Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Hurricane Cliffs, UT

June 3, 2005

Take me to the video. As soon as I saw MTBBill's Hurricane Cliffs, Utah video I was certain of two things: 1. I had to ride those trails ASAP and 2. that scenery deserved more than a cheap lipstick cam. So I bought a new camcorder, slapped it on my helmet, and joined George da Trog, Old Dog and Rudy for some of the finest biking I've ever done. We did Goulds Rim, JEM and Hurricane Rim Trails. Or at least George and I did. Unfortunately, Old Dog somehow went off the trail into some rocks and separated his shoulder a little bit into the Hurricane Rim Trail. So he and Rudy went back via a fireroad while George and I continued on.

The entire route consists of about a 21.5 mile loop starting off Hwy 59 a bit east of the town of Hurricane. The loop is usually done counterclockwise, starting with a two mile fire road climb up Goulds Rim Trail. The trail continues on for several miles and then you cross over Hwy 59 and continue on the JEM Trail. Then you return to the starting point via the Hurricane Rim Trail. With the exception of one or two spots at the beginning of Goulds, the trail is not at all technical and, if I weren't pushing myself to keep close to the others for the video, the entire route would be relatively easy. The most fun part is the JEM trail, which consists of several miles of narrow, twisty, slightly downhill singletrack with many quick ups and downs. But from a scenery standpoint, the Hurricane Rim Trail, which runs above the rim of the Virgin River Canyon, is quite spectacular. 

The guys were great, sticking close to me, taking my direction, and pulling me along about as fast as I could go for four hours, while taking me over things I never thought I could do. Surprisingly, for pushing myself so hard, I only had one mishap. I cleared a pretty good drop but veered off into a rather large sharp boulder, scraping both my thigh and ankle. Without my trusty kneepads my knee would have been toast! After nearly three years of doing videos I finally feel I got one right. Seems it just takes the right trail, equipment and riding buddies. Thanks guys! 

I'm working on improving the map of the area and I'll post it when available.

Click on an image to enlarge it

About ready	Goulds Fire road	Goulds Rudy, Mark	Goulds, Rudy George, Mark	Goulds	Goulds
Goulds	Goulds	JEM	JEM	Rudy JEM	Mark JEM
JEM	JEM	Rudy gets a flat	Mark  goes down	George Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim
Hurricane Rim	George Hurricane Rim	George Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	George Hurricane Rim
Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim
Hurricane Rim	Hurricane Rim	My thigh	My ankle, worse underneath	Rudy recovers	Mark is Ok

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