The weather in UT is getting prime for plane camping and mountain biking. Has anyone here done any good mountain biking out of any of the UT airstrips?

Yes!

Very interested in good strips to bike from. Need to go on a few fun biking adventures with the youngest before he is off to the Navy in October. There has to be a few good spots to the south of Moab or to the west of there.

Now I just have to figure out a decent bike mount for the 185. I machined up this cool seat track fork mount for the 206 I had, but it really doesn't adapt well to the 185. That was a waste of time. I suppose I could always put a Yakima rack on top, just have to put the fairing on the crossbars. I expect I just have to break them down and bag them.

You can ride the white rim trail from Caveman as well as a slew of other trails. Mineral canyon has some decent trails close. You can access a ton of trails from Canyonlands.

I just mount my Yakima fork mounts on a thin piece of dimensional lumber that is almost as wide as my fuselage at the baggage door. Two bike very easily fit standing up. If I am going camping and want to load more gear more efficiently. I remove both wheels, lay the frames down and wrap them in my sleeping bags.

jugheadF15 wrote:If I am going camping and want to load more gear more efficiently. I remove both wheels, lay the frames down and wrap them in my sleeping bags.

Ditto. I use a moving van blanket- makes a nice pad on the floor of the tent too. 2 bikes in a 182 plus gear and a dog bed is pretty easy. I usually take a trash bag with a cinch and install it around the chain and derailleur.

Dolores is sorta fun too a few miles away from the strip.

I never thought about accessing the white rim from Caveman...

Well I do tend to overcomplicate things. I did like the rail mount, it kept the bike real secure and not flopping about. I do have this bag I got on eBay for $30. I made the PVC thingie for a couple of bucks and some spare bits I had lying around. The grey device is a Pedro's chain tensioner, about $10 at REI. It keeps the chain tight when the rear wheel is removed. So when you lock the front fork into forward mount and the rear into the back one the bike is secure and the chainring is protected by the PVC pipe. It has the added benefits of keeping your forks from becoming gear wrecking weapons. The Pedros gizmo allows you to refit the rear wheel with a minimum of chain grease transfer to your hands, untangling the chain. I then put it in the bag to keep chain grease off the rest of the gear (the bag was a firm request from my wife to keep grease off the luggage in the car).

Anyhow, I do use the same blanket suggestions for the bikes, as the bag is unpadded. It now loads up as a firm unit. It was a ton easier with my previous 185 (died in a hurricane when my hanger did "Dorothy flies to Oz" thing), which had the litter door. The present 185 is a floatplane equipped, so no litter door possible. It is either a floatplane or litter equipped, not both (litter door cuts through two bulkheads).

Having nice bikes is a blessing and a curse. Blessing to ride, curse is you feel compelled to treat them like royalty due to their high cost. I only tend to use my exterior mounts on the car when I plan no stops. Otherwise they go inside now. Last time in Taos, just in the 5 minutes I went in to check into the Bed & Breakfast, they tried to seal the bikes off the racks. It is a big problem in much of the SW, bike theft off cars is an issue. So inside they go now.

I have carried small hatchback carrier in the plane to put on a rental car, and a 6' hot pink cable to tie to the spare tire tie down bolt inside the trunk. It has worked both times I used it.

Not that that could help, though. It has never happened to me, but I have a friend who went inside the grocery store, and someone used a (battery powered?) sawzall to cut the roof rack towers right off the roof and leave with three very expensive bikes attached. 5 minutes tops.

4Whitey wrote:The weather in UT is getting prime for plane camping and mountain biking. Has anyone here done any good mountain biking out of any of the UT airstrips?

Not backcountry, but some really great trails across the street from Moab Airport at Klondike bluffs. It is an area that is being developed with more new trails all the time. A new one Dino was just built. http://www.discovermoab.com/biking.htm

If you make it up this way and want to ride, hit me up.. happen to be in the bike industry living in Moab.

