Colorado Trail to Trans-Utah Possible?

[piratefrankie]

Howdy!

I'm heading out to do the Colorado Trail in early-mid August and I'd like to find a way to link up with the Trans-Utah in Moab. Has anyone done this? Does anyone know of any transportation between the two cities? I can always hitch or ride it, but I thought I'd ask.

Based on this site, it doesn't appear that the whole TU has been ridden in one go. Would attempting the TU in August be possible?

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Cheers -

F

[DesertDog]

Well, hopefully Dave Harris, who created the Trans-Utah course and is a moderator on this site, will add to this too, but...

The TU only goes to Boulder, UT.  Dave hasn't created the rest of the route to Moab yet.

Even if the course was finished, you would still have to find transport from Durango to Moab (or St. George, UT, if you want to do the TU in it's normal direction) to do them both!  And that's a lot of distance between any combination of the two towns!

The TU can be problematic almost any time of the year since the elevations vary from about 2500 - 10500.  Bad thing about August (or any summer months) is the extreme heat you'll face from St George until you start climbing up the plateau beyond Cedar City.  Or, put in reverse, the heat you'll encounter from dropping off the Markagunt Plateau before Cedar City to the end in St George.  If the route does get completed to Moab, you'll also have to deal with the heat in many stretches from Boulder to Moab during the Summer!

[NT]

I don't know about the TU, but to get to Moab from Durango, take the route that the San Juan Hut System takes (they also have one that goes Telluride to Moab)

[DaveH]

I'm heading out to do the Colorado Trail in early-mid August and I'd like to find a way to link up with the Trans-Utah in Moab. Has anyone done this? Does anyone know of any transportation between the two cities? I can always hitch or ride it, but I thought I'd ask.

Based on this site, it doesn't appear that the whole TU has been ridden in one go. Would attempting the TU in August be possible?

TU currently is mapped out from St George to Boulder, UT.  Getting from Boulder to Moab is somewhat tricky from the land ownership perspective.  It's easy enough to map a route through there, but to make it interesting enough and legal is challenging - something I don't really have the time or motivation to pursue at this time.  If you did ride Moab to Boulder in August it would be quite difficult to manage the heat - lots of low elevation desert country in that stretch. 

TU was ridden by Troy Marino and Blair Foust - report at http://juniper-solutions.com/epicrider/?p=231.  It's a funny read, highly recommended

Riding Boulder to St George in August would be fine.  You'd certainly want to do the section from Virgin to St George during the night or early morning as temps usually hit 105ish that time of year (but it's a dry heat!).

I'll second the San Juan Hut route from Durango to Moab.  http://sanjuanhuts.com/mountain-bike-adventures/durango-to-moab/ even has a KML file of the route.

[NT]

Maybe you could figure out a route using some of the trips Doom has done:
http://therepublicofdoom.blogspot.com/
Need a packraft though.

[DaveH]

Yep, the good Dr. had done some very interesting trips.  Crossing the CO river is already one of the route challenges.  Choose a bridged crossing or something more remote that requires flotation?  I think I'd need a month of time away from the real world to dial it in proper.  It's too far from home (St George) for weekend excursions...

[dgjessee]

Interesting that this would come up.  I was thinking about the feasibility of tacking on some miles to the Colorado Trail to Moab or beyond.  I knew about the San Juan Hut route but I started thinking that the ideal time to ride the CT is not the ideal time for much else in the southwest.  I guess you could make it to Moab before suffering the really awful heat...

[DeanHill]

This is the best route to Boulder I've done from Moab.   We did most recently last November.  You could cut out some pavement by doing poison springs road (sandy)  and over the Henrys (snowy).

[joeydurango]

I've been wondering about getting up in the Henrys... they sure look interesting, and infrequently traveled.