Give The Spider A Beer!
Pipe Dream Comes True- Moab’s New Singletrack
Imagine riding your mountain bike around a blind singletrack corner high on the boulder-strewn bajada above Moab.
You might be nervous about what lies on the trail ahead, except for your experience on the last corner and the one before that. You have learned to trust the trail builder, so you make the turn with confidence, straighten out for a smooth drop down a rock ramp, then roll across a beautifully built stone bridge. Looking ahead, you see a banked switchback, leading to another, then the trail disappears between a boulder and a tree. No fear, just focus!
This is the Pipe Dream Trail in Moab. Long a dream of Moab locals to have an awesome mountain bike singletrack ridable from town, the years of planning and working through the land access issues have culminated in a year-long push to get it built. Moab Community Development Director and avid mountain biker, David Olsen hired a merry band of like-minded cyclists and other trail enthusiasts, who became stone masons under the guidance of Scott Escott. Together with volunteers from the community, including lots of Poison Spider Bicycles employees, these “cobblers” have turned their shared vision into an incredible trail in impossible terrain right in Moab. Boulder bridges cross dips and drainages. Rock causeways connect corners. Switchbacks climb to bench cuts which curve high above the Moab Valley.
The Pipe Dream Trail has become the favorite lunch ride for the Poison Spider Bicycles’ cross country riders. It’s not an easy trail! It was designed to reward technically skilled bikers with a great challenging ride, and some say it’s the best ever! With an elevation difference of only 500 feet between Moab and the south end of Pipe Dream Trail at Hidden Valley Trailhead, it may sound flat. However, the terrain is always changing, up to down, left to right, never straight, never flat. The climbs are steepest from either of the two Moab trailheads, Aspen Street or Jackson Street, but once some elevation is gained, the steepness mellows to easier grades for the rest of the trail. For a more “downhill” feel, riders can start at the Hidden Valley Trailhead and ride to Moab, either shuttling or riding paved and dirt roads back to the start. The singletrack is open both directions, so mountain bikers can choose any length and section for out-and-back rides. Plan on riding for an hour plus each way, end to end. Come in to Poison Spider Bicycles for directions and suggestions for your best choice.
The Pipe Dream Trail is a non-motorized multi-use singletrack. It has become a cool challenge for local runners and hikers who love this amazingly beautiful trail with its views of slickrock fins and the La Sal Mountains. All users share the responsibility to yield to each other as appropriate, due to the narrowness and technical nature of the trail. When a rider is “gettin’ it”, the runner steps aside. When the runner is flowing, the hiker steps aside. The biker who is hike-a-biking steps out of the way of others. Downhill cyclists yield to uphill traffic, but uphill traffic should always keep a heads up. This sharing attitude keeps it fun for everyone, and keeps it single!
The Pipe Dream Trail will be completed and signed by the June 17, 2011 Grand Opening Celebration and Ribbon Cutting, with cake and speeches and all manner of fun, sponsored by the City of Moab. After the party there will be group rides and hikes on this awesome new singletrack in Moab. Come join the celebration!