Bikepacking The Ute Mountain Tribal Park

April 2024 

It's hard for me to resist a good ruin. Ute Mountain Tribal Park is a larger, more under-visited and less developed version of Mesa Verde National Park. You can't enter the park without a permit and must be accompanied by a local native american guide. 

Four Corner Guides located in Mancos Colorado and run by Lizzy Scully and Steve Fassbinder is the only guiding company allowed to tour the park via bicycle. I had been thinking of doing this tour for a couple years and although I normally don't do guided trips, I wanted to see these ruins. I don't know Lizzy or Steve personally but I have known of them and followed their adventures for years. It all seemed a great fit so I finally signed up.

Leaving the house a day or so early I stopped in Richfield Utah to ride the trail system there. I have been hearing good things about the trails here and can confirm that indeed, good things are happening. 

4/18. Arriving in the appointed place, at the appointed time, I met Lizzy and Saddle, her energetic Border Collie. Soon Bay showed up, the only other participant on the tour. While Lizzy snugged up some final details and ran some errands in town, Bay myself and Ian, who is Steve's cousin and helps out with pretty much whatever needs doing, rode our bikes back down to "Scullbinder Ranch." Four Corners Guides base of operations where Lizzy met us again. Lizzy cooked up an amazing salmon dinner for the four of us and after dinner Ian helped setting up Bay's ride for bikepacking. 

4/19. In the morning Lizzy shuttled Bay and I with our bikes and gear to the start of the ride which in our case was a little east of Mancos at Cherry Creek and met our guide Jon. Jon has massive experience earned through multiple hard core adventures throughout the fours corners region, Alaska and beyond. I felt lucky to have him with us. We had a pretty easy day of riding even though the distance was about 36 miles. We rode across plateau country before an exhilarating 1000 ft descent to the Mancos River inside the Tribal Park. Arriving relatively early at the campground in the canyon bottom we took a walk to Kiva Point experiencing the thrill of discovery on finding many pot shards and rock art. Ricky, our Ute Guide for the ruins tour tomorrow happened by while we were in camp and confirmed our meeting the following day for our tour and with a few additional folks. After that we just just nestled into camp and eventually drifted off to sleep.

4/20. Ricky and the additional tourists showed up right on time and with that our tour began. We initially stopped at a rock art panel where Ricky explained the entire emergence of humans upon the landscape and the four epochs of time in which humans have inhabited the land. We are currently within the fourth  epoch. The legend (or truth?) of the existence of man was truly fascinating to hear from an entirely different perspective. From there we moved on to the main attraction, the ancient ruins in Lion Canyon. Indescribable is the appropriate adjective. You just have to see these things and experience them for yourself. We climbed down a log ladder to access the ledge trail used to approach the four different dwelling sites. At Eagles Nest ruin there is a mandatory 30 ft log ladder used to access the ruin. A couple of folks opted to take a pass on this climb and waited on the ledge below. Eventually we made our way back to the van and thence back to our camp in the canyon. We had packed our bikes in the morning so we were quickly back on our bikes and made our way a relatively short distance up canyon to where we made our final camp.

Four Corners Guides has an agreement with the tribe that allowed us to do a bit of exploration on our own without a tribal guide. We spent the first half of the day hiking and exploring a bit then jumped on our bikes for the final 14 mile ride back up canyon to Scullbinder Ranch. 

I highly recommend this trip to anyone with an interest in ancient culture and has a bit of cycling experience even if not bikepacking. Four Corners Guides has some extra loaner bikepacking bags to help outfit your bike for the trip. Lizzy is extremely gracious and accommodating and Steve "Doom" Fassbinder has as much or more experience in various modes of travel from packrafts to bicycles as anyone in the four corners region. And speaking of packrafts, they specialize in packraft instruction from beginner to expert as well as putting it all together with bikerafting. Check out their website.

Red Rocks Redux

April 2024
It was time to get back on the rocks. The venue was Red Rocks Nevada, specifically Calico Basin and First Pullout. Joannie has been gym climbing and was anxious to try outside again.

