We (Ray, a good friend, and I) started out doing what no one else wanted to do...ride the pave and gravel road up to the trailhead. Everyone else evidently pays a shuttle to take them and their bikes up....For me it is a normal warm-up to ride 10.5 miles up 1200 feet, but it turned out to be a hurried warm-up since we had a smokin headwind going uphill. So it ended up being a leg burner...Training at its best --- singlespeed, up a long hill, into a stiff headwind...From the trailhead we climbed up solid rock with continuous stair-step ledges for another 980 feet to the top.
Porcupine Rim Trail is one trail that everyone warned me about taking a hartail, SS bike on. "They" all seemed to think that this trail was a full-suspension, geared bike only trail. I found the Porcupine to be a small bit challenging but perfectly suited for my SS 29er. I had a blast on this one...so much so that I hated to stop and take pictures, but I did get a few.
The top was at the rim edge overlooking the Castle Valley with more of those open-jawed, I-can't-believe-this-view kind of scenery... 
Wow is all I could say...
This is Ray...the only other person with the ambition, heart, and true biking soul to skip the wimp-out shuttle to the top...a true biking adventurist...
Did I mention that after climbing up to the top that the trail is nearly all downhill back? There were a few hike-a-bike sections like this one where the rim above decided to drop down...look closely and you can see Ray standing by one of the smaller rocks that is part of a monster piece that came down here...and yes there really is a rideable trail along this edge (click on the pic for a larger verson - see if you can find the trail).
After Porcupine I went out and did some more trails (alone...it seems that others were a bit pooped) and ended up venturing into Arches National Park...another cool place to see. I finished my ride at near dark with a huge smile on...How can life get better than this?
