Moab’s Town to Tuk challenge returns for summer solstice adventure

A free, unsupported 56-mile climb out of Moab gave summer solstice adventurers a very specific test: reach the 12,482-foot summit of Mt. Tukuhnikivatz and come back under their own power. The Town to Tuk challenge returned on June 21 with Moab Cyclery as both the starting line and the finish, turning Main Street into the launch point for one of the town’s most Moab versions of endurance travel.

Organizer Randy Mason revived the event as a human-powered challenge, not a race, built around doing something hard together in the high country. Mason said the idea grew out of his early years in Moab, when he did not have a car and had to begin and end his adventures at home. That eventually became a fixed route in 2015 after an earlier, looser version of the challenge produced a fastest time Mason considered too risky to repeat in the same way.

The route asks for about 8,000 feet of elevation gain, and the standard line takes most participants by mountain bike toward La Sal Pass before the final hike to the summit. La Sal Pass sits around 10,120 to 10,125 feet, which means the ride starts high and still leaves a serious alpine push above tree line. The event page also defined unsupported in strict terms: no water drops, no bike changes, no pre-placed gear and no e-bikes for riders following the hardest version of the course. A shorter start from Pack Creek and e-bikes were also part of the broader event framing.

The setting explains why the challenge has become more than a novelty. Mt. Tukuhnikivatz is the third-highest peak in the La Sal Mountains, inside the 1,413,111-acre Manti-La Sal National Forest. The Forest Service says there are no constructed trails to the peaks except Manns Peak, and the Tuk Trail itself is a steep, difficult one-mile spur off the Burlfriends Trail that climbs to the ridge below the summit. SummitPost says Tukuhnikivatz is commonly interpreted as meaning “where the sun sets last,” a name that fits the solstice timing perfectly.

Moab Cyclery, at 391 S. Main St., advertises rentals, shuttles, repairs and gear, including e-bikes in its rental fleet. That makes the Town to Tuk route a sharp expression of Moab’s outdoor culture: not a packaged tour, but a self-propelled day that connects town, trailhead and alpine summit in one continuous effort.