First up was Illinois Gulch. This trail is known for its one named obstacle- Mini Moab or Moab Hill. It's a short rocky climb that has sandstone rocks similar to what you'd find in Moab. There are 3 lines up it- the hard line is up the middle, the medium is up the left side and the easy is up the right side. Brian and I tried the hard line just by nosing into the first rock but neither of us had the approach angle.
It was close, but cheater rocks would have needed to have been stacked up to clear. And then we'd have the deal with what was beyond this.
Brian took the medium route up the left side and the rest of us took the easier route up the right. I'll come back and add pics later as this is just primarily a test.
Here's Steve going up the right.
After Lucas went up, a nasty noise started from the left front wheel well. Luckily it was an easy fix- some gravel must have bent the spring clip on his brake pads up so it scraped the wheel. Some creative bending and trimming fixed it up and we were on our way again.
Steve is really getting some tilt.
After Illinois Gulch we headed back to McDonalds for some restroom breaks and to grab some snacks. Next we headed to Schubarth Road but it was closed due to the Waldo Fire in the area the previous spring/summer. Since we still had plenty of daylight, we headed a little further north to Balanced Rock Road. Here we actually got into some snow- wasn't much but it was just slippery enough to make it fun. Not too many pictures were taken on this trail, but I'll come back and add what was taken later.
Here's the rock for which the trail gets its name.
