On the explosed cliff of the now-closed Flight of Icarus ride.
The ridge drops over 2,000 feet to the desert.
Coming down the super steep "wings of Icarus."
The second steep pitch on Icarus.
We barely kept up on this ride with the pros from Over the Edge Sports.
Finishing the ride through a beautiful, mellow pasture.
A bad crash at the end. Two guys were sprinting to the finish while pushing each other. Noah, the guy on the ground, got pushed down and broke his elbow.
In the center is Troy Rarick, the driving force behind Fruita mountain biking.
Riding Kessle Run at dawn, a classic Book Cliffs Fruita ride.
It's one of my favorites.
The view from the top of The Zion Curtain, a ride that dips into Utah. That's Utah in the background.
Finishing the Zion Curtain through a huge swath of cheat grass left by decades of overgrazing.
6 comments:
"Icarus"
Why are you showing us a trail that nobody ever seems to give a straight answer regarding ridability. It seems like Troy just promotes irresponsibility by riding it and jeapordizing future trail closures.
I'll ask Dave if there are signs posted along the way on the trail.
The sign at the trailhead states portions of the trail are closed.
I wonder about the helpfulness of taunting government officials. Seems to be you're almost begging them to give you a hard time.
I posted this in the comment section of the Gazette article Dave wrote. I post it here too to stimulate discussion. Argue away...
You notice how the existing trails are NEVER ENOUGH? That's the problem with guys like Rarick. He always wants more and thinks the BLM owes it to him. And if they don't pony up, he takes it anyway.
Whether the area is right for mountain biking or not is irrelevant here. Truth is Rarick is no different than any other yahoo going out and illegally building trails for their personal jollies.
The sport doesn't matter. His actions give a black eye to the law abiding mountain biking community. That makes him no different than the beer swilling ATVer leaving legal trails to trash the meadows and bogs.
More trails are always in order as long as the MTB community behaves. Fruita is quite the crowded place these days and isn't get less popular. Try getting a camping spot at 18rd these days on a WEDNESDAY...
Good point. "Behaves" is the key word.
In Dave's Gazette article on this matter, in relation to playing by the rule of law, Dave quotes Troy Rarick as saying...
"We tried being compliant for a few years and it didn’t get us anywhere. Now we’re sort of going back to the good old days of building (trails) without permission and apologizing later."
Does Troy really think he's doing the MTB community any favors here?
... Yes...
Where do we think trails come from? Government? God? Trail Fairies? All trails I have ever ridden were built by people, people with passion, who then fought to keep them once confronted by government closure (the only mantra they know). It's how it works; my greatest thanks to all who dared to build, not wander a meadow, build... Thank You
Troy
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