Intro la sal pano

September 26–28th 2016

High in the La Sal Mountains

Ibis Migration #1 Report

In the last week of Sep­tem­ber 2016, twen­ty some­thing Ibis rid­ers of all shapes and sizes flocked to Moab to par­tic­i­pate in the first-ever Ibis Migra­tion. High in the La Sal moun­tains, a group of thor­ough­ly stoked folks made their nests among the dense­ly-packed, soar­ing aspens, xan­t­hous in their fall foliage (go ahead, look it up). 

Sit down, hold on and get ready for a visu­al feast. We brought Bill Free­man along to doc­u­ment the trip. Enjoy his pho­tos of the spec­tac­u­lar La Sals.

The chilly morn­ings found us savor­ing expert-lev­el cap­puc­ci­nos pulled by Espres­so Bob on his fresh­ly con­vert­ed-to-propane vin­tage Asto­ria. He even had it hard plumbed it into his sprint­er. Bob went so far as to pro­vide us with a spe­cial high alti­tude roast, made espe­cial­ly for pulling shots at 9,200′ campsite. 

Coffee
Our friend espres­so Bob con­vert­ed his vin­tage Asto­ria twin head espres­so machine to propane and brought it up to 9200 feet.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
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After cof­fee came break­fast. Rim Tours took good care of us.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Scot Nicol
"The riders chose their trail machine for the day from the demo van, which came fully stocked with every flavor of Ripley, Mojo 3, and HD3."
Ibis Migration HR 9
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 5
Then the flock rolled out for a serv­ing of splen­did sin­gle­track. They whooped and hollered down high-speed mud­dy chutes, pumped through per­fect rib­bons of aspen-lined sin­gle­track, and ped­aled up to a snow-speck­led Bur­ro Pass before bomb­ing back down to camp.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 45
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Chuck with his mouth open.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
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Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Climb to burro
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 205
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 231
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
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Intro la sal pano
We were camped out at Warn­er Lake with a view of the La Sals and the fall colors.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
"After we kicked some Burro Pass ass, we relaxed, and the all-pro Rim Tours crew prepared and served dinner. The aspen trees glowed bright orange, then mustard, saffron, and amber, as the sun set on Warner Lake."
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Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Chuck­’s iPhone

Post-ride camp­fires have a way of liven­ing the mood, espe­cial­ly when there’s Sin­gle Track Spir­its whiskey (dis­tilled by Ibisian Tom Pet­tinger) and 40 Buck Chuck mag­nums to be had. It was quite a par­ty – we’ll just say there was hula hoop­ing and a piña­ta. What­ev­er else hap­pened in the moun­tains will stay in the mountains.

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Chuck with mag­nums of 40 Buck Chuck (not avail­able in stores)
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Tom P. with his most excel­lent Sin­gle Track Spir­its Whiskey.
Ibis Migration HR 100
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Chap hoop 2
Chap­py get­tin’ down with the hoop.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 250
Pho­to bomb by piñataIbis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Milky way
And then we fad­ed into the night.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman

On the final day the Ibis rid­ers got a full serv­ing of the Whole Enchi­la­da. An 8000-foot descent from snow white to pine green to slick­rock red put a per­ma­nent smile on everyone’s mug. It doesn’t get much bet­ter than that.

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Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 393
Tyson, ALWAYS stylish.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 415
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Tyson porcupine
Tyson Swasey show us how it’s done.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 429
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 490
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
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The kids are hav­ing an alright time.Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Tom rockstack
Ibis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman
Ibis Migration HR 517
Rim Tours met us at the bot­tom of the Whole Enchi­la­da for the quick shut­tle back to town fol­lowed by a long jour­ney back to realityIbis Cycles / Pho­to: Bill Freeman