"In this active and outdoorsy town with legendary slickrock mountains, it seems as though every pedestrian clutches a Nalgene water bottle and every car totes a few dusty mountain bikes. Moab bills itself as Utah’s recreation capital, and it delivers." (Lonely Planet)
"Believe the hype: Moab has phenomenal singletrack, challenging slickrock, and some of the most spectacular vistas on the planet." (National Geographic Atlas)
We are reticent to believe the hype, even when it’s in the reputable Lonely Planet and even more reputable National Geographic. But in this case, we couldn’t agree more. Moab has scenery that reminds us of the Augrabies area in the Northern Cape. Massive sandstone rocks sprawling as far as the eye can see. We camped in Arches National Park and marvelled at the sandstone bulging out of the ground and forming 2300 named rock arches. When the wind finally died down, the sunset-viewing rivalled Clifton 4. 
Slickrock is the local name for large areas of smooth rock with no vegetation growing on it. Ideal mountain biking surface for those in the know. We weren’t in the know, but were game to give it a try anyway. We got jolted, shaken, stirred, bumped, jarred and generally beaten-about for three hours on the single-track trails on the slickrock just outside of town. We limped back into ‘Poison Spider Bicycles’ to return our 2010-model fancy bikes only to hear that we’d done the kindergarten route and there were three more levels of difficulty beyond our small adventure. Pish, we say. Adventure is in the eyes (and joints and muscles) of the adventurers.
R
No comments:
Post a Comment