Equipment Recommendations

Essential Equipment checklist

• mountain bike
• helmet
• two water bottles plus a large reserve bottle or Camelback
• high energy food
• sun visor, sunscreen, and sunglasses
• route map
• 2 spare inner tubes
• tire pump, tire irons, and patch kit
• bike repair tools
• first-aid kit
• riding gloves and sturdy shoes
• riding shorts, T-shirt, and wind shirt

For cool season or high elevation rides add:

• riding tights or long underwear
• sweater and gloves
• earband
• rain gear

Riding in Remote Areas

If you have an accident in a remote area, it may take medical he!p hours to arrive. Travel with a group so that someone can be sent to obtain help and another rider can administer first aid. On a hot day, you will want to have more water than your frame-mounted bottles hold. Carry a large refill bottle on your rack. If your bike breaks down, it can be a long push back to town. Carry appropriate tools and know how to repair your bike.

Minimum Impact Biking Practices

Each year, individuals take hundreds of thousands of mountain bike rides in the Moab area. You can help protect this fragile land by adhering to the following minimum impact biking practices, and the Canyon Country Minimum Impact Practices.

1. Ride only on open roads and trails. Riding cross-country, taking short cuts, and play riding around campsites damages plants and soils. Don't be a trail pioneer by leaving a poorly chosen path for others to follow. Help land managers keep areas open to biking by staying on established routes.

2. learn to recognize and preserve cryptobiotic soil crusts. This delicate, often black, crusty-looking, complex of soil and slowly growing algae, mosses, bacteria, and lichens retains water, reduces erosion, and provides a stable base from which higher plants can flourish. It takes many years for cryptobiotic soil crust to recover from the ruts created by one bike. If you don't know what it looks like, ask someone to point it out!

3. Avoid skidding your tires. Locking your wheels needlessly damages trails and leaves ugly tire marks on slickrock. Stay in control by "feathering" your brakes.

4. Ride rocky, slickrock, and sandy areas when it's wet. Soils with high clay content, e.g. the first several miles of the Monitor and Merrimac Trail, turn to slippery, chain-clogging mud when wet. Riding through these areas under wet conditions leaves deep ruts that accelerate trail erosion.

5. Refrain from riding through and camping in riparian areas. Riparian areas, the communities of water-loving plants along streams, are precious to wildlife. Wildlife concentrate in these areas and can be displaced by recreation use.

6. Protect water sources. Washing mud off bikes and bathing can introduce lubrication, soaps, and oils from sunscreen into water sources critical for the survival of small animals.