Kokopelli mountain bike trip

I just got back this week from a 5 day trip to Colorado and Utah doing a mountain bike trip of the Kokopelli trail. This is a 144 mile trail from Fruita, CO (near Grand Junction) to Moab, UT along the Colorado river and through the Manti-La Sal National Forest.

The trip was absolutely beautiful in a part of the country to which I've not spent much time. It was a bit surprising to me that SW Colorado is a lot more like UT and AZ (think arid desert, grand canyon-esque) than it is the front range in Colorado. But beautiful nonetheless and a tremendous experience.

The trip was semi-supported, meaning our food, gear and limited cooking supplies were shuttled each day between camping locations while we rode. So while riding the approximately 40 miles a day we only needed enough food for the 5-7 hours of riding and plenty of water. Considering the difficulty of the terrain only having to transport daily rations was really important.

Since I'm training for the Ironman I didn't have any concerns about the fitness aspect of the trip. And while I was able to manage without incident, I will say the biking was no joke. 40 miles doesn't seem like much, but the climbing (between 3,500 - 7,500 feet per day) was on very rough trail and at altitudes ranging from 4,500 - 8,500 feet so breathing was different than the oxygen filled Iowa air. On some of the climbs, grades were between 10-40%. This was steep enough that we typically averaged around 3.5mph during the climbing sections. There were even parts of the trail that were un-rideable and we needed to hike-a-bike. To get an idea of the terrain see the video HERE. Although this video shows dirt bikes and ATVs, it gives you a sense of how rough the trail was to navigate.

After 4 days of riding I was definitely ready to be off the bike. My legs were sore, I had my fair share of trail rash from spills, my upper body was incredibly fatigued from all the jostling, and my a$$ hurt so bad. If you need an endorsement of why a full suspension mountain bike is advantageous over a hard-tail please let me know because I know the answer! Physically this trip was difficult, it was definitely the most physically taxing trip I've done, even more so that Kilimanjaro.

But the payoffs were excellent. We got to see some terrain that is unreachable in any other way than this trail and the mountains, rocky cliffs, and panoramas were fantastic.

I would definitely recommend this type of a trip for those that may be interested, but I would also caution that you better be in excellent shape and prepared and interested in taking a physical beating and enjoying it if you want to go!