This year I did a little something different by going over to the Rafael Swell area to the west of Moab before doing my standard Moab trip. I met a bunch of Northern Colorado Trail Riders to camp and ride for a few days at an annual gathering they have. The Swell turned out to be an absolutely great riding place, and the club guys showed me some great trails and a good time. To be honest, I ended up riding some things I probably shouldn't have tried at my age and a long layover from serious dirt riding...or at least as serious as you could get on a KLR650. Those Colorado guys put me through some fairly challenging terrain...some places a lot harder than I had ridden in the last 21 years. The KLX was up to the task, however, even though I was a little rusty. Like many of these trips, I don't have as many action pics as I'd like, but it seemed like we were always riding and not stopping. Even when hooking up with IDRIDR and his buddies in Moab later, we were always ripping it up to get much photo time. So...take your own trip and get your own pics...LOL!

The trails out at the Swell were often more singletrack'ish in many places, and it's famous for having the 5 Miles of Hell trail...which I didn't ride for sure. The group I rode with did Eagle Canyon, Devil's Racetrack, the Orange, the Green, the Waterfall, and a few others. Like I said earlier, I did some stuff I hadn't tried since my last real dirt bike in 1990...again, not counting lots of riding time on KLR650's after that. Amazingly I never crashed even though some of it was darned challenging. I guess some luck and some old brain cells remembering their function got me through...LOL!

 

Glad it went well for you! I was thinking about you, but, work just wouldn't allow me to get away. Great that you found such a good group to ride with...

 

After the Swell, I went over to the Dewey Bridge area to the east of Moab for about 3 days of riding. I rode the Top of the World, Dolores Overlook, Dome Plateau, and a host of other side trips in the area. The Dome Plateau is a little known spot that has an amazing amount of great trail and great scenery. I took my only real spill on this ride while trying to get up a steep, loose hill. No big deal, but it makes you think about riding alone in a place like this.

 

Finally went over to Moab proper to do some of the rides there and eventually hook up with IDRIDR and his buddies. I ended up riding some of Poison Spider, Pritchett Canyon, part of White Rim, part of Flat Iron Mesa, Strike Ravine, and some other shorter rides looped together. When IDRIDR and his group showed up, I rode Fins and Things with them on one day then did most of Pritchett Canyon the next day. I split later in the day, and I'm waiting to hear how their run at part of Behind the Rocks turned out. I had never done Fins, and it was fun and different from the other trails I'd done on a dirt motor. Reminded me a bit of Slickrock trail. This first shot is of Pritchett Canyon at the point not far from the Kane Creek road side. It stopped up cold. The pic does no credit to the difficulty at this point, and it's usually the place that even most hardcore 4X4 guys usually break something. IDRIDR's group was fun to ride with, and I wish we'd had more time to do some other trails.

 

Nice! Someday, maybe, I'll get to ride in that part of the country.

 

VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!! Glad you had a good (safe) trip. It just looks like a great place to ride. Or should I say "it looks like a swell place to ride" Maybe I'll make it out there some year, I need to find someone to go with, so we can split the travel costs. Maybe Lutz will come down and pick me up
Dan

 

Great report man!!!

 

That made me chuckle. My Aveo would look pretty silly stuffed full of gear with a couple bikes strapped on top!