Ibis Migration #2 Report

What do you get when you com­bine 25 rabid Ibisians, an avail­able demo fleet of 30+ Ibis moun­tain bikes, per­fect weath­er, lots of food, a decent amount of beer, and some of the best rid­ing in the South­west? Easy – you get Ibis Migra­tion #2, The Appetite Sem­i­nar. Chas­ing Epic host­ed the run­ning of the sec­ond event in a series, this one was held the week before Thanksgiving. 

Held in St. George, UT, the Migra­tion was a gath­er­ing of all things Ibis- fans, cus­tomers, bikes, ample swag and a cou­ple of key Ibisians: Scot Nicol, Ibis’ founder and Kirk, our enter­tain­ing and knowl­edge­able vet­er­an demo honch. The week­end kicked off with an amaz­ing ride on Goose­ber­ry Mesa and includ­ed non-stop fun on spec­tac­u­lar trails that had every­one rav­ing. Inter­est­ed to know how it all went down? Sweet, just fol­low along below.

The week­end start­ed at lunch time on Fri­day, with every­one check­ing in and get­ting set­up on their choice of Ibis bikes… the HD3, Mojo 3, Rip­ley LS or the OG Rip­ley. Every­one has their preferences… 

Once every­one had their bikes set­up and fit, we loaded up the big ​‘ol 12-pas­sen­ger shut­tle vans and head­ed out to Goose­ber­ry Mesa, where the crew split up into groups and rode until sun­set. We can’t think of a bet­ter way to get acquaint­ed with the high-desert mesa rid­ing in St. George than to jump right into the slick­rock play­ground of Gooseberry.

Once back at the con­dos, we had a smörgås­bord of food ready for every­one… and a few beers too. Every­one got their fill of food and drinks, and we had the night to tell sto­ries and go over the sketchy and excit­ing moments from the day’s ride. The high­light of the evening was hear­ing from Scot him­self on the his­to­ry of Ibis: how he start­ed the com­pa­ny, why they’ve done things the way they have, and the main tenets that car­ry the brand and the folks that work for Ibis. Oh, and he man­aged to throw in some oth­er sto­ries we’ll leave for next time.

Day Two had the rid­ers split­ting up between two epic rides- either Lit­tle Creek Mesa or Hur­ri­cane Rim. A lot of folks say that if Goose­ber­ry Mesa is a roller coast­er, then Lit­tle Creek is the entire amuse­ment park… and we tend to agree. We had three groups hit Lit­tle Creek for most of the day, explor­ing the nooks and cran­nies of slick­rock that make the area so famous- and fun.

Over The Edge’s own­er, Quentin, joined us on Sat­ur­day to show a group around Lit­tle Creek… talk about a guy who can rip! He has a way of show­ing fel­low rid­ers the goods and help­ing you find your tech­ni­cal bound­aries with­out push­ing too much. And it’s always best to get the locals tour.

The rest of the crew (two groups of 6 rid­ers) head­ed to Hur­ri­cane Rim, where they got more than their fill of XC-style Hur­ri­cane rid­ing. Most of the group man­aged to knock out 28 miles of beau­ti­ful mesa views over­look­ing Zion Nation­al Park. Let’s just say the group was pret­ty tired after the sec­ond day.

That evening once back at the con­dos, we had even more amaz­ing food and drinks, and per­haps a spe­cial con­coc­tion from Scot him­self… join us for a future Migra­tion and you may get a taste of what he’s mix­ing. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, after a LONG day of rid­ing, most of the group hit the sack a lit­tle ear­li­er on Sat­ur­day night… every­one had to be rest­ed up for one last day of incred­i­ble south­west moun­tain biking!

After anoth­er break­fast spread in the pent­house, Day Three’s agen­da would have the rid­ers over in San­ta Clara, rid­ing a cou­ple of the anti­cline clas­sics like Sidewinder and Bar­rel Roll. These trails offer some­thing entire­ly dif­fer­ent than the mesa rid­ing in Hur­ri­cane – more flow, more sus­tained descents (and climbs), and a few more tech­ni­cal sec­tions that keep you on your toes. Oh, and don’t for­get- more amaz­ing views.

After anoth­er 10+ miles of rid­ing on Day Three, the crew came back to the con­dos to call it a week­end. Over­all, we man­aged to hit four dif­fer­ent rid­ing areas in a three-day moun­tain bike trip in Goose­ber­ry Mesa, Lit­tle Creek Mesa, Hur­ri­cane Rim, and San­ta Clara… total­ing about 40 – 50 miles of rid­ing for the weekend. 

Stay tuned for upcom­ing announce­ments on future Ibis Migra­tions… there are three or four planned in 2017 and all are sure to be epic! Spe­cial thanks to Bill Free­man for cap­tur­ing the week­end for us – such an awe­some rid­er and an amaz­ing photographer!