All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

There's plenty of places to camp in/around Moab, but I do want to make one major plea (hopefully I'm preaching to the choir here)...

Please please please be very cognizant of leave no trace! We love camping and biking around there and I see lots of people destroying sensitive soils and generally being disrespectful. You're not even supposed to dig cat holes, so try to bring wag bags or even better, pick up one of

$58 Reliance Products Luggable Loo Portable 5 Gallon Toilet Gray, 13.5" x 13.0" x 15.3"

these. Here's a map and link with more info:



I really would like to be able to bring my daughters there to camp as they grow up, so don't ruin it for them!


edit: @paleh0rse I can send some coordinates if you want some more options.

 

It really sounds like you hate Moab and don't ever want to go back!

 

lol. What? there's camping out in Moab? who knew?! Okay. but yeah. he has a point. Don't ruin it for everyone else. Leave No Trace. And the overarching but forgotten mantra: don't be an asshole.

 

Thanks again for all the info on St George. Hit Barrel a couple of times. Before anyone asks, I definitely did not do many of those drops.

 

Our local trails don’t drain well. Like at all lol. So our local trail group maintains the open/closed status on Trailforks. That being said, they don’t do it often enough and the trails are usually rideable before they mark them as such. The state park states 24-48 hours post rain. It’s been more than 48. Trailforks status is still closed.

I’ve had one of the “higher members” of the local trail group get pissy at me on Facebook for saying they don’t update the status enough and they’re rideable sometimes when they’re marked closed.

what’s yalls thoughts on this or do you deal with it at all? Just ride per park rules and F the trail group nazis or what?

 

Sounds to me that if they don't want to/aren't able to update it daily then they should pass on the responsibility/add more people or let people user their own brains.

One option is to offer to be one of those guys that updates trail forks (I'm not sure how that works).

One of our local trails is managed by the Northern Virginia Park Authority so it is nice that the county has park rangers that update a phone line and their facebook page. It has worked fairly well for as long as I remember. I think the people that ride the trail when it is too wet are gonna ride whether a status is available or not (and not use their brains). The local trail workers are requesting that everyone use trail forks to tag any down trees and other damage to the trail.

 

I’m not close enough to be able to give a good trail update. The only thing I want to avoid is the local group getting pissed off because someone rode when their precious Trailforks was marked closed, even if it’s inaccurate.

 

You and I are on the exact same page when it comes to leave no trace. I also use a bucket and portable toilet seat when cat holes are not possible. No worries there.

Any camping coords you can send me in a PM would definitely be much appreciated, as my only understanding of the entire area is from Google and years of dreaming about a visit.

 

This one is tough because I know which trails you are talking about and depending upon where you are at they drain much differently. Up top it drains like crap and gets real muddy but other areas like down in the land trust are rideable after a hurricane.

I'd probably just leave it alone with the trail princess because I'm sure neither one of you are soil scientist. Just go whenever you give it an honest assessment and it will probably be fine.

 

That’s my opinion. I also respect any wet areas. I never ride around them to widen the trail and I don’t go ripping through at fast speeds to blow it out.

I think teaching to respect the trails is more important than telling people they can’t ride anytime it’s damp

 

I usually stop at puddles to see if I can drain them and its amazing how little time it takes.

Any trail advocacy organization that tells you to go an app that costs money to get current trail conditions is out of touch with its audience. I refuse to use trailforks....bastards are pulling some Apple level crap trying to charge us for data we provided to them....rant over.

 

Good put. I may see what I can do today too.

 

Ah yeah that's unfortunate. In my opinion you are fine to ride as long as the trails are rideable. Nothing about Trailforks is official. But I also have it easy here in that I can just call a number or grab my road bike haha

 

Trailforks is never meant to be the end-all status of trails. In fact, I'm pretty sure they state that somewhere on their website. If the rules from the land owners state that they're open, then go for it. So long as your'e not ruining the trails IE not riding it if it's muddy but technically open. A lot of this comes down to the individual responsibility. Trialforks/mtbproject/alltrails are just tools to help spread info. Not the oracle of all things trails. Ride per the rules set by the land owners I say. It's no different than getting permission to dig or even ride in certain areas. Over in my parts, they're pretty strict in some areas (ie corner canyon) but others they don't care because it drains so well and it's already a drainage anyways that a trail happens to be in. So long as you're not an asshole, I say you're good to go. I've seen loads of trail poachers and they're just ruining it for the rest of us when the signs AT the trails specifically say, "closed". :/ yeah..don't be those guys.

Hhaha. I actually pay for trailforks. At the half price that they've quoted me at early on. I happen to know one of the original devs and I've had lengthy discussions with him about their new pay model and the decision that they've come to about it. I've also had lots of technical discussions about how trailforks works and stuff. interesting stuff. In taht sense, I'm happy to support them. They're tip-toeing a fine line right now and I would say majority of people are in my boat so they've got to eat the bad with the good. :shrug:

 

Never rode it but hiked it about 10 years ago when I lived back East. Did the hike in November, I believe, so the temps and colors were great. Make time to check out the views of Seneca and Nelson Rocks in particular, but all the valley views are amazing.

Bring lots of water since there are no streams to filter from.

 

For the $1.46 or whatever a month, I'll gladly pay trailforks for the utility I get from their app. They have payroll, hosting server space, etc to store all the maps, let alone rider provided pics, videos, etc.

The alternative is ads, and if its anything like most apps, the ad popups and stuff are infuriating enough that I'd pay 1.46/mo just to not have the ads alone.

 

Yeah I’m just trying to avoid getting a bad rep with the local group lol. Honestly if the pompous princess wasn’t so outspoken it wouldn’t be an issue. But she screams from the highest mountain tops to “check Trailforks we update the status” and I want to just slap her every time lol. I even pointed out to her once that the status was closed, but the park was open, and the trails were fine. They were about 2 days behind on updating Trailforks. She STILL posted on the facebook pages that Trailforks is the end all be all. Like gah dang lady stfu lol

 

What's her position in the local group?

 

That's fair. I would hate to piss locals off. that's a tough one. I still say go by the land owner. they're the ones with ultimate authority on whether to allow people on their land or not. If the trail karen is not an authority, then maybe just ignore? and gently remind her that the land owners have opened it up and she has no real authority.

 

YES!!!! All these things, yes!

I will always choose to pay a company directly for their services over any business model that requires advertising to generate revenue.