Goat in a Turtle Shell: The Fruita Walkabout 2.1

View of the Kokopelli trails from Mack Ridge

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:45. A quick breakfast of eggs and blueberries and I set to work about repairing the tears in my rear tire. I’ve found a special set of patch glue and rubber patches made for car tires called Monkey Tyres that I’ve grown fond of for patching those holes in my regular tires. I don’t run those UST specific tires more likely because I can never find the ones I want on sell and I’m just a cheap SOB.

Kokopelli trailhead

A quick run to Fruita from the Book Cliffs and an air compressor found and my rear tire was 3 scoops full of the Spooge. I made it to the Kokopelli trailhead by 8am and brought the map back out just for a quick once over of my route.

checking out the views from the top of Moore Fun

Up the Kokopelli Trail(a short bit of desert Rd)
Up Moore Fun….then down the backside
Up Mack Ridge
Mary’s
Troy Built loop Clockwise
Mary’s
Handcuffs
Steve’s Loop
Mary’s
Horsethief Bench
Mary’s
Kokopelli back to the car

Riding on Mack Ridge

Tons of rocky goodness in there. I love me some techy climbing just as well as descending. Just enough to keep me on my toes but all of it rideable. Moore Fun lived up to its name and after getting a view shot from the top of Mack Ridge a rattler hiding under a rock gave me a warning rattle. Cool stuff…I tried to catch a picture of the guy but I wasn’t chancing getting any closer than 15 feet so all I got was a shot of a crack in the rock.

Troybuilt

Later I went onto the Troy’s Built loop. I understand this is one of the lesser ridden sections of the Kokopelli trail system and that’s really unfortunate. I rode it clockwise and it had tons of flow with a techy section thrown in here and there. Back to Mary’s after a short hike a bike up collarbone hill and it quickly turned from rocky doubletrack to sweet narrow ribbon singletrack with a few techy sections thrown in for good measure.

More Troybuilt

I got to a section with a sweet view of the Handcuffs and decided on lunch soaking in the views and the sun. I was going through my water quick and realized I may run out before the ride was finished so I tried to conserve.

view of the Handcuffs

Handcuffs and Steve’s loop was probably my favorite riding of the day. Ribbon thin singletrack hanging onto the edge of sandstone cliffs overhanging the Colorado River and several small spur canyons.

Mary's

Back to Mary’s and some more sandy singletrack goodness. I passed up Wrangler’s since I had less than half a liter of water left and portaged my bike down in to Horsethief Bench. The guys who can ride that have got my respect.

Riding on the Handcuffs

Horsethief Bench went by quick with a couple of cool sandstone sections and small washes to ride through. Halfway through I ran out of water and I took it easy back to the portage out of Horsethief Bench.

in one of the finger canyons of the Handcuffs

Once on Mary’s again it was a quick doubletrack finish back to the car. 28 + miles and 5,133 of accumulated climbing.