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Blackridge Expert Trails
Mojo, Rawhide, Hardlick via Eric's and Mustang
The expert trails at Blackridge are reached via Eric's
trail and the Mustang Loop at the top of Eric's. The Mojo loop has
engineered features such as tabletops and doubles, while Hardlick as a
combination of tricky natural and man-made features. The usual riding
season will be mid-May through October.
Looking forward to a tabletop jump on Mojo. Review by
Bruce on June 25, 2021. |
| The trails start at around 6000 feet elevation. There is no
shuttle option. To reach these trails, you must pedal to the top of Eric's
trail, either from the north at Blackridge Pond
or from the east at Juniper Crest, then fork
onto Mustang at either end. You'll climb 800 vertical feet over 4.5 miles
from Blackridge; 1000 feet from Juniper Crest over 3.5 miles. Plan on
around 11 miles round trip for the minimum ride.
Heading uphill on the Blackridge trail. I'm almost to
Eric's trail, which continues uphill from Blackridge. |
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Mojo Loop with Mosey connector |
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The Mojo Loop drops off the top of Mustang on the upper
ridgeline at an elevation of 6100 feet. The trail winds southbound into a
small valley on the southeast shoulder of South Mountain, then climbs back
uphill to join lower Rawhide just uphill from its origin on Mustang.
The entry to Mojo, looking south. |
| Mojo is an intermediate-level trail with banked turns and
engineered bumps for jumping. There's nothing scary here. If your skills
got you to the top of Eric's trail, you can ride this.
Mojo is one-way! If you're at the bottom (via Mosey for example) you
must go clockwise to get back uphill.
Looking down to another tabletop jump. There will be
rollers, some gentle side-kickers, and a few doubles.
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The Mojo trail itself is only 0.9 miles long. Half of that
is the descent of 0.4 miles and 150 vertical feet, and the other half is a
gentle climb back uphill to Rawhide.
At the top, there will be some nice views of the
Wasatch Front. |
| Mojo can be done repeatedly as a loop with a short descent
to the bottom of Rawhide (1/10th mile) and a bit of climbing on Mustang
(0.4 miles). Each lap around this loop will be 1.4 miles and 150 vertical
feet of climbing. Half of the climbing will be on Mojo and half on
Mustang.
Looking down past a couple of rollers (or a very long
double) to a banked turn.
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When you're ready to tackle Rawhide and Hardlick, just turn
to the left at the top of Mojo and begin climbing.
The climb back uphill on Mojo is gentle and easy. |
| Mosey connector trail
There's a "back door" into the bottom of Mojo called Mosey.
This trail connects the lowest point on Mojo to the east side of Eric's
trail. It will be used mostly by locals who are accessing Mojo from the eastern
side of Eric's trail. Mosey offers a climbing-free return to eastern Eric's after
descending Mojo, or a quicker way uphill to Rawhide from the Juniper Crest
trailhead.
A couple of riders on Mosey heading for the eastern
side of Eric's trail to ride back to town.
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Mosey is not marked. You'll need to follow the bike-tire tracks
to navigate. It's 0.4 miles long, consisting of some singletrack in the
bottom of a shallow valley plus some old abandoned ATV trail.
Mosey after it joins an old ATV trail. |
Rawhide and Hardlick loop ride |
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Rawhide
Rawhide and Hardlick, together with a portion of Eric's trail and
Mustang, form an expert-level loop ride. Only strong and confident riders
should hit this loop.
View up Rawhide from the bench at the top of Mojo.
We're 1/10th mile up Rawhide from Mustang at this spot. |
| Rawhide is the expert-level climbing portion of the Rawhide-Hardlick
loop. Unlike the other trails in the area, Rawhide isn't a machined trail.
It's hand-built, which means it's narrow and full of the granite boulders
that form South Mountain.
Here come the bumps. There's often only one line
through, as the trail is frequently narrow.
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When climbing Eric's from Blackridge, you'll pass the bottom
of Hardlick on your right. From there, it's 0.3 miles to the bottom of
Mustang. Rawhide forks away from the Mustang trail after 0.5 miles of
further climbing.
Riding over a granite outcrop heading north. |
| At the trail fork on Rawhide 0.1 miles uphill from Mustang, keep right. The left
fork is the (not labeled as of June 2021) return from the Mojo DH.
View to the east from Rawhide. We're looking into
Utah County and that's Lone Peak on the left and Timpanogos to
right of center.
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Rawhide is 0.6 miles long. It climbs 250 vertical feet. At
its highest point, the trail continues as Hardlick. (There's a chute where
riders have been hiking their bikes uphill another 50 feet to get a head
start on the Hardlick segment. Not sure if that's a Strava thing, or if
there's some other reason.)
Last bit of climbing. The entry to Hardlick is just
to the right of this photo. |
| Hardlick
Hardlick is a downhill-only trail, and it's a true expert-level ride.
There are both natural and engineered stunts. Many spots are steep, bumpy,
and covered in slippery dust.
Rawhide turns into Hardlick.
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First, take a minute at the top to enjoy the views of the
Wasatch Front to the east.
View northeast downhill at the Salt Lake Valley.
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| Hardlick descends 450 vertical feet from the top of Rawhide down to Eric's trail just
below the Mustang Loop trail fork. It's 0.9 miles long, creating an
average downslope of 10%.
Dropping off a rock and descending sharply to a quick
banked turn.
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Most of the stunts have ride-arounds. Many of these are
unnecessary, probably created by first-timers who didn't know what was
coming up on the other side of that rock.
A rock rollover that you can also use to launch. Note
the prominent ride-around. |
| Turns generally have high banks. But many of these turns are
very tight and come at the bottom of a piece of steep slippery bumpy.
Coming into an S-turn that's steeper and slipperier
than it looks. Meantime, other S-turns are so steep that there was no way
I could stop to snap a photo.
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A nice ride option from Blackridge is to climb Eric's to the
top of Mustang, then drop off Mustang onto Mojo. After connecting to
Rawhide, go uphill and then down Hardlick. Now turn right and climb 0.3 on
Eric's, 0.5 on Mustang and drop into Mojo again for another loop.
A posed photo at the top of a rock drop. Now back up
to get a run at it. |
Close-up view of the trails. Note that you can form loops on
the upper mountain of varying length. From the bottom of Hardlick:
Eric's to lower Mustang - Rawhide - Hardlick: 2.3 miles
Eric's to lower Mustang to Mojo - Rawhide - Hardlick: 3.4 miles
Eric's to upper Mustang, Mojo - Rawhide - Hardlick: 4.4 miles |
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Blackridge trailhead: From the Bangerter
Highway, turn west onto 13400 South and drive 2/3 mile. Turn left (south) at the Mountain
View Corridor and drive about a mile. At the traffic light, turn right onto Rosecrest Road.
After 1/2 mile, turn left onto Juniper Crest. (Watch out! From Rosecrest, the street signs
to your right give the northbound continuation of Juniper Crest another name!)
As you
see that you're leaving the dense homes and are approaching a bridge across a
ravine, turn right onto Ambermont Drive. (Again, caution. The continuation
of Ambermont east of Juniper Crest has a different name.) Over the next
half-mile, Ambermont goes
southwest, then west, then turns to northwest. Now fork left on Aurora
Vista. Quickly turn right onto Esher Street, then left at Ashland Ridge
and enter the parking area for Blackridge Pond. (If you reach a
"do-not-enter" exit from Blackridge Pond on the right and a
"bozos-stay-out" sign for a private neighborhood straight ahead, you went too far on Aurora
Vista. Turn around and go back to Esher Street.) The
trail starts at the far end of the parking strip. |
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