5 Miles of Hell! San Rafael Swell, Utah
 

Well it's been on the list for years, but I finally rode 5 Miles of Hell. If any of you are familiar with this trail, then you know it's really 8 miles of hell. (Rumor has it that the creator of the trail, Dick Brass, thought that if it was named 8 miles of hell, then no one would ride it. I have no idea if that's true.)

As usual, the gasser worked flawlessly. Climbed like a goat and never let me down. Even after I let it down, (even upside down) several times.

The trail is pretty relentless. Lots of shelved slickrock climbs covered in sand, gravel, and basketball sized rocks. The only time it ever lets up is when it drops into short sand washes, but even these are bottomless sugar sand and proved to be hard to keep upright in. Normally my confidence in this type of terrain is really high, and since 90% of this sport seems to be mental, I should have slayed it. But... as I began to fatigue, it started to get into my head. It took about three miles of fighting the bike through the rocks to get my head back in the game. After that, I felt pretty good again.

We rode probably 50 miles in 8 hours. And 6 of the hours were on the 8 miles of 5moh. There were times when I couldn't pull the clutch anymore or lift my arms. I started with a full camelbak, but ran out of water two miles from the end of 5moh, and 20 miles from the truck despite the temps being high 50's - low 60's. It was work. I think we could have done the trail in about half the time, but we were in a fairly large group. I think a group of three experienced riders would be the most efficient way to do it.

If you had a catastrophic bike failure out there, you would have to leave the bike. There really would be no way get it out short of taking it out in pieces on your back, or a helicopter.

Neat place!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...C8C7D156C3.jpg

Beginning of 5moh

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...7381F9E614.jpg

End of 5moh (and some of the orange pride parade I rode with)

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...6276A9D79E.jpg

Soooo want to go!!!
Thanks for the encouragement

J

I really miss living in Utah, even though I was on an '84 XR500R when I lived there. Wish I knew then what I know now. :o
(EC300 with trials tire would have been heaven)
Glad all went well. Nice ride to add to the list of accomplishments.

NICE! Sounds like you rode it better than I did LOL, my bike was on its side more times that day than probably it's whole life. I remember laughing nervously as I stood by that pile of bike parts at the start of the trail. Lots of high penalty areas if you don't get it right... And sustained arm pump, dehydration, exhaustion, fatigue, I was so happy to see that same exit sign your buds are parked beside. We rode to 5MOH from camp in Goblin Valley, and rode back, don't remember the miles, but I had NO gas visible in my clear Clark tank when we pulled into camp at dark :eek:
We are going back next April to camp at Goblin Valley and ride the "color" trails and try 5MOH again. Time is morphine, it makes you forget the pain:D Thanks for sharing the pics and events, it got my blood pumping just hearing about it!!!