Give The Spider A Beer!
New And Better Singletrack In Moab
Trail builders in Moab are answering the craving for more and better singletrack and Poison Spider Bicycles employees are getting after it, volunteering their time and efforts to improve existing trails and help build new miles.
TJ Cowern, Poison Spider Bicycles’ service manager and expert downhiller has taken the corners on Hazzard County Trail personally, spending many hours improving the berms and curves to make the trail better for speed and flow. Shuttle up and check it out. It’s all the buzz on the Whole Enchilada!
Poison Spider Bicycles owner Scott Newton and his sidekick Aaron Lindberg buffed out the Moonlight Meadows Trail early in the summer, cleaning up the winter debris of rocks and logs. Nick Badovinac, Poison Spider employee and professional photographer, participated in the two-day Forest Service trail work session on Moonlight Meadows, building rock and log bridges through a boggy area and across a creek in the attempt to keep a sustainable singletrack in a cattle grazing area.
This summer, the trail building focus is on the Pipe Dream Trail which will eventually connect Moab to the Hidden Valley Trailhead along the boulder-strewn bajada on the west side of Spanish Valley. Professional trail builders Jeff Fink and Scott Escott are doing some serious rock work with sweat, hand tools and Egyptian engineering on what will soon be a continuous singletrack with several loop choices. They welcome any willing volunteers who want to take part and be part of this cool trail. Their helpers have included a church youth group, a troop of Boy Scouts accomplishing an Eagle project, Moab Community Development Director and trail enthusiast David Olsen’s sons Jaden and McRae, and individual volunteers from the community. Poison Spider Bicycle employees Tyson Swasey (all around cycling wizard) and Sharon Hogan have their names on a couple sections of beautifully armored trail. Several miles of this technical trail are finished and open to mountain biking, hiking, and running. Pipe Dream Trail access points are from the top of Aspen Street and the top of Jackson Street on the west side of Moab and these sections are currently connected by the pipe line road, although signage is incomplete and there is no map yet… Best to go with someone who knows, or better yet, volunteer for a morning of trail building and get a free tour.
