Tabegauche - 18 Road Trails - Fruita, Colorado

Starting out

I love new trails, new adventures and new places. Because of that for some time I have been wanting to ride Tabegauche and 18 Road in Colorado, close to Fruita and Grand Junction. We were planning another trip to Moab to test out the new Pipe dream - Hidden valley - moab rim trail, but the weather looked decent so we opted for Fruita instead.



G heading up andy's loop.

Heading up Andy's loop


I used my phone (Very cool having a smart phone, I used it for pictures, video, trail directions and maps, gps and music) to find directions and the trail maps on juicyfruita.com. So off we went. Rolling into and past fruita there was frost on the ground and a heavy mist in the air. We began questioning our decision, but decided that we were here and there was no turning back. 

 More of andy's


We started off climbing up the tabegauche trail, but it was a double track and we didn't drive four and a half hours to ride up a road, so we left the road on pet-e-keys went up to eagles wing then down to Andy's loop. Andy's was gorgeous, it involved a lot of steep climbing, and some walking, but it was worth it. (at the tops we saw another trail that went around the mountain we climbed and ended up in the same spot - next time we will try that). After climbing over and back down into a wash, we carried our bikes a little up a very unrideable section. Still worth it...We were finally at the top. There we picked up Lunch line to eagles wing, and climbed to the highest point. The view was amazing.

These are all views from Eagles wing.

From there we descended eagles wing to Holy Cross. All these trails are technical, but Holy Cross was our favorite, ramps, small drops, chutes, tight turns...it was awesome, the kind of riding I would drive 4.5 hours to repeat. 

From holy Cross we descended via Ali Ali, then Curtis lane. We ended up riding about 15 miles and climbed about 2000 feet. What a great ride. This is one we will do every year.

But we weren't done yet...

We had heard a lot about 18 road...ridge line riding...fast descents...so I found the trail map again on  Juicyfruita.com...it turned out to be more like a glorified lambert park in Alpine. It is fun, just not what we expected.

We rode up Prime cut and came down kessel run the first time...a short 7 mile loop. Kessel run is very similar to rodeo in lambert, descends a gully and curves up each side, but much longer...it was fun, but after tabegauche kind of a let down.

The next loop we ascended prime cut again, this time a little bored, then headed over to Zippity Doo Da, just as we were getting to the good stuff, ridge line steep descents, I snapped my rear shock linkage in half...that is the second time,  it wasn't fully broken however, so with some zip ties, wire and duct tape I was able to lightly ride my bike to the road and return to the parking via th dirt road.

G went on and rode the entire loop.

G riding down a fairly common section on Zippity. Very Cool.

We were going to do a little more riding, but my broken bike negated that possibility.

Back in the car.

Change in Green river at our favorite gas station with clean bathrooms.

Buy mountain dew to stay awake.

Cross the street for dinner at Arbys.

Return to Orem.

It was an amazing trip and we will definitely ride those trails again.

Now on to the next adventures...Moab in April, San Rafael in May, Boulder Mountains in June, Rainbow Rim, Virgin Rim...

It's going to be a good year...