fun riding and the phenominal views. You definitely had to be on your game while riding as there was a lot of slickrock with quick steep climbs with sharp turns, etc...just what you expect from riding on rock...it be FUN!
The trails were super well marked with little splats of white on the rock to mark the trails. Look at the corkscrew action below - follow the white dots as they exit down below. It was super fun - it reminded me a little bit of being in a climbing mentality where you had to think 2-3 moves ahead so you did not climb yourself into a place without an exit!
exiting the point below:
topo of Gooseberry and my ride where you can see 'the point'. The north rim trail goes along the left side and the south rim along the right side of this topo (my ride is the red/yellow line):
On leaving the point, I hooked into the South Rim trail. I thought the trail marker was funny and could not resist taking a picture. The South Rim was definitely the most technical portion but it was all still very rideable (even on a fully rigid singlespeed). I did run into a guy on the trail who stopped me and asked me to take a look at his chin. His face had a meeting with either his bike or the ground and subsequently cut his chin (which is what he wanted me to look at and let him know how bad it was - as it turns out, not all that bad) and he actually knocked out a couple of teeth!
There were a couple of places where you had to pay attention as the trail meandered along the rim and getting too close to the rim and making a mistake could have some serious consequences:
Once I finished the South Rim trail, it was time to link up a couple of trails back to the starting point. All in all it was a great way to wrap up the road trip with incredible riding and scenery. Unfortunately these rides will have to serve as reference and memory jogs until our local weather warms up enough to get some riding in locally....
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