Hey hey. My company is filled with some chill people that have been doing an unofficial annual company ski trip in the winter for the last ~20 years. In 2023, I started our first ever annual MTB trip. We did the hut to hut Aquarius Trail. Earlier this year, we went to Moab and did a few day trips (we tried to do the whole enchilada, but it snowed the day before we got there, so we had to start at the top of LPS) and then did a three-day version of the White Rim Trail.
I'm hoping others could give me sweet recommendations for similar trips. Below are some of the ideal criteria. Thanks in advance for reading the giant wall of text and providing recommendations!
- We were 12 people in 2023 and 9 people in 2024. I would expect a similar sized group for 2025.
- The trip would need to be in either July, Sept., Oct., or Nov.
- While it's primarily intended to be an MTB trip, some hiking would be welcome too. Road/Gravel is fine, but I wouldn't be looking for mandatory full road days if that's at all avoidable. I guess the easiest way to describe this requirement is that I'm looking for a trip where the ideal bike would be a downcountry or short travel trail bike.
- At least part of the trip is a 3 or more day "epic" of some sort.
- This can be relaxed if you have a really cool idea that meets the rest of the criteria. I'm personally trying to get the group interested in renting an Airbnb in Whistler/Squamish as a base camp so we can have one or two park days while beginners do a road ride or hike or something.
- The total trip length should be roughly one week plus the weekends before/after.
- For 2024, most of us travelled to SLC on a Friday evening and then flew out the following Sunday.
- Ideally, it would be possible to be supported/supportable in some way.
- Escalante had these huts, so we really only needed to bring clothes, and we also had a Tacoma that we took turns driving.
- For White Rim, we hired a truck to carry all of our crap.
- It should be semi-beginner friendly. Everyone on the trip will be quite athletic, and will be comfortable on a bicycle, but not everyone will have experience with MTB–we had first timers on both White Rim and Escalante and they were fine (one had trouble on Bunker Creek).
- It shouldn't take more than, say, 5 hours to get to the start of the adventure from an airport.
- With the exception of a few people who work remotely from Utah, we're located in NY, so ideally we're looking at anyplace where we only waste 0.5 to 1 days travelling in each direction (e.g., this year, I was able to drive from Moab back to Park City and get a ride in with one of the locals before catching a plane back to JFK).
- I think this means almost anywhere in North America and Europe, but if there's something cool in like, Brazil or w/e, I think we're open to that. Asia is probably too far/difficult.
by Accomplished_Egg6075