|   Bob trailer & Trek 8000/White Rim or Kokopelli? | DobeMan
Jun 16, 2002 9:22 AM | | Anyone have any experience with putting a BOB on a Trek 8000? Just checking to see if there are any compatability issues. Also, I'll be taking a trip to Moab this fall and have time to do either Kokopelli's trail or the White Rim. White Rim seems like it'll be a day shorter ride so it'll be easier on me to carry my water and food. I did do the White Rim on my motorcycle a couple of years ago so I have done it, just not at bike speed. Plus I won't have to hire a ride back to my car.
Comments? |
| re: Bob trailer & Trek 8000/White Rim or Kokopelli? | rb
Jun 16, 2002 4:48 PM | | Don't know about trailers but did White Rim in a day the first weekend of May (one of the stupidest things I've ever done, was pure hell from about mile 40 on). Be prepared for a lot of sand and silt, many sections we had to walk. A local told me it's the worst he's ever seen due to the drought, got to imagine it's going to be even worse after the summer. I'd check conditions before you go, maybe plan on a little more time than you think you need. |
| re: Bob trailer & Trek 8000/White Rim or Kokopelli? | Rich M
Jun 16, 2002 7:48 PM | | I use a Bob trailer on my Trek 8000 and have no problems doing so. Works like a charm! |
| Fruita end of Kokopelli has some tight singletrack | derby
Jun 16, 2002 8:33 PM | | The White Rim is doubletrack and except for a couple of tough climbs, one rough one in the middle and the long smoother climb out, is mostly rather flat.
- ray |
| re: Bob trailer & Trek 8000/White Rim or Kokopelli? | Crocadile
Jun 17, 2002 2:31 PM | | Howdy, Four of us did Kokopelli last year(exactly a year ago this week) with BOBs and just completed White Rim May 30 this year. I can't answer the question about the bike but feel sure that will not be a problem at all. I can tell you some things you should know.
Your biggest challenge will be water. You can't haul enough water to do either trip without resupplying somehow. Your BOB is going to be heavy anyway and add 20 + pounds of water and you can easily overload yourself. WE cached water in two places on Kokopelli and filtered out of the Colorado in two places and you can get drinking water at the Westwater Ranger Station. That all worked pretty well.
White Rim is much more of a logistical challenge for water. We did that ride counter clockwise starting at HOrse Thief and coming out at the Shafer Switchbacks. We cached water at 3 campsites: Murphy's Hogback, Gooseberry, and Airport Tower. We filtered water at Hardscrabble bottom. You may be able to filter water at or near Potato Bottom. You can also filter water out of the Colorado if you do a 3.5 mile (one way ) side trip down Lathrop Canyon. It is ridable but I would advise leaving the BOB at the top and only take your bike down to the river. We had a real problem on White Rim with mice chewing into the stashed water containers. We used 5 gal. Fold-a-Carriers. They are fairly light polyethylene and we use them because we can fold them up and pack them out easily when they are empty. The downside is that the mice can make short work of them. At one location we only had about 3 gal.left out of 10 which really put us in a bind. The only other source of water on that ride is to bum it off of other groups and you can't count on that. They will all probably be willing to fill a water bottle or Nalgene or two but don't count on being able to get large quantities. Also on the subject of water, we were allowing for 2.5 gal. per person per day on both trips and in the heat we were drinking all of that easily.
It is not too difficult to get around and cache the water on Kokopelli, White Rim is another story. It is rough, it took us 10 hard hours in a high clearance 4WD Ford pickup to get around and even in that rig we scraped the under carriage a few times.It took a full, hard day to do that.I would contact one of the commercial outfitters (Western Spirt, Rim Tours, Kaibab Tours) and ask them if they would put the water out for you at your reserved campsites if they have a trip going at close to the same time. That still doesn't address the rodent problem. Your going to have to figure out some way to keep the water safe until you get there.
As one of the earlier posts said White Rim is currently extremely sandy in some places and on some of the climbs. The north side of Hard Scrabble hill for example. You are going to be doing some or a lot of pushing regardless of how strong a rider you are so plan on that. I learned on Kokopelli that Sidi mtb shoes are not the best choice on a trip like this. A pair of combination type shoe is much preferable because they are so much more comfortable to walk and hike in.
Doing White Rim in October should be a good time, it should be cooled off pretty well by then. The day we went down Lathrop to the Colorado it reached 113 in the afternoon.
Kokopelli is more varied riding and you are near highway 128 (?) most of the time so you can bail out if you get in trouble. Not so on White Rim. The single track on the Colo. end of Kokopelli is great riding but parts are nearly impossible with a BOB. It's too narrow in places and too technical in places. We had to unhook the BOBs and carry them over at least two really big rocky climbs. As the book says "trail made by mule deer" and it's true. Once you reach Rabbit Valley travelling to the south (Loma to Moab)it is all two track of some kind and ranges from unimproved Jeep road to pavement and everything in between. The northern end of Kokopelli is very arid desert country and as you go south you get more into the mountains and more trees and the temperature cools off. ON White Rim it is all extreme desert except the descent and climb at the beginning and end.
The BLM campgrounds on Kokopelli have picnic tables and pit toilets and you can have a campfire (maybe not this year?) On White Rim the campsites have toilets and nothing more and fires are never allowed there.
There may be less climbing on White Rim but what there is, I believe, is steeper and then there is the sand. There is a lot of extended climbing on Kokopelli if you are going from Loma to Moab but I think the tread is smoother, some of it is on pavement.
We encountered far more people on White Rim than on Kokopelli.
The rangers at Canyonlands recommended that we do the White Rim counter Clockwise so we "would see fewer people" but it seemed to me that there were as many groups going the opposite direction and I think all of the commercial groups were going clockwise. I believe the climb out the Horse Thief Switchbacks would be easier than up the Shafer Switchbacks (doing the trip clockwise).
Overall I believe our group thought that White Rim was easier but we were much more experienced and mentally prepared for White Rim. The heat this year on White Rim made it more of a challenge than if it had been cooler. White Rim should be done in April or October to be optimal. We did Kokopelli in six days and White Rim in five. White Rim can be done easily with a BOB in four days.
Feel free to e-mail me if have any other questions. We feel like we have learned quite few tricks from these to tricks. One I'll tell you about here is using a pinch of powdered alum to settle the silt out of river water before starting to filter it. It will make the process much easier.
Good Luck!
The 'ol Crocadile |
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