Super spur-of-the-moment, we had a great time climbing and a taste of the usual Las Vegas crazyness. We visited some petroglyphs at Willow Springs and there was even the annual "One Big Club" ride event hosted by the hotel we stayed at. It seems to be a nationwide cruiser bicycle club. The after climbing $2 PBR and a hot dog was a bonus and a highlight.

Approach to Riding Hood wall, Calico Basin

The route runs up the crack in the large wall

Nearing the top of pitch 1

The crag got very crowded as we were leaving.

Crowd pleaser!

Day 2 and we were at first pullout on Viagra Tower. After climbing the pitch I rapped and cleaned. Joannie climbed on top rope. This crag has a hungry crack that threatens to eat your rope when you pull it. I had to leave a directional for Joannie to top rope. When retrieving the anchor I was very careful with the pull and we had no problems.

One Big Club

It was awesome to feel real rock under my hands again and has me jonesin' to do more. Joannie wants to go to Lover's Leap once the snow clears and the rock warms.

Death Valley Short Roll

Camp above Dedeckara Canyon

March 2024

Ultimately, I just couldn't wrap my head around riding Racetrack road. Don't get me wrong, had I been riding as originally planned back in January with Kurstin, I certainly would have gone over the top, down to the springs, back up Lippincott and out racetrack road. Thence back to the starting point in Fish Lake Valley via Death Valley Road into Eureka Valley and back up N. Eureka Valley road.

The original plan was squashed for me due to an incoming "atmospheric river." God I hate that term. Seems even the weather has to be sensationalized now days. So extreme yo! So for me having an open schedule I bailed a few days ahead of our planned departure. Kurstin, being on fixed timeline went anyway. You can read his report here.

I rolled out of Cottonwood Creek where I'd parked at 5pm and rode to a beautiful spot to camp in Horse Thief canyon. It was getting dark as I set up camp but it was a short riding day having only pedaled about 11 miles. I explored the canyon by foot a bit as I munched down the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich I'd brought from home. It was a beautiful night and I attempted to do some night photography but the bright moon made the results a bit disappointing. 

Night shot of camp in Horse Thief Canyon

A bit windy overnight, the morning dawned beautiful and relatively calm. I packed up but kept my puffy on because it was still pretty cold. Riding down canyon I 'ooh-ed and ahh-ed' pretty consistently while in the canyon, and then abruptly I was out and on the alluvial fan down to Eureka Valley. I discovered my morning packing mistake several miles later when my tent poles rattled out of position where they were strapped to my front roll and hit the ground. I stopped immediately. But, where actually was my front dry bag containing all my clothes? I groaned. I knew the answer. When I packed in morning I had packed the bag loosely intending to leave room for stuffing my puffy later. Unfortunately this had made it possible for things to shift in my harness and I hadn't noticed where and when the dry bag had been ejected. And so began the walk of shame back up the hill in search of the dry bag. Trudging up all I could think was "I hope it's not far, I hope it's not far." The "you dumbass!" was spat out loud. I found it about a half mile up. You don't have to be good if you're lucky. 

Dropping into Eureka Valley

The rest of the day was uneventful. I rode the long washboard out to Eureka Dunes campground and took a break in the shade the outhouse provided. It really wasn't all that hot so before long I was half sun, half shade. I took a picture thinking it was kind of funny and put it on my Facebook page with the caption "Living large at Eureka Dunes." Yeah my sense of humor is a bit obscure, maybe even broken. I don't think anyone 'got it.' Continuing on I passed the dunes and just before entering Dedeckara Canyon I met this dude with a unique, at least in my experience, backcountry setup. He was hiking but pulling a Burley bicycle trailer modified with a harness that went around his waist, his load strapped into the trailer and nice big beefy tires. It looked like a great and very logical setup for the terrain. We chatted a bit, but as is usual for me I can't remember his name. Sorry, awesome Burley backcountry trailer pulling guy, you were rocking it! (Pun intended) 

