Town to Tuk returns, Moab's human-powered summer-solstice challenge

Town to Tuk asks Moab for a very specific kind of summer test: climb to the 12,482-foot summit of Mt. Tukuhnikivatz and come back under your own power, with nothing staged for you on the way. On Sunday, June 21, the free, human-powered challenge will again turn the summer solstice into a long, hard celebration of legs, lungs and planning.

The route is about 56 miles round trip and carries riders, runners and hikers from the 4,045-foot floor of Moab to high country that gains roughly 8,000 feet before it drops back to town. The start and finish are at Moab Cyclery, 391 S Main Street, a locally owned shop known for rentals, shuttles, repairs and trail advice. Organizer Randy Mason, a bike mechanic and trail builder, first launched the outing in 2014 with a handful of friends, then fixed the route in 2015 to make it safer and more sustainable.

Unsupported means exactly that. There are no water drops, no bike swaps, no e-bikes and no pre-placed aid. Most participants mountain bike from Moab toward the La Sal Pass area and hike to the summit, while others run and hike from the Pack Creek campground area. Many still filter water along the way, a practical choice on a day when carrying every ounce from town to the top would make an already demanding route even tougher.

Mt. Tukuhnikivatz is the third-highest peak in the La Sal Mountains, traditionally climbed from La Sal Pass, and its name is sometimes glossed as “where the sun sets last.” That fits the solstice better than almost any slogan could. Mason’s fastest known unsupported time on the fixed course is 8 hours and 17 minutes, but the draw is not the stopwatch alone. It is the chance to stitch together a summit day that begins in town, touches a big alpine objective and returns by muscle and judgment instead of support.

That is why Town to Tuk has become such a Moab ritual. It suits the rider, runner or hiker who wants the route to matter as much as the result, and who finds meaning in getting to a summit and back with little more than a map, a bottle and the willingness to keep climbing when the day is already long.