Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap and Cherohala Skyway, Graham Co, NC

We set out to do Seven Mile Rim aka Monitor and Merrimac Buttes Trail. This route is north of Moab off Cotter Mine Road. We entered on the east side and followed the steep rocky trail for about a mile before encountering some steep switch backs with rocky, slick steps which we decided was too difficult on our heavy KLR’s. We back-tracked to Cotter Mine Trail and headed north and took a left into MillCanyon (Blue Hills Road), stopping at the Dinosaur Bones Display Trail. We walked this quarter mile trail which featured petrified bones embedded in rock.

We continued south on this trail, thinking we were on Tusher Wash route, but in reality we were on the Monitor and Merrimac Bike Trail. This trail crossed many washes and was extremely sandy …. very difficult with the heavy KLR’s. Climbing out of the washes we encountered some moderate loose-rock climbs, made even more difficult after riding through the difficult sandy sections. A group of dirt bikers blew past us making it look way too easy. We stopped for lunch after several miles and decided to backtrack to find an easier route.

We backtracked to Mill Canyon Road and headed west where we found the Tusher Wash entrance to the Seven Mile Rim Trail. We proceeded about a mile into this trail before once again encountering deep sand and tough going. Nearly exhausted we backtracked out again to Mill Canyon Road , heading further west.

Next we headed south on Bartlett Wash Trail passing a BLM camp area and encountered even more sand. Nancy managed to mow down one of the few trees of any size as she tried to plow through a really tough sandy section. We then discovered that there was no outlet to 313, so we backtracked east on Mill Canyon Road to 191 heading back to the comfort of our RV for a rest and some quick repairs to the bikes.

Late that afternoon we decided to try an easier route and headed south of Moab on 191, fighting the strong 40 mph cross winds. We took the Pritchett Arch Trail to Arch in Lone Rock where we stopped to try and find a way up. We road around to the back, northwest side where the climb to the arch was supposed to be, but decided it was getting too late in the day to hike and explore.

We returned to main trail and headed further west and found the trail getting more difficult and darkness falling. We headed back to the RV on Pritchett Arch Trail.