As for others, more than likely dirt road exploring. Whiterim from Caveman sounds interesting.

just for info last year wife and I did a driving vacation from San Diego and hit Moab.. I wanted to try to get to Caveman one day and we drove down along the colorado till the road turned to dirt and kept going. we passed the turn off to Caveman without knowing and continued down river past the settling ponds for about 7 or so miles... a great ride in our Audi Q5 on a fairly good dirt road through some beautiful country...so you don't necessarily need a Jeep but it would be a easy bike ride with no hills...

All right, great suggestions, keep them coming. This thread could become a nice Fly&Ride Guide for Utah.

If you have any GOOD mtn biking trails that are in close proximity (15 minutes or so by bike from air strip to the trail) of any UT BC strips or airports post them here. Definitely include double track if you think it's not too busy with motorized vehicles and would make for good Mtn biking. If you can, include the following info in your post:

1. Directions to trail from the air strip? Link a website/map if you've got one.
2. Type of trail: Single track or double track? Slick rock, dirt, etc?
3. Trail difficulty: Is this a flat dirt road across a prarie or is it a more like a steep goat trail with 1000' drops at the edge of the trail?
4. Any other details you want to include would be great (Water crossings, jeep traffic, etc.)

This should give a pretty good picture of the type of riding and help find it.

29SS sounds good, I'll drop u a line when I get something in the calendar.

I'd be willing to help explore some of those trails with you..

I'll make a trip this week and look at possible trails near Mexican Mtn & Cedar Mtn. (going there anyway)

http://wilgabeast.com

It's prime season in Moab and you will be difficult to find a trail without jeeps, atv's or dirt bikes. Moab is one of America's premier OHV areas and has been LONG before the advent of MTN bikes. Thankfully there are very few bike only ares. Most trails in the area have everything from sand flats to goat trails and slick rock on the same trail. There are a zillion web sites with all the info on the trails around the area. The Utah Backcountry Pilots web site has all the info you need on the strips in the area.
By far the easiest way to access the area is from Canyonlands APT (CNY) or Caveman. The Sovereign trail system is across the road from CNY and it has some dedicated single track. You could land at Mack Mesa(C07) and access hundreds of miles of non-motorized single track in the Fruita/Loma/Mack trail system or the North Fruita (18 Road) system. Including the eastern half of the Kokapelli trail. All within an easy 5 mile country road ride. All of which rival anything that Eastern Utah/Moab has to offer. I am unaware of any strip smack in the middle of prime biking except for a couple of private, permission only strips.
As mentioned before, Dolores Point has some decent 2 track that leads towards Moab. They are very rarely accessed even in the high season and can be ridden even in the heat of summer.
If you are truly adventurous you can land on any number of backcountry roads and make your own strip for the day or weekend. You could camp and ride right next to your plane. Stay out of the park areas and you should have no problems. Park area maps are all over the web as well.

S-12
I'd heard that Fruita had good riding, but didn't know that it was better than Moab riding, that's saying something. Looks like I'll "need" to fly up there soon and check it out!

Wilga Beast
Where do you base out of? How's the wilga fly?

Didn't say it was better but it is every bit as good. From a purely biking stand point they are superior in many ways but they are not as scenic. If riding in a non-motorized area is important to you then the Fruita/Loma/Mack area is a large diverse area devoid of OHV's.
Here is a typical trail. You can judge for yourself.

4Whitey wrote:S-12
I'd heard that Fruita had good riding, but didn't know that it was better than Moab riding, that's saying something. Looks like I'll "need" to fly up there soon and check it out!

Wilga Beast
Where do you base out of? How's the wilga fly?

Fruita has great riding.. Western Rim, Mary's Loop, etc all *could* be accessed from Mack. Visit Hot Tomato in Fruita for great pizza and beer.. but would need a car.

S-12 Looks like great riding, thanks for sharing the video!

Reminds me of the Durango and Cortez area. I took your previous comments to mean Fruita was better, guess I misunderstood you. I'll definitely have to get up there this year.

I ride my bike on OHV trails quite a bit. Rode Lake City - Silverton - Telluride on them over two days last July, and it was great. But, it's also nice to get away from it all on muscle-power only single track. This thread's got me motivated, my office work can wait, it's time to go for a ride