Hikes and Bikes

Bobsled PR

Belle and I just did the Popperton Park - Dry Creek - Bobsled loop in 60 minutes.  That's the fastest I've ever done it with her or on the 575.  Considering that water breaks for her take about 2 minutes, I'm pretty pleased with that time.

Belle has been able to keep up the last couple times down Bobsled, which she couldn't do in the past.  I don't know if the new lines are just a bit slower (because they're higher) or if she's faster.  Maybe dogs are like people, with endurance peaking relatively late.

backpacking in the San Rafael Swell

We went backpacking this weekend in Utah's San Rafael Swell.  We started at the Buckhorn Draw Road bridge over the San Rafael River and hiked upstream to Virgin Springs Canyon.  It's a georgous but alien landscape. 

Pictures forthcoming.

It's bike season

Belle and I went for our first ride of the season last night between Red Butte Canyon and Emigration Canyon.  Thanks to an ongoing high-pressure system, south-facing low-elevation trails are dry.  The new bike performed wonderfully and we had a blast.

We bumped into one of the mechanics at my LBS.  He noted that he wasn't surprised I broke the Yeti and referred to Belle as a "meat stick".  I don't know what that means, but I kinda like it.

Belle on high alert

Belle and I took advantage of a warm, sunny day to go exploring in the Uinta mountains.  I was in no danger of being surprised by anything that smelled like a stick as she was on high alert.

Dogs are good for something

A black lab kept stranded mountain climbers from freezing.  Now I have an excuse to take Belle on trips.

Not that I needed one.

Mormon Pioneer Trail

JimmyMac and I just did a quickie lunch hour out-and-back on the Mormon Trail.  A bunch of sections are in pretty rough shape from spring runoff - deep ruts, highly off-camber new lines where the old trail was washed away, etc.  This makes the whole thing ride a lot slower than it used to, which is a darn shame.

I took my first stupid endo in a while.  There's a 18 inch log drop that I tried rolling.  Fear reflexes kicked in and I hit the brakes as I approached it.  Of course I went right over the bars; I knew I was going to before my wheel was halfway down.  Shoulda just dropped it.  I'll head up there sometime soon and force myself to drop it half a dozen times. 

Belle and Sunny still like the beaver ponds, and Sunny seems to be over her little bug.

PC rides

I've done a few rides in Park City lately. 

Steve took Brad and me on some new trails.  We shuttled from the PCMR lot to near Empire Pass, where we started with TG to John's 99 (I think).  Both were excellent - good flow, pretty smooth, lots of time in the trees.  John's 99 had some fairly steep spots, including a couple that were like switchbacks except they never levelled out.  The trail was like skiing figue 8's, but closer to the fall line.  Fun times.  Those trails dumped us out just below the entrances to Trestle and John's.  We picked up Mid-Mountain and rode that over to Spiro (via Rosebud), then down Spiro.  I really like going that direction on Rosebud.  It's fast, buff, open trail across the fall line with a handful of switcbacks and some time in the trees.  Not challenging, but fun. 

I also took the dogs for a lap on Spin Cycle (1:05, Sunny was slow), and a short out-and-back on 24-7.  I still haven't ridden that trail the whole way, but what I've ridden is well done.  There's some challenging loose rock now, but in a season or two it will ride like the Shoreline Trail.

Also, Sunny can no longer keep up with Belle.  I even watched her turf a 5 footer to flat that Belle routinely cleans.  Ross thinks she's under the weather.  I think the student has become the master.

Frooooota trail review

In addition to Country Jam, Fruita is a pretty significant mountain bike destination.  This weekend I rode Prime Cut both ways, Chutes n Ladders, Mary's Loop, Horsethief Bench, and Lion's Loop. 

Prime Cut is a buff, smooth rolling singletrack designed for climbing.  Having always been there with Grandpa Kaz, descending it is a bit of a tradition so I started with that.  I vanquished my demons and cleaned Pete's Rock, which feels pretty good.  (Pete's Rock was so nicknamed after a rather dramatic and public tumble a few years ago.  It's been in my head ever since.)  As expected, once I nutted it up and rode it, it was easy.  And it turns out that the problem was never insufficient speed.  I also cleaned that up-and-over rock before you get to the Prime-Chutes junction.  I tried the sucker crack on the right first, got stuck on a pedal, and on my second try went right over the top.  Finesse is not my style.

At the bottom, I turned around and rode back up.  That's a fun uphill.  Smooth, interesting, all it could use is a nice shady bar. 

I went on up to Chutes from there.  My saddle was sky-high for climbing, so I made the first steep climb without much trouble, but went right over the bars on the subsequent switchbacks.  It's one of those trails where you have to be comfortable climbing and descending with a middling height switchbacks - there are a bunch of short steep climbs and descents.  I, however, said screw it to the climbs and just dropped my saddle for descending (coming from the Wasatch, I'm not really used to low ampitude stuff).  I cruised the rest of the descents and pushed up a couple climbs. 

Sunday morning started with a very hungover dawn.  I was on Mary's by 8 and was rather not to lose my cookies on the first doubletrack climb.  Mary's is a good trail for intermediates - mostly it's just fast singletrack, but there are a good number of achievable technical challenges.  Horsethief is a bit harder (with a famous and extremely tough entrance), but similar.  I'd take a second season rider (or tough first season rider) on it.  There are a ton of 4-12 inch ledges to go up and down on each trail, a couple steep sandstone rollers on Horsethief, and great views of the Colorado.

After those two I took a lunch break and went on to the Mack Ridge trail.  Man, that was a mistake.  At this point it was 11:00 and way too hot to be riding.  In reasonable conditions (like March), Mack ridge is a really good climb.  It's fairly technical, but almost all rideable.  Lots of rocks, good views each way from the top of the ridge.  At the top you pick up a loose, rocky jeep road and tear down it.  A speed demon would probably love it, but next time I'll probably just turn around and ride down the singletrack.

misc pics

I find myself with the ability to upload pictures, so here we are.

While I've been living in Emigration Canyon, my quickest freeway access is actually over Big Mountain Pass to East Canyon, past Mountain Dell Reservoir, to Parley's Canyon.  Happily, the view doesn't suck.  The first one is the reservoir, the second one is looking up East Canyon.  Both of these were en route to bike in PC, where I promptly got rained on.

 

There is still some patchy snow in the mountains.  When those patches are immediately above the trail, you get small mud puddles.  When your dog runs immediately behind your rear wheel, you get this. 

One of the cool things about biking around Park City is old leftover equipment.  Not only are there  mining buildings scattered all over, but between the John's trailhead and the Other Trail Beside John's, there's a few towers from an old ski lift.

I'm not sure why these came out so blurrily (my guess is that I couldn't hold the camera still), but here's a couple of the straighter sections of John's. 

And, just because our furry friends are beloved by all but evildoers, terrorists, and Republicans, here are a couple of the regulars checking in from the back of the truck.

dog speed

Thanks to a series of snafus, Wendy and I ended up riding Dry Creek Tuesday night instead of Park City.  This meant that we took the dogs along.  It turns out that the reason Opie can't keep up isn't that she's slow, it's that she's lazy  (this I can relate to).  I discovered this by getting behind her going downhill - it turns out that when she hears 250 pounds of Pete+gear whirring 30 inches behind her, she gets a lot faster.  The poor dog was terrified.