KLR650 Rally - Moab - Page 6

Riding out of Moan to the north you pick up highway 128 and turn east following the Colorado River. About 25 miles out you come to Onion Creek Trail that starts climbing through the La Sal Mountains and gains altitude quickly! The weather was clear here but over the mountains was a bank of dark clouds. Could they really be snow clouds? The ride up Onion Creek was what Dual sport riding is all about! Narrow, scenic, many stream crossings, some hills and rock out-croppings but generally a steady and fun ride.

We had seven in the group as Robert, Dick, and I had met others at the Moab diner for breakfast and before we knew it we had a good size group! The group quickly found it's pace and we traveled along for about an hour as we neared Thompson Canyon.

There were a number of small streams to cross as we made our way up the canyon to higher elevations. Some of the trail was now getting very narrow and had some rock out-croppings in ever more frequent succession! The clouds up ahead were still there and getting darker. The temperature had fallen to about 38 degrees and I think we all figured we were going to ride into some snow! There were many mountain bikers coming down the trail and they seemed to be doing fine! Maybe we would just slip by the snow or rain or whatever was up ahead.

Well, we did not miss the snow! It was coming down fast and furious and had been snowing for a few hours at least! Those with aggressive tires had no problems, but many of us did! Slowing down to first gear and creeping along gave one a long time to wonder what would happen if we had to go down a steep descent or worse yet, climb up a hill in the snow. I figured we had plenty of folks to help push!

We pushed on and slowly but surely the terrain began to drop off and as we descended to a lower elevation the snow stopped and the sky began to clear. It was easy riding now and in just a few minutes we were at the hard surface road heading back to Moab on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road.

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