I'm going on an Escape Adventures tour of the Maah Daah Hey trail the second week in September. I could choose a SC Blur or Ellsworth Moment. the Blur is a blast on buffed singletrack, but it has clearance issues with my local rides in So. Utah. The Moment rides great, but is about 6 or 7 pounds heavier than the Blur as it is built for freeride-ish stuff.

Can anyone comment on how much clearance is needed for this trail? Are there lots of big steps or drops? What I've seen seems to show fairly smooth singletrack.

Also any general comments on best tires for the trail, weather this time of the year, things to not miss, side trips in the general area, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hey Bob - I've not personally ridden the Maah Daah Hey but the guys from my LBS have made a trip up there the past few years. From what they told me it's mostly smooth, swoopy single track. They've been bringing their XC FS bikes up there. The Blur would probably be the ticket for the terrain you'll encounter.

Hopefully someone with firsthand knowledge will chime in with some more specific information for you.

Tim.

Bob

Buff singletrack is the name of the game at MDH, so bring your Blur. I like IRC Mythos XCs for the trail. Keep an eye out for rain as any moisture on the bentonite clay makes the trail impassable.

I don't know if you know about this, but the 2ns Annual Maah Daah Hey NAG is taking place September 9-12. If possible, I would plan your trip to coincide woth the gathering. You will not be sorry.

Information about the NAG can be found here http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=8598 and here http://www.jlgarchitects.com/ND-NAG/index.htm.

Cheers
Mark

I'm going on an Escape Adventures tour of the Maah Daah Hey trail the second week in September. I could choose a SC Blur or Ellsworth Moment. the Blur is a blast on buffed singletrack, but it has clearance issues with my local rides in So. Utah. The Moment rides great, but is about 6 or 7 pounds heavier than the Blur as it is built for freeride-ish stuff.

Can anyone comment on how much clearance is needed for this trail? Are there lots of big steps or drops? What I've seen seems to show fairly smooth singletrack.

Also any general comments on best tires for the trail, weather this time of the year, things to not miss, side trips in the general area, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Superclyde is right it is pretty buff. As for clearance if it gets wet it dosn't matter how much clearance you have, you are stopped! Fire XC's worked well for me there.

We have been having a cold /wet summer just North in Manitoba so it could be cooler than you expect.

I'm starting to get excited for the trip.

Well, everyone else has the type of trail covered pretty well. It's mostly fast singletrack, nothing too technical.

As for sidetrips, if you golf you should try the Bully Pulpit. If you want a drink after a hard day of riding, the Rattlesnake Brewery in Dickinson is the place to go, although I don't think they have as many brews as they used to. There's a pitchfork fondue in Medora and a musical if you have your SO with, although those might be done for the year by now.

If you havn't left yet, here's a pic to get you exicted. It's from near Devil's Pass a month ago, as you can tell it was cool out, as it has been a lot this year:

Nice picture. I'll be leaving tomorrow am. The ride starts on Monday.

It rained Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. When there are 8 guys who travel thousands of miles and pay big bucks to ride, the result is poor decision making on the part of the said 8 guys. This must have been what it is like on Everest with people trying to summit when they know they shouldn't because of all their invested time and money.

I've got lots of wet clay experience, but rode against my better judgement on Tuesday and Wednesday. The scenery is beautiful, but the riding sucked because of the mud. I'm definitely going back some time when the weather is dry. As it was, I bailed 2 days early on Wednesday night as I couldn't take the mud any more. One of the other riders said it best: "this is like riding through dog cr@p that doesn't stink!"

By the way, Escape did a great job of support. They arranged a dry place to sleep the first night in a converted doublewide trailer schoolhouse with a wonderful view. The original plan was to have camped that night. Their food was wonderful, too.

The Blur would have been the right bike on a dry trail. With the mud, though, the limited tire clearance was a big negative. There is a scarcity of sticks in some spots on the trail, so I took to carrying a stick in my pack to disimpact the bike every few hundred yards when the rear wheel wouldn't spin any more.

Bummer. I've heard as far as mud goes, it's about as bad as it gets up there. I just took a look at the NAG pics over at Passion. Looks like they had drier conditions. I really would like to make a trip up there sometime (when it's dry).