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ATV &
Snowmobile Trail Riding Moab, Utah
Story
By: Nick Nelson - Photos By: Enrico Pavia
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Moab,
Utah is one of the most beatiful places
to ride in the United States |
Moab, UT (1/14/2010) - The name
Moab is a Biblical name for the land just short
of the Promised Land. The region was a green, verdant
valley in middle of a serious desert; an emerald
in the sand, if you will. Because of those similarities,
the little town was dubbed Moab by Mormon settlers
in the 1800’s.
I recently got the chance to fly out to Moab,
Utha to shake down the new 2010 line up of Arctic
cat utility quads. The demise of Quad Magazine
had left me sidelined for the last few month's
when it came to checking out the industries latest
and greatest, so I was absolutely pumped at getting
the chance to to go test and evaluate new stuff
for ATVriders.com and equally as pumped that I
was getting my second trip to ride quads in Moab
in the last 6 months.
Jumping on the plane from Bakersfield to Denver
to was pretty standard, but it quickly got a little
more adventure feel to it when I boarded the 10
passenger prop plane that would drop us straight
into Moab. Don't get me wrong I have ridden in
small puddle jumpers before but this was a significantly
long flight for a tiny plane, and to top it off
we ended it by landing on a snow covered mountain
top airport.
Apparently Moab does not usually get the kind
of snow we experienced, and when it does it quickly
melts away. This storm had blanketed the entire
area nearly a week ago, but unusually frigid temperatures
had managed to keep the snow pack in town despite
the fact that it is desert terrain at a mere 4000
foot elevation. The plan for the ride day was
to get an early start at a trailhead located just
a few miles outside the city limits and ride the
ATV’s through a series of trail systems
making our way up into the La Sal Mountain range
for a bit of snowmobiling. Snowmobiling would
be followed by a return trip down the mountain
on quads to catch the golden hour “sunset”
for photos back at the picturesque slick rocks
of Moab.
Following breakfast and a quick tech briefing about
new units and features, we drove about 5 minutes
out of town to find the Arctic Cat Semi at the trail
head. Luckily for us the majority of the slickrock
trails that Moab is famous for were dry thanks to
a few good days of sun. We set out for a great all
day ride starting with slick rock climbs that were
linked together by a really fun trail system that
was still covered in snow anywhere that was in the
shade.
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