 1 This is Bikerpelli's 2015 ride along Kokopelli's trail. The elevation & mileage don't tell the entire story because there was one part where I forgot to turn on my GPS, and a couple of others where they truck with your bike. For round numbers, call it 140 miles of rugged terrain with 15,000' of climb. |
 2 When Stefan and I arrived on 4/29 we took a bike ride from Fruita and rode around Rustler's Loop a couple of times - fun! |
 3 Here's Rustler's loop close up. The red arrow marks the start. |
 4 This is day 1. Starts near Mack and ends at the blue arrow. The blue line is a section where I forgot to start my GPS. The red arrow marks Western Rim, a highly recommended yet optional scenic route detour. There's a close up of it later on. |
 5 Here's a closer look at the day 1 start. Smooth and flat for a few miles, a nice warm-up before you get to the real deal. |
 6 Here's another look at the first half of day 1. The red arrow marks the start, blue arrow marks lunch. The squiggly part S of the start marks Steve's Loop, another optional yet scenic and recommended detour that we'll see up close soon... |
 7 Here's a closer look at the first part of the first half of day 1. The start is to the L near the Hwy 6 marker. |
 8 Here is Steve's Loop, the first scenic detour. Highly recommended! The red arrow marks where the standard route heads NE to skip around it for those who want to save a few miles. But if you've done the months of training and made it out here, you'd be crazy to skip one of the most scenic parts of the ride! |
 9 Here's the end of the first half of day 1. The red arrow marks Salt Creek, which we crossed. The blue arrow in the distance marks lunch. |
 10 Here's the second half of day 1. The red arrow marks Western Rim, a highly recommended optional scenic detour. The blue arrow marks the end of the day, which means food, beer, meeting great people and sleep. |
 11 Here's a close-up of Western Rim, at least the part my GPS recorded. It's optional, but super scenic and amazing so don't miss it! This comes just a few miles after lunch. |
 12 Here is day 2, ridden from R (N) to L (S). The red parts we rode, the blue part we were trucked with our bikes. Just before lunch there is an optional detour called Yellowjacket Ridge? Stefan and I did not take this detour. We were told it's sandy not very scenic, and you need to save your energy for the big climb after lunch. The red marker shows the peak elevation of 6,345. The blue arrow marks the day 2 camp, which was on a beautiful plateau with an stunning view of the mountains we would climb the next day. |
 13 This shows the brutal hill we climbed on the 2nd half of day 2, L to R or clockwise. The red arrow marks peak elevation. |
 14 Here's a close-up of the climb, red arrow marks the top. Ninety degrees F at over 6,000' altitude is not something you can simulate during training in Seattle! |
 15 This is day 3 - the last day. The first half of the day was one big long climb to 8,600'. The second half was Porcupine Ridge, then to Moab. |
 16 Here's the climb, starting from the L (N), then going clockwise, red arrow marks the peak at 8,600', blue arrow marks lunch. Yikes - I hit 42 MPH on my big 2.3" wide knobby tires! |
 17 Here's an overview of the second half of day 3, ridden from R (E) to L (W). The red arrow marks Slickrock Park. |
 18 This is Porcupine Rim, totally amazing though a bit beyond my meagre MTB technical skills. The red arrow marks a super gnarly section right next to the cliff. |
 19 Here's Slickrock Park, where Stefan and I took a tour on our way into Moab after coming down from Porcupine Rim. Riding on the dry bare rock has excellent traction and we rode up elevations of 30%! This is a very fun place with lots of technical stuff. |
 20 Here's where we ended and partied into the night after 140 miles and 15,000' of climbing. |