Found a good local trail area...Mayfield White Hills

I went on two different weekends exploring Mayfield White Hills just 20 minutes south of my home.

Yesterday, was a better ride because I knew where to go and I also explored some more going south more.  The White Hills part is better and more fun though.  I really liked this downhill called "White Hill Roller" on Strava.  There was some climbing and it was a little chilly but a great day with no wind.

A few weeks ago, I went for the first time.  Actually this was my second time, my first time was 20 years ago with some friends so I don't remember the place at all from 20 years ago.  I was impressed how fun it was and how it had a lot of fun rolling hills to ride on.

I got lost many times because there were just trails everywhere.  So I just explored and it was an adventure.

Moab Fall of 2015

Well, it was time for my annual Fall ride.  You know about my thing?  Once in the Spring and once in the Fall I go to Moab.  Unless I want to do more.

This time I rode in the Klonzo Trail System.  First, I rode in the southern part of the system and then rode the rest in the northern part.  The south was kind of "eh".  But the northern part was way more fun.  The southern part was more beginner friendly but it was still fun though.  I did about 8 miles worth of trails there.

After the south, I stopped at the parking area where my dad was, he was sitting on a lawn chair enjoying himself and talking to people.  I stopped to eat a little something and took off to the north.

Some of the northern part of Klonzo, I've ridden before a few years ago and I remember I didn't have very good legs when I rode, it was painful.  But this time, I felt really good and I was really ready to ride a whole bunch.  The best part I liked in this area was the trail called "Gravitron".  It was a downhill only flow trail and I loved it.  It was long enough and it was the funnest flow trail I've ridden.  It was so fun that I pedaled to the top again and rode it down again.  I did the "Wahoo" loop and some other trails first though.

Then down further to the trailhead were some trails with slickrock and dirt mix to end the ride.

Just another delightful Moab day.

Then I spent the night and having fun with my dad like watching the Jazz game and eat at Miguel's Baja Grill(I always eat there every time I go to Moab).  The next morning was a pleasant morning but it was a little cold.  We had an extra hour because of the daylight savings time change so that part was very nice.  So we got to the trailhead at Moab Brand Trails at 8:30 in the morning and it was so nice, and there were no one else there.

It was a little cool but I liked it though.  I did North 40 Trail loop first then rode on the EZ Trail to Sidewinder.

Sidewinder is the trail I have never done before and it was really something.  At first it was just a nice cruiser downhill....

...then goes down this canyon.  It was kind of scary but all rideable.  I really liked this trail.  So it went down like 2 miles and then I turned around and backtracked up.  On the climb back, there were some parts I couldn't clean but it was still a cool trail.

Then to finish ride, I went on Lazy Trail which had some fun, fast turns and this view of Arches and the La Sals.  Oh, I also did some of North 40 again and down Maverick because I had some time left.  When I got back to the trailhead, a lot of other people started driving into the parking lot to go mountain biking.  Perfect timing to miss the crowds!

This 2 day Moab trip was worth it and it was on Halloween weekend.   I had a good time and enjoyed the scenery and so did my dad, even though he sat on a lawn chair and talked to people which he liked to do.

Fall Break

All the schools in Utah had Fall Break so I wanted one too.  I had Thursday and Friday off so I wanted to go somewhere.  I did a series of things:

Thursday I stayed home because I was down with an ear infection but I started taking antibiotics earlier on Tuesday so I can have a weekend.  So my dad asked me on Thursday to take him up on the mountain for a drive up to Skyline Drive.  It was a very mellow drive and the dogs had fun, we were dog sitting Jeri because my brother and his family went to Arizona to see some friends.  My mom and little sister also went to Arizona to see my aunt.  We were dog sitting my mom's dog too.  It was very pretty up at Skyline and very pleasant.  We learned about the water system up there, there were some kiosks that talked about it.

On Friday, my ear finally stopped hurting and I was feeling better so I took off for my planned trip I planned for a few weeks befiore.  I drove to Goblin Valley first which took 3 hours, then biked on the Wild Horse Trail System.

Wild Horse Trail System is a system of mountain bike trails in the Goblin Valley State Park which consisted around 8 miles of fun singletrack.

The trails were just barely built last June so it needed to be packed down more still so I was bogging down on some parts.  It was pretty hard to pedal on that stuff but I still pretty much rode the whole thing and it was fun.

The scenery was great but still no trees, so I felt like I was on a different planet, like Mars.

Then down a little bit from the trails were the goblins at Goblin Valley.  There were a lot of people in mini vans and the place was packed.  I just rode down the road to check it out and then rode back up.

Later in the day, I went over to Factory Butte near Caineville which was an hour further southwest.  I met my oldest brother and his family.  They were dirt biking and camping.  They love this area because the dirt biking is great and it is not crowded and desolate.