Eventually I continued on up toward the pass. The road is pretty washed out but remains completely rideable at least as far as Steel Pass with the exception of the 'steps' in the lower end of the canyon. The road is supposed to be closed to motorized vehicles and I didn't encounter any this time as I had several weeks earlier. Yes, this was my 3rd trip up Dedeckara this year. In late February, Joannie, Wyatt (our dog) and I had made an aborted attempt to do an overnighter from the Dunes and a couple days later I round tripped to the pass and back from the Dunes. By now I was pretty familiar with the route. I made a camp above the canyon for the night and this is where I let the 'old man' creep in through the cracks. I knew that by dropping into Saline Valley the following day I would be absolutely committed to the route, the only other option being to climb back out North Pass, a trip I had already done in 2021. I lay in my tent that night with 'RACETRACK ROAD' drumming through my skull and mentally calculating how much water I had remaining. I wanted to climb Lippincott but by morning old man had won. I got up early, took a bit of water with me and rode my unloaded bike to the top of Steel Pass. On my ride in February I had taken a ducky with Joannie and I's 1st dog's name to place in the Marble Bath. (We did the duck races at our local park for years before it became over organized and would race one for each of our pets, past and present.) But the bath is in rather bad shape compared to when I had visited in 2021, being full of sand and gravel and relatively few marbles. Being the sentimental old fool that I am I was determined to retrieve the ducky and bring her home. 

Sitka and her marble throne.

Nah, you're coming home with me.

Marble Bath 2021.

Steel Pass and Inyo Mtns.

Joannie and Wyatt in February

Returning to camp I packed up and started the long back track. I realized I now had to conserve water. I ate a Dinty Moore pre-packaged stew to both lighten my load and get some liquid in me. By the time I had exited the dune area back out to Death Valley road I was becoming mildly concerned about water. My plan was to exit back up to Fish Lake Valley and my truck via N. Eureka Valley rd. But it was much hotter than it was just yesterday and I was sweating all my water out. I ended up camping early a short distance up the N. Eureka Valley rd and hiding in the shade of a mesquite. It wasn't horrible. Really, it wasn't bad.

My plan was to ride much of the remaining miles in the dark. But by 2am I was awake. It was TOO early. I had 20+ miles and about 2500 ft to get back to the truck. I had one almost full water bottle or a little less than .75 liter. I started riding at 3:30am under a bright moon negating the need to use my headlamp. Amusingly, I often carry a handlebar mounted bike light for possibly riding in the dark. But I never ride in the dark so didn't bring it. I rode under the near full moon until it set around 4:30-5am then switched on my headlamp. The riding was gloriously cool and pleasant. It was FUN! The downside being that I couldn't see what the terrain looked like. I was barely using any water. Eureka! (Get it?) As I climbed higher and higher the temperature dropped until at the top I was back in my puffy. Dawn was breaking as I started the downhill. The temperature dropped to 28. I had to stop to thaw out my fingers and toes but the sun wasn't on me yet so it was a longish process. This continued several more times, each ride interval getting shorter. By the time I was back to the windmill the sun was finally shining just ahead. I gratefully pedaled into the sun and took a final warming break before finishing up back at the truck. I still had almost a quarter bottle of water left. I ended up driving back down N Eureka Valley road so I could see what I had missed in the dark. Very glad I did.

About the top. White Mountain Peak in the distance.

Apologies if the tone of this post seems to be kind of a downer. It was really a nice route and a fun ride. My mental game just wasn't on point but I think I ended up making good decisions. Part of the problem was in knowing what lies ahead. I have driven Racetrack Road a number of times and it hasn't inspired me to ride it. For one, when I have driven it, it has been very washboarded which is tough on your body riding a rigid bike. Two. It is heavily used by the tourist crowd going out to (and back from) the Racetrack stirring up much dust. It is an integral and necessary part of this route though and I still want to climb Lippincott. So with that said I think for me it might be more fun with a partner to share some of the pain. But for now having ridden most of what Death Valley has to offer, exceptions being Lippincott and Hunter Mountain, I'll likely be looking to other areas for a couple of seasons. High on my list is Mojave National Preserve and Gold Butte National Monument.

Stats: 92 miles. 6476' climbing

Bike setup: Binary Gordita fat bike fully rigid. Surly Edna 26x4.3 tires. Custom rack and bikepacking bags.

Logistics: The windmill a few miles from the start has water in the trough. Saline Valley Warm Springs, Mesquite ranger station and or campground for water. 

Map and GPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/156718007