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-->Fruita - Bookcliffs Trails
Overview
- Date Reviewed : March 2005
- Type of trail : Multi-Loop
- Distance as rode : ~15 miles
- Total Miles (Available) : >40 miles
- Climbing Distance : ~700'
- Driving Distance : 14 hours from Stockton
- Difficulty : 5 (6 on Zippity) (Scale of 1-10)
- Trail Type : 100% Singletrack
- Cardio : Moderate
Summary
The trail system most likely to be confused for a roller coaster ride. This trail is an incredible mix of ripping fast Singletrack, whoop-dee-doos and little jumps, even the climb up Prime Cut is fun.
It was early in the season so the infamous Edge Loop was snowed in and muddy so we stuck to the rides right off of road 18 and there was plenty of fun to be had. The Road 18 trails are fairly easy to ride and except for some steep downhill sections they are all rideable by intermediate riders. People who are uncertain on steep downhills should stay away from Zippity-do-dah and maybe Joe's. All of the trails have some short steep climbs mostly near the top.
Location
Just outside the small Colorado Town of Fruita off of Road 18.
Videos
Low Quality (48MB)
High Quality (174MB)
Links
We started a bit late in the afternoon because we had waited for the rest of the group thinking some of them were riding with us. Lighting was really strange on the trail and so the few pictures I took aren't great.
Rod at the beginning of the day on Chutes and Ladders.
Chutes starts out with some really cool tight twisty singletrack and a few short/ steep climbs. All of them are easily cleanable with the only difficulty being a few of them sneak up on you when you are in the wrong gear.
Unfortunately right at the beginning of the ride Rod had one of those wierd minor oopses, and his seat hit him right in the kidney bruising it and significantly slowing him down for the rest of the trip.
While the valley around Fruita looks like the perfect area to locate a land fill, the scenery near the Bookcliffs is pretty cool. Lots of small, stunted trees, hills, and cool views of the cliffs which are right above the trail.
Chutes and Ladders has a fairly short section that hugs the cliffs with flowing tight singletrack and then takes off into meadows. The Meadows portion of the ride is slightly downhill and since you have excellent lines of sight you can attain nearly supersonic speeds.
One of the more mundane portions of Chutes. It's only redeaming feature is the fact that you can ride it at 30+MPH.
Rod going down a small downhill near the end of Chutes and Ladders.
MTB Bill's Friend Billy on the top of Chutes and Ladders.
When I rode Zippity I ran into a big group from Arizona and followed them to get a bit of video. I also took this picture from one of the steeper portions of Zippity-Do-Dah. Trust me when I say that the trail is much steeper than it looks. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures from Zippity but you can check out the video to see this really cool and unique trail.
