Thunder Mountain Trail and Bryce Canyon

 This was a fantastic trail!  It was very unique and one of a kind I thought.  This trail is about ten miles northwest of Bryce Canyon National Park and located in Red Canyon.  I decided this trail is a must do for me while my family went to Bryce Canyon for a weekend getaway.

 The trees were awesome I thought, being in this forest reminded me a lot of Flagstaff, AZ.  The soil was an orangey color and looked cool.

 Great views and very high at the top, I say around 7,500 ft to 8,000 ft elevation which felt pretty cool compared to desert riding especially in the morning.

I started at the Thunder Mountain Trailhead and just decided to do the loop by going up the paved trail up to the Coyote Hollow Trailhead.  Just going up Thunder Mountain would be too steep so going down it would be more pleasant.  The climb up the paved trail was not bad at all and was very nice.  It was 5.5 miles on the paved trail and 2 miles on the dirt road so it took me around 45 mins.  The elevation gain was 1,200 ft.

 I thought all the climbing would be over going down the trail but nope, still a lot of short bursts of climbing on the trail and I was totally spent.  I was so spent I ended up walking on some of them.  I just didn't have energy anymore but anyways, I still had fun on most of the downhills.

 Hoo doo.

 Awesome wrap around trail around the hoo doos.

 The whole loop was 16 miles and was an awesome ride.  The best part was the scenery.  I also want to do the Cassidy/Lossee Loop next time which is on the other side of Red Canyon and goes through the Butch Cassidy Canyon.  It's supposed to be a world class ride so I'll try it sometime.

 During the rest time of the trip, I had a lot of fun spending time with my parents and little sister sightseeing Bryce Canyon.  I thought it was very awesome.  There were quite of few people in the park but no one at all at the Red Canyon/Thunder Mountain area.  Only saw two hikers in Thunder Mountain and there were people from all over the world at Bryce Canyon.  Will have to go down there again and I learned a lot.   

Mountain bike busting again...

I have been doing quite of bit of mountain biking in the past month and it's been great!  It all started during the Deer Valley Trip and ever since I have been feeling good.  My legs feel a lot better and I feel I have more strength.   Also, all rested up.  Not much as the burning sensation feel in my leg muscles anymore.  I have been doing a lot of riding at home.  Mostly on the Flume Trail and this new trail I repaired from the hydroplant to New Canyon for the uphill route.  Before, the old trail that used to be there was destroyed by pipe line construction workers.  After they were done about 3-4 weeks later