Three Forks Ride

Well, since I have been feeling pretty good lately to ride, I've been doing some riding when I could.  I spent last Saturday doing some more exploring on trails I haven't ridden on before.  I decided on the Three Forks area, which is in Diamond Fork in Spanish Fork Canyon.  I've  heard of this area from a friend on Facebook from last spring and I wanted to try it out sometime this year. 

This trail area is about a one hour drive from house and it's not that bad of a drive.  The day was nice but pretty humid because it rained a lot the day before.  So the trails were in good shape, cleared from dust, and  kind of tacky.

I wanted to do the "Three Forks Loop", so I started climbing up Cottonwood Creek Trail which had a lot of stand and grunt climbs with quite of few mellow spaces for spinning and recovery.  It was a great climb up all the way to the top where Ray's Valley Road is.  I did walk up a few steep hills. 

I wanted to do the loop, by climbing up Cottonwood Creek Trail, ride 5 miles on Ray's Valley paved road, then go down 5th Water and 6th Water trails.  But when I got to Ray's Valley, I was spent.  There was maybe some climbing on the highway but I couldn't tell there was but there was 5 miles of pavement I had to ride to get to 5th water trail and that trail is all downhill.  I didn't know if the highway was all downhill or had some climbing but just in case I turned around and went back down Cottonwood Creek Trail to finish my ride just to be safe.  Because I was really totally spent, way spent.  Couldn't turn the cranks anymore.

Well, it was after about an hour and 15 minutes after of climbing until I got spent.   When I was riding on Ray's Valley Road, I felt like I was pedaling with bricks on my feet, I just didn't know what the next 5 miles of paved road would be, downhill or uphill, so I guess it was smart to turn around anyway.  The downhill of Cottonwood Creek was great and it was LONG.  I loved it.  The trail was very flowy and twisty. 

The trail was very pretty going up and down, you could see that the leaves were barely turning.  That's bad news, winter is coming!  Dang it.

It's a great ride which is only an hour drive from my home.  I'm hoping in September I can go back and try 5th Water going up or do the upper 5th Water and go up 5th Water Ridge.  One or the other.  5th Water Trail is usually crowded with hikers because 2.5 miles up is a waterfall and some hot springs so anyway, I don't know.  Maybe it's not so bad but I might do 5th Water Ridge(upper) to be safe.  I never know.  There are plenty of other options!  I can ride great now, and I am hoping to have a good of the rest the year.

St. George Tuacahn and Eagle Point Biking

My mom, sister, and I went on a little trip before school starts.  First, we went all the way down to St. George to watch a musical at the Tuacahn Theater which was pretty entertaining.  We watched Mary Poppins and I enjoyed it.  I thought I wasn't going to enjoy it because I thought it was going to be some sort of play but this was a musical and it was cool.  We stayed a night in St. George and we left at around noon and went to Eagle Point Ski Resort.  I wanted to try out some newly built trails there which I found out on their facebook page.
 

 When we got there at the lodge at the top, there was NO ONE there.  I didn't know where the trails started and I wanted a map.  So we drove back down to the bottom lodge and there was one guy there.  He explained to me about the trails and told me I was like the 5th visitor/tourist all year long since the trails opened which was about 2 months ago.  But he did say that they had about a thousand boy scouts riding on the trails though. 

They have a 3.5 mile XC loop trail which is called the Monarch Loop and a flow trail called the Swoop Trail.  So I did two laps on the Monarch Loop and then went down the Swoop.

It was great climbing on the XC loop and fun downhills but nothing too hard or technical, they were basically beginner trails but hey, a great workout and I had the whole mountain to myself.  I can't believe how desolate this ski resort is.  I also heard that there's never anybody there during the ski seasons too.  I think I've found my new skiing and bike destination!  Instead of traveling 2.5 hours north to Park City, I could travel 2.5 hours south to Eagle Point.  No crowds and more convenient.

The trails had awesome switchbacks and I love switchbacks.

Cool section.

   Map of the cross country Monarch Loop.  3.5 miles.  Did two laps.  Great fun!

Map of the downhill flow trail called the Swoop Trail.  I had my mom and sister drive down and pick me up at the bottom and then we left.  While I was riding 2 laps on the Monarch Loop for an hour, my mom and sister relaxed in the upstairs of the lodge, reading and sleeping and they said they were so relaxed.  Next time, I will go uphill on the Swoop Trail and then do the Monarch Loop and back down the Swoop.  I don't think Eagle Point care if I go uphill on their flow trail really, there's never anybody else there anyway.. 
While I was riding down the Swoop Trail, halfway on the trail, there started to be lightning close by and loud thunder, it was really loud that it scared me.  But it didn't scare the cows that were there when I passed by them.  The the last half mile, it rained and it felt really good after the 109 degree temperature in St. George the day before.  I got wet and I loved it.  The trails were at 10,000 feet elevation too so it was really cool up there.  It also rained and hailed a little bit while I was riding the Monarch Loop.  I needed it.
  

This is how close we were to the Tuacahn theater stage, almost to the front.  It was very entertaining.  I had a really fun trip.  My mom said to me that I plan a lot fun things for the family.  If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't do all these things.   Well gosh, maybe.  I am trying to plan fun things for myself and I am just inviting everybody. .

Family Maple Canyon Activity

Well, the plan for a weekend at Maple Canyon worked.  Everybody came and we all had a blast.  We all did hiking, canyoneering, cooking brats and s'mores, and camping.  Some didn't camp and went home that night but I stayed with my brother Mike and his family and camped.  It was really nice though, not too cold.

We went through Box Canyon which everybody was impressed by it.  Most of us made it to the end which is the waterfall and some climbed up the waterfall and went a little further.

We all got rained on a little bit in Box Canyon on our way back out and it so cool to hear all the echoing of the thunderstorms in the canyon.

All the kids went into this cave and they thought it was awesome.  The little ones struggled to get into the cave because you had to climb a little to get to it.  They had help from the adults.  

 This is the waterfall and Tony, Brayden, and Owen went up the waterfall with a rope and went a little further.  They thought it was freaky, and they think they are so cool going up it.  I do too.

The next morning after camping I decided to do a hike.  I left camp like around 7:30 am and my sister-in-law left earlier but went a different way so I didn't see her.

I saw this arch and it was so cool.  I've seen it before years ago and I remembered it really well.  So, after the arch, I went further up and decided to go up to the viewpoint.  The last part up to the viewpoint was very steep and it was a really good workout.

This is the viewpoint, I wanted to do the Loop but I couldn't find the continuation of the trail that goes into the other canyon on the other side.  So, I hiked back down where I hiked up.  I think I did a total of 4 to 5 miles with an elevation gain of 1400 ft.  It was a great hike, I've never went on this hike before and I think I just found my favorite hiking trail and it's in Sanpete!  I want to do it again this fall when the leaves turn.
This family activity turned out great and everybody had fun.