Recent write-ups
Article: Dirtying the Body and Cleansing the Mind on the White Rim Trail
By Matt Miller
Posted on November 19, 2019
About Matt Miller: Matt joined Singletracks as staff writer in 2018 after he finished a journalism degree at MSU-Denver. You can find him on his home trails around Golden, Colorado. Connect with him on Instagram or email (matt@singletracks).
Excerpt: "Rim Tours makes the three-day White Rim exploration easy on the legs. Within an hour or so, we stop at Musselman Arch, which is like a natural, narrow, elevated sidewalk that connects one cliff with another. Another few miles down the trail, we stop for lunch, before I’ve really worked up an appetite. Deli sandwiches on whole grain bread with salad and cookies were on the menu. Every time we ate, our guides pulled out a little bucket with a soap dispenser and a foot operated water pump sink. Even though we were already a little sticky with sweat and dirt, there was no sense in eating like animals."
"At a ten-mile-per-hour pace, with multiple breaks and off-trail sight-seeing, we spent much more time outside of camp than I assumed, and that’s quite alright. The urge to check my phone went away and we took it one rest stop and meal at a time."
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Article: Utah, Moab: Mountain biking in Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park
By Mark Daffey
Posted on July 15, 2019
About Mark Daffey: Mark writes for the Sydney Morning-Herald and Melbourne’s The Age. He visited Moab courtesy of Cruise America and the Moab Area Travel Council.
Excerpt: "Tourists come to the Utah desert town of Moab to explore the sculptured red sandstone found in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Mountain bikers come here to ride it.
Moab's reputation as the mountain biking capital of the world is well earned. As one of the sport's pioneering destinations, and with more than 350 kilometres of singletracks built and maintained with local council help, no place on Earth comes close to matching it."
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Article: Chasing the Tune of Kokopelli
By Maureen Gaffney
Posted on June 11, 2018
About Maureen Gaffney: Maureen lives in Larkspur, CA and when she's not riding singletrack or writing for magazines, she works for the San Francisco Bay Trail Project.
Excerpt: "While spinning out several long, straight miles in a vast open plain, animal prints in the path ahead caught my attention. “Hmmm, dog…” I thought, offhandedly. But wait. Nobody’s walking a Labradoodle out here, no Feefie, no Fluffy—these are wild animal tracks to be sure, coyote being the most likely candidate. It thrilled me that despite my pesky presence here, this and other largely wild places still exist, that leash-less things rule the roost out here. My internal turntable played the chorus to “Wondering Where the Lions Are…” for a bit, and this distracted me through the next six miles or so. "
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Article: Biking Bears Ears: Getting Dirty in a Contested National Monument
By Maureen Gaffney
Posted on July 21, 2017
About Maureen Gaffney: Maureen lives in Larkspur, CA and when she's not riding singletrack or writing for magazines, she works for the San Francisco Bay Trail Project.
Excerpt: "Having survived the windstorm, stocked up on French toast, bacon and coffee, we rolled out ahead of the rig that teetered under the weight of our collective goods—bags, tents, backpacks, food, beer, spare bike and more. Great sweeping views to the Needles and the distant Abajo range, folded canyons and valleys in the foreground with names that epitomized the west: Beef Basin, Dugout Ranch, Dark Canyon, etc. While the new gravel-grinding craze somewhat mystifies me (in my day we called this “the shitty fire road part” and strove to avoid it at all costs), out here in a place so different from my California homeland, or the awesome-but-intense trails of Moab, I welcomed the chance to look up and out for sustained periods of time, taking in the immensity of this place. "
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Article: Riding Like Royalty: Mountain Biking the Rim of the Grand Canyon with Rim Tours
By Maureen Gaffney
Posted on Oct 20, 2016
About Maureen Gaffney: Maureen lives in Larkspur, CA and when she's not riding singletrack or writing for magazines, she works for the San Francisco Bay Trail Project.
Excerpt: "Yes, it’s flowy and there’ll be no hucking, no gap jumps, and no hanging off the back having the rear tire hit ya where the good lord split ya, but I always say if it’s not technical enough for you, go faster. To me, this is the perfect trip for the couple that contains one hardcore and one newbie. There’s just no way the hardcore can’t love these trails, the views, the nature immersion, for this is the essence of mountain biking. For the newbie, yeah, maybe they do some walking here and there, but he’ll soon forget that part and become a convert."
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Article: Over the Handlebars in Moab
Posted on Oct 6, 2016
About Sol Jorn: "Travel-Write-Photograph. The light in life is knowing we give all our time, all our mulah and every inch of our gusto to the space in our heads and hearts that screams there is so much more to know and learn. As of now we are travelling the United States and Canada in an 18 foot travel trailer."
Excerpt: "Having limited experience with mountain biking, the terrain was challenging but with the help of our guide Marla, who has so much soul and love for life, we were on our way to loving a new sport. Both rocks and sand created the obstacles and it was a head game to overcome them. I was truly disappointed that the camera wasn’t rolling when I went completely over my handle bars, smashing to the ground with the eloquence of a toddler in a bouncy castle, with more thud than bounce. I’m still bruised and also bummed I didn’t make it through that section. Fortunately, the more coordinated half of the team dominated and made it look easy. The nice thing about mountain biking in Dead Horse State Park is that when you have to dust yourself off, at least you have amazing views to pick you back up."
Article: Life Elevated: an unforgettable week in Utah
Posted on Mar 10, 2016
About AdVinetures: "We are avid lovers of both travel and wine. Between us we have visited more than 75 countries and tasted wines from across the globe."
"Established in Moab in 1985, owner Kirstin Peterson has built a fantastic reputation within the community as the most reputable biking guides around that make safety and their clients’ enjoyment their top priority. Our guide Dave was completely consistent with what we had heard from the locals, first ascertaining our experience and comfort level and then making a couple of suggestions based on what time would permit for our ride. He ended up taking us to Dead Horse Point State Park, a spot that afforded incredible panoramic views of mountains, reefs and canyons with very little traffic. In fact, during the 3 hours we spent with Dave, we only ran into one other mountain biker. We had, almost completely to ourselves, a network of trails that offered the full spectrum from easy to moderate to quite technical trails."
