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

i think i saw that they're dropping off at kokopelli now. whole thing won't be rideable until august usually. burro pass takes a while to dry out.

 

thats what i thought, just wasnt sure.

im waiting to pop my cherry with a full send.

adding TWE to my calendar for august

 

Don't wait! Kokopelli down (or Hazard county down) is a fantastic ride. Most people are quite exhausted by the time they hit the slick rock on TWE, so it's actually pretty nice to have ridden the porcupine trails previously.

Edit: Also August is a pretty brutal time to be riding in Moab and the lower half of TWE is an oven.

 

If you wanna do a full Enchilada, then yeah....August is horrid because the lower half is HOT. Wait till sept/oct. MUCH more bearable.

That said, if you go now, you don't have to do the shitty burro climb. But you don't get the awesome burro down. But you still get some awesome views and riding. But you'd have to go this weekend. it's starting to heat up down in Moab. Desert riding season is quickly closing.

 

This is where I stand. I don't own or plan to own an e-bike anytime soon but it would be nice, sometimes.

When I'm training/riding a ton, there are recovery days where you can't ride an MTB because the effort is too high (around Colorado at least where almost every trail is steep up/down). Those recovery days I'm basically forced to ride the trainer or road. It would be nice to put in a recovery effort and still ride MTB.

I think that's how most pro's use them?

 

Fully agree with riding UPS down just to get a feel for how the entire ride might treat you. That last 5 miles are super fun but challenging.

Yea, anything above 90 I would avoid long rides mid-day. 92F this weekend, so go early!

 

everyone I've ridden with on their first time I tell them to save their energy for the rim. porcupine rim and the singletrack is just epic.

 

Yea that last part is some of my favorite trail in Moab. The doubletrack between LPS and the rim is some of my least favorite though but it's the price of admission.

Also, for the other poster: From the bottom of TWE/Porcupine Rim there is still about 5 - 6 miles of riding before you get back into town. It's mostly flat but sometimes catches people off-guard. It turns a complete TWE trip into about a 32 mile ride.

 

yeah. Those punchy techy climbs really gets to you real quick. If I'm doing a group ride and it's a later shuttle, I leave a car at the bottom of the canyon. Much easier that way than trying to find a spot at the bototm of the the trail which fills up quickly.

 

I did the Jimmy Keen down to the half enchilda with a ride back to town and it was 31 miles. I am glad I was feeling great on the majority of the ride and was not over extended physically on the last portion. I also barfed on the side of the street in Moab before I finished my ride. I have to do a better job with fueling up the night before and resisting the urge to have a big breakfast the day of a ride.

I need to do way more research on the nutrition side of the house for big rides. Feel free to throw any thoughts or resources my way on this. I have bonked a couple of times riding and its the worst feeling in the world. For me, I feel like its a cross between being sea sick and having the flu.

 

Gotta fuel during the ride. Medium size breakfast + ride snacks is good, then keep the electrolyte flowing. I notice a sizeable difference when I run pure water vs a scoop of EFS in my bottles.

 

for long rides (3+ hours), i typically take a 5-10 min break every hour to snack and hydrate. depending on location, ill take a water filter and just pound water (be careful you can drink too much). i am a huge fan of nuun tablets (got another 12 tubes and a tub of powder last week).

but really i just wing it and hope for the best.

 

I like this!

 

I threw up after my first enchilada as well, which was also Jimmy Keen down. Another friend threw up his first time. Last fall, my buddies first time, a rock caught in his derailleur and it exploded (he finished the ride single speed). We've also helped out many a person that was bonking bad, broke a collarbone, etc. around LPS/porcupine rim transition.

Pretty sure that trail requires a virgin sacrifice for safe passage.

 

Beer has mucho calories

 

I just started using the Nuun tablets now that is is getting warmer out here, noticed a big difference in how I feel during the ride. I tend to not drink enough when I ride, so I set a repeating timer for every 10 minutes and force my self to at least take a sip.

 

Oh man, right before that ledgy slickrock section at the very end is always where I hit the wall.

 

this is an actually great topic to discuss here.

I tend to be on the under nutrition side. I always have a snack on bigger rides. either a sandwich/deli or a honey stinger waffle. Those always work well for me.

I also tend not to overeat anymore so there's that....

 

Lol. I've had a friend bonk halfway through the doubletrack of porcupine rim. I luckily had an extra gatorade and fruit snacks to help him. in those group rides, I always carry extra water and food just in case. someone ALWAYS bonks.

 

I hate carrying stuff.

But if its outside my normal loop I pack snacks and TP.