Southern Utah Day 2: Santa Clara Trails

Open desert riding at its finest. Even though the risk of rain is low this week we decided to head to St. George and bag the wide open trials around Ivins. Other systems will handle a little rain better than this sequence of mesas with lots of climbing and descending and scenic vies over town.

 

With lots of exposure, some of these trials are not for everyone. And even though Derek was a touch surprised that we were actually going up and down those ravines several times, (“Seriously? We’re going over both of those?”) he crushed them all. He did ask for more trail clarity of the risk was high. (“You didn’t tell me it there was a cliff!”)

 

At the trailhead we were questioned by a solo rider names Sara who wanted some trial intel because she thought we were locals, and she decided to join us on the ride. She’s been riding all around Utah for the past 2 months and last year bikepacked from B.C. to Mexico done the Continental Divide solo! She ripped our legs off on the climbs and the chase us down the big descents and told us all about the riding in Montana.

 

After a few beers, we decided to go hit the dirt jumps at the local bike park. Because 3 guys left on their own don’t always make great decisions. We did pretty well and Derek showed us how to boost large into the desert sunset.

 

Sick.