My 9 year old niece started the campfire all my herself.  She is awesome.  I couldn't start a fire when I was 9! Holy cow!  Later that night we all ate taco soup and sat around the campfire then watched "Pixels" in the trailer.  It was fun.  I slept really good in the bed of my truck with the Softopper.

The next morning at 6:30, I got up and so did my niece.  While everyone else was sleeping, my niece and I played sports all morning.  We played football, frisbee, soccer, and basketball.  It was fun and good exercise.  Then when everybody got up, we ate breakfast burritos.

Later in the morning, we headed to Goblin Valley, me for the second time.  The kids wanted to hike around the goblins.  There were a lot of people again, in mini vans.

We hiked clear south of the area and then went up through a wash where there was less people.  It was fun.  We've never been in this area.

We hiked over a lot of goblins and through washes.

Then we made it to the top and went down the other side.  My brother calls it the "Dome to Dome Loop".  Then we went to Stan's Burger Shak and ate some burgers.  It started to rain.  We headed back to camp and I left to go home.  Everyone else stayed and dirt biked.

I went home on the Capitol Reef way and on the way home, it was raining.  I decided to stop in Capitol Reef to do a short hike but I wasn't so sure because of the rain.  But I put on my rain jacket and went anyway.  I went on this trail I hiked before.

About after 5 minutes of the hike, it stopped raining.  And everything was beautiful.  I hiked up to the viewpoint and back down.

Then I went through this wash towards to the Capitol Reef campground.  Went down a little then went back up and backtracked through the wash again.  It was pretty!

Campground

Wow!  Always pretty after a rainstorm.

It was so nice that I kept going and I went further on another trail after the wash, then after at the top, I went back down to my truck.  I ended up hiking exactly 5 miles.  Then I drove back home.  That was a very nice Fall Break and I had a blast.

The last two weekends...Tooele and Payson

I had a few good times in the last two weekends.  During General Conference weekend, my dad wanted to go up to Tooele and Ophir to look at some graves.  My folks and I decided to go up and listen to conference on the drive up.

We stopped at Ophir first, which is a ghost town in a canyon just south of Tooele.  There are still some people living there and back in the 1800s, Ophir used to be a gold mining town.  My dad learned that we had some relatives from the 1800s that used to live in Ophir and were also buried there.

After driving around, we finally found the old cemetery which is right next to the new cemetery.  All there was were 3 graves that we could read but all the others that were there, we couldn't tell whose grave it was.  We are pretty sure my many greats-grandmother is buried there somewhere.  Now we know for sure where the cemetery is.

Then we went to the Tooele Cemetery to look for more graves for some other relatives by using a map and some kind of directory that was there.  I couldn't find what my dad wanted but we went to Applebee's to meet my sister there but I didn't eat lunch with them because of course I took my bike with me to go ride in Settlement Canyon.  I took off after Applebee's because that's when it stopped raining.  On my ride, everything was still wet but I could barely still ride Dark Trail and most of the Settlement Canyon after the gate.  It was a great ride and I kept riding up and up.  I love to ride after it just barely rained, it just more misty and settled.  While I was riding, my sister found all the graves for my dad and he was very satisfied.  Then we all went home.

The weekend after the Tooele, which was yesterday.  I wanted to ride at Payson 4 Bay trails really bad again.  I really like the singletrack trails there and how they were made.  I also like that there is always no one else there.

The day was really great and clear and the temperature was perfect.  Just another beautiful fall day.

The trails were awesome and I just wish I can move this area of trails right to Ephraim.  But oh well, I guess I just have to drive an hour to get there.  That isn't bad at all really.  I can see me going there quite a few times.  It was a very pleasant, and an intense ride too.  Just so fun.

Skyline Bike Hike...if that's what they call it...

Utah had above normal temperatures this weekend and I took the opportunity to go up to the top of the world and bike the dang thing.  I've been planning to ride the Skyline Drive all summer, even last year.  I tried to attempt it one weekend in August but it was very windy and cold when I got up there.  So I gave up for the rest of the year.  But I lucked out this weekend, in order to have a perfect ride, it has to be hot down at the valley and with no wind at all.  This weekend just had that.

It felt real nice at the skyline, since it's at 10,000 feet elevation, it was 60 degrees.  I could bear that.  So I rode from the top of Ephraim Canyon and rode south all the way to High Top which is above between Sterling and Mayfield canyons.

High Top is 14 miles south of Ephraim Canyon and it is the highest point of Skyline Drive.

Such a good view from High Top.  Well, anywhere on the whole ride had good, beautiful views.  There were a lot of atv riders too and they were all friendly and waved.  I turned around at High Top and headed north.

If I remember it right, I'm pretty sure there were about 4 or 5 climbs that lasted 10 to 15 minutes each, then the rest of the way was pretty straightforward flat.  I rode on the easiest part of Skyline Drive and I still logged in 28.5 miles and climbed 2,005 feet elevation total.  It was a good ride and very pretty.  Now my bucket list might be complete for this year!  Whooo hoo!