A few "notes" on this trail; 1st a "tip of the helmet" to Ruxton Noble at ruxtonnoble.com for recommending this trail to us! 2nd, this is probably one of the most technically difficult mountain bike rides in the entire state!! 3rd, it is extremely remote (no cell phone service, no easy access for rescue, and more then likely no one else on the trail at the same time!) With that said, here's our review of the trail!!
To quote Gregg Bromka, from Mountain Biking Utah, "Survival is your greatest concern...if you suffer from a mental or mechanical breakdown, either one invariably leads to the other,...you're a long way from a timely rescue...pack a hardware store of supplies"
5 Miles of Hell, is an incredibly scenic, yet incredibly difficult trail to ride! You will climb and descend more on one mile of this trail then you will most other trails combined. If you have any reservations about your bike handling skills, you might want to pass on this ride. We gave FMOH a unanimous 10+ pucker rating!! We recommend at mile marker 8.5 you take the "out" and head back on the singletrack. The trail does continue to another BLM sign in box and a 4x4 road, but we say "to hell with riding the road, when you can take a fast, twisty singletrack back to end the loop"!! If you do continue, all you really have to look forward to is more sand and a jeep road back to the trailhead. The choice is yours!! But we highly recommend the awesome singletrack!!
I have ridden this twice on a dirtbike........people actually MTB this? You are manly men! It is an awesome trail and fairly difficult even with a motor. I can't imagine how much you have to "hike-a-bike" to MTB this.
That said, next Moab trip I make I am taking my dirtbike AND full squish MTB to do this trail a 3rd time with a motor and a first time on pedals!
| ThankFive Miles of hell itself is a great trail. Difficult but not unridable descents with some very nasty pushing and pedaling. It is a dream trail for the strong intermediate all-mountain rider, to test all of their skills. What kills the overall experience is pedal out. It's a long pedal on mostly soft sand and you are already exhausted from riding the trail. It might be much more enjoyable to turn around at the first escape and do it as an out and back.
| ThankIf you can't find lodging in Moab and have to stay in Green River I would definitely put this on my list.
I rode this on my dirtbike this weekend... This trail was originally desined as a Motorcycle Trials course(with good reason). I personally would not recomend that you try this on a mountain bike. It took 4 hours on a Motorcycle and is very technical. If you try this trail on MTB be very carefull!!!
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