Lockhart Basin, Moab UT: Trip report

[WookinPaNub]

Quick Summary: Beautiful, challenging, expert only ride that I would *not* recommend on a T7 without other rider support.

 

When: October 4, 2021

Direction: South to north (given the obstacles, this is certainly the preferred direction)

Number of Riders: Solo (not ideal / recommended, but no other choice given timing)

Ride time Bottom to Top: 7.5 hours for just ~50 miles (originally estimated 4 hours, but conditions did not allow that)

Rider Skill Level: 50 years old, good physical shape, above average riding skillset

Motorcycle Setup: Bare setup (no luggage) on the T7 with the minimum required survival items + 1.5L water (not nearly enough). Ran 20lbs on the tires (definitely recommend airing down so have an air supply).

 

General Route:

• 1st 15 miles are dirt / washes primarily. A number of these washes were in bad condition and required decent wheelspin to get past
• Next 20-25 miles are the 'meat' of the trip with the big rock obstacles. Numerous locations where obstacles were over a foot tall (uphills and downhills). This required numerous places of getting off the bike to recon, stacking rocks, and slow / technical routing. The last Obstacle before the famed overlook is the longest / hardest (a downhill) but makes it all the harder to tackle given you're already depleted by the time you get there.
• Last 10 miles are back to easier dirt / light rock obstacles (around the fames overlook on the north side) back into town

 

Notes:

• Again, more water is needed as the time required is longer than expected. I was borderline dehydrated / overheating by the time I ran into the Jeeps and they were gracious enough to resupply my water.
• I saw one truck in the first 5 miles, and then some Jeeps after the last obstacle. I saw no one for the middle 35 miles so be prepared to self recover in case of issue. There is no cell service to make any calls should there be issues.
• The T7 performed amazingly well all things considered. Tight uphill turns on obstacles, good clearance on the rocks, well balanced in complex spots. I was very impressed. I only dropped it in one location, ironically on a soft dirt uphill I wasn't paying attention on. Outside of that the bike handled the obstacles incredibly well.

[AZJW]

Title assist. Sounds like a real workout,  regardless of what bike used, but especially on a 450 lb beast! Any video?

[WookinPaNub]

On 11/10/2021 at 8:03 PM, AZJW said:

Title assist. Sounds like a real workout,  regardless of what bike used, but especially on a 450 lb beast! Any video?

Thanks for the title update, appreciated.

 

I have about 7 short videos that show some of the obstacles and scenery, mp4 files with a total size of about 2GB. Recommendations on how to post up those sizes?

[AZJW]

@WookinPaNub For posting videos here, you'll need to upload to YouTube for hosting and then post the links here on the forum.