The setting: 10,000′, Brian Head. A cool morning, 55º, a light breeze midst the sunlight promising a warm day. Sitting astride the YBB on the “knife’s” edge of Blowhard with a 25% drop through switchbacks and loose rock straight ahead. The shear on both sides reveal a drop of several hundred feet. Saddle lowered, heart pounding, palms sweating, eyes wide open, but not to fear as my trusty steed, tires digging in and steering remaining true, takes me through an exhilarating section of this legendary trail.
Moab’s Slickrock, where one has to “dive blind” over the edge of a sandstone outcropping, unable to see where one is going, but the Moots reliably carries me over and across the dotted trail, navigating massive potholes which would swallow one if a wrong move were made. The YBB has taken me there.
The “Fat Tire Classic” in Winter Park, was ridden for several of the years it existed, with epic single track, grunts up steep fire-roads which the YBB transversed like a gazelle, with elevated and indescribable vistas awaiting as a reward. One weekend, it was 80 miles and 8500′ of climbing riding to help the Red Cross in their fundraising endeavors.
The Kokopelli, a 150 mile ride over several days of driving rain, warming sun, strong winds, and chilled snow through tall rocky monoliths and across scrub-land, through the “ghost-town” of Cisco, to the lively, small town of Lima.
My ti ride has also transported me from Telluride to Moab, a 200 mile endeavor, via the high mountain passes of Lost Dollar into delightful stands of clapping Aspen and whispering Birch, and across dust-laden fire roads of The Divide, overlooking sky-filling views of the iconic La Sals.
Gooseberry Mesa, riding over rocky sandstone with Zion National Park “in the back yard,” through Bowls & Ledges, North Rim, God’s Skatepark, and the “sugar” of the Yellow Trail; across the picturesque northern rim of the Grand Canyon, The Portal, Gemini Bridges, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, Porcupine Rim, Amasa Back, Kane Creek, Klondike Bluffs, Prostitute Butte, John Brown, and Fisher Mesa; The Road to the Sun of Glacier National Park; Left Fork Bunker Creek, Sydney Peaks, Virgin River Rim, and Navajo Lake; Blue Sky, Caribou Flats, Chainsaw, Flume; Dry Fork, Vallecito, St. Mary’s, and Galloping Goose; Sullivan Canyon, Guadalasco, Coyote, 2 Foxes, Temescal, China Flats, and Eagles Nest, and too many more to name here, but if you know any, or several of these trails, you have an idea where my YBB has taken me.
I love my Moots for being my trusty steed these many years across the tens of thousands of miles and variegated terrain of the Northwest, West, and Southwest, whether in snow, sleet, rain, heat, cold, wet or dry, day or night. Trails from fire roads, to single-track, rock, dirt and even pavement, by the Pacific, through streams and rivers, up in the mountains at 12,000+ and down in the valleys, my YBB has been my “signature” ride.
My bike has transported me into and through realms of adventure, freedom, challenge, beauty, and peace. Now, an “old-school” 26″ ti ride with V-brakes, my bike has been with me since 2000, and has logged over 45,000+ miles. My Moots YBB could use a refurb and tech upgrades to last me the rest of my riding days!