White Rim Trail Trip Report

I just returned from a 4 day/3 night ride around the White Rim Trail. There were 10 people, 5/5 and 3 support vehicles. I am sure we could have done it with 2 support vehicles, but we had a couple leave a day early, cutting off the last day’s short ride.

Not that it matters, but we group shopped, planned for dinners each night(hobo dinners, chili verde, spaghetti), lunchtime stops with lunch meat/sandwiches and continental breakfasts every morning, save for one…where we did it right, eggs, bacon, toast, breakfast burritos ect.
The truck was packed up with general camp supplies, food, beer, wine, cigars, snacks of all sorts and A LOT OF WATER…..on yea & our bikes.



We did the clockwise ride, dropping in at the Shafer Trail. Speaking of the Shafer trail, it is a riot to ride and I enjoyed every bit of that drop in.

We rode to the Musselman Arch where we stopped for lunch the first day.





We then rode threw to the Airport Campground for our first nights stay. Total ride was 19ish miles and easy. We had a dinner of chicken hobo dinners and enjoyed stories from the days ride. There was just one crash and no blood to speak of. There was a nose injury(more pride than damage) at camp due to slipping trying to get into the beer cooler.

Up the next morning and decided that we would ride to White Crack to have lunch, then on to our campsite at Murphy Hogback. So we had a light breakfast, loaded our packs with snacks and hit the road.






The Hogback climb was a bugger IMO….

It was difficult enough, that our bikes curled up next to a rock and went to sleep shortly after at the Murphy campground. Total ride today was 26ish miles and IMO, the toughest of the trip. Guess you can also add in about 3 miles of riding that we did into White Crack and back out to the WRT, so 29ish miles for the day.






There could be worse places to wake up and drink your morning coffee.

Awesome pics...

We then hit the road in the morning after a REAL BREAKFAST. The breakfast burrito that I made was as impressive as the surroundings. Wish I would have had a picture of it….. Plan is to ride for about 2 hours and then stop for lunch…..then finish at our campsite, Hardscrabble. First pic is a support vehicle bringing up the rear…



WE HIT THE RIVER!



The last camp, as stated, was Hardscrabble…. EVERY camp was great, but this was my favorite. I think some of that was due to finally having some shade and more so, having a natural bath called the Green River. I spent a fair bit of time swimming around in what I assume was approx. 60F water…. Felt great after the hardscrabble hill climb up and over(down) to get there. Total miles day three was about 25. Not a bad ride, but there was some climbing that had every one of us doing some hike a bike.




Michelle and I on the last night….

Our camp host….



We woke up, ate a quick bite, packed up camp and hit the road for the short ride out. I think the total mileage day 4 was only 10ish miles. All easy, except for the Horsethief trail. We had shuttled the other vehicles there day one, so at the top….didn’t ride the road back to wherever you start.

...and that is a wrap. This last pic is from the top of Horsethief trail.... It was the final climb. You can look down and see the road there by the river... You can't really see the switchbacks up....but it was a leg burner....



I’d do it again in a heartbeat and I think we already have pretty much decided we will next year. What an amazing place we live…..

wow, this looks amazing. So different from what we are used to riding (Rocky Mountain type terrain)

I defienately would love to do this trip.

Dumb question, when you say supported I assume you shuttled your gear to each location how does that work exactly? Was someone not riding?

Originally Posted by canucked

Dumb question, when you say supported I assume you shuttled your gear to each location how does that work exactly? Was someone not riding?

People would just take turns driving.... It was NEVER difficult to find someone willing to drive, which was nice..... Some of our party just wanted to get a few miles in each day and then would just drive. Towards the end of some rides, the driver may pick up riders like a sag wagon....

We also had a driver who was shuttled in the last day. There is a group shot with the small child... He came in with grandma and her friend the last night the back way, so the friend took the wheel of one of the vehicles the last day.

Wow, that looks like a cool trip! Love the photo of camp wiith the clouds and the sun lit background.

Great post EJ! Question: All that money spent on bikes and no kick stand, LOL! (Just playin bro!)

EJ,

How is the trail holding up. How did that Hardtail feel on your Arse???

I have many of the same pictures from my trips. The one time we did that trail in 2 days riding all the way back to the ranger station. ( It was a bitch and not nearly as fun as the 3 day trip. Glad you had fun. Just curious how much of that 100 Gallons of water did you really use.

Trail is in great shape.

No hardtail for me..... The Klein is Michelle's, I'm riding the BLT. The hardtail wouldn't have been so bad, but only 3 of us were clipped in.... That is A LOT of miles in flats......

We hardly use any of that water.... Maybe 30-40 gallons at the MOST. It was fairly mild and we had probably 50-100 gallons of other containers of water. We lost both solar showers to shifting gear, so that saved some use. We went through a lot of Gatorade....

I think if it would have been warmer(baking), we would have doubled our water use.... But because it was 70-80F the entire time(day), it was not as bad.....



Josh, I am jealous of your recent trip and family acquisition....

Thanks Blabel....it was VERY fun....