The Whole Enchilada is a world famous mountain bike trail, with many riders across the globe wondering how hard it actually is and if it’s within their skill and fitness level. This video should help you gauge if you can do it and I believe if you class yourself as an intermediate rider or higher, you should be just fine.

Equip yourself with a 140 - 160mm travel full suspension bike, some tubeless tires and (ideally) some big, 29er wheels. Pack around 2-2.5 litres of water and be prepared to consume 6 hours worth of food - maybe even more!

Here are the Trailforks links:
Whole Enchilada - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/who...
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/cap...
Burro Pass - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/bur...
Hazard County - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/haz...
Kokopelli - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/kok...
Upper Porcupine Singletrack - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/upp...
UPS Lower - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/ups...
LPS - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/lps/
Porcupine Rim - https://www.trailforks.com/trails/por...

The Whole Enchilada Route - https://www.trailforks.com/route/the-...

Here's the Strava log from the ride:   / strava  .

Follow me on Instagram too – @paulthepunter
  / paulthepunter  

  / strava  

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My Gear:
GoPro Hero4 for best audio: https://amzn.to/2uD8wu5
Best GoPro Chest Mount out there :https://amzn.to/2JqV560
A Gimbal Like Mine To Stablize Footage: https://amzn.to/2NWAwlx

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Script:

On the map, The Whole Enchilada trail segment is blue rated and starts off with some easy flowy turns, followed by a pretty gruelling climb up. In a second I say that the main shuttle drops you off at Burro Pass, but I was wrong. It actually drops you off here.

Burro Pass is when things get real. Black rated, this section of the enchilada was pretty technical but there wasn’t too much risk. Physically tough but you are rewarded with what I would call the gold standard of singletrack. This might be the hardest trail of the route in my eyes, especially as you are somewhat thrown right in to it.

Hazard County is where things get fun. The trail was pretty dry and rough when I rode it, but with a bit more moisture this would be incredible. Some of the best corners in the game await you, just remember to look ahead.

Kokopelli is pretty much a connecting fire road after Hazzard County, but if you’re looking for an even bigger day there’s a trail off to the side called Jimmy Keen.

Upper Porcupine Singletrack is where things get tricky and physical. It’s really important to keep your momentum going in order to avoid getting hung up on a rock. Dialling up the compression on the rear shock is a pretty good idea along here, as you won’t really need the suspension all that much.

The 4x4 road is a slog. If you were to do the half-Enchilada lap starting at Kokopelli I imagine this would actually be a lot of fun, but after a few hours in this rough trail is brutal on the entire body.

Lower porcupine Singletrack throws up a few tricky sections, some I didn’t even attempt to ride. But it doesn’t take long to pop off your bike and walk down if you don’t fancy a section.

Myself and Ralph set off at about midday on this ride, which was in hindsight quite the error, but what did do was give us was this incredible sunset to ride in to. Sometimes the early bird doesn’t get the worm.

And then you have Porcupine Rim. This trail is right up there with the best I have EVER ridden! This can be pretty intimidating when you’re blasting along the side of a cliff, but look ahead on the trail and you’ll be fine. This is where have a 160mm travel full suspension is going to come in to its own, especially the bigger wheels.

I did have a bit of a nightmare and this video doesn’t end in the best way as my gimbal ran out of battery - a true punter move! However the light really dropped out and it wouldn’t have been that good on camera. So I put the gopro back in my bag and just enjoyed the epic trail - and that’s exactly what you should do too.

The ride took us 5 ½ hours - shorter than the 6-8 predicted by most other guides - and I’d say we were cruising along rather than going for an all out sprint. Comment below with how long this ride took you!

If you enjoyed this video, check out some of my other moab videos or even hit the subscribe button! Thanks a bunch for watching and I hope you enjoyed me puntering about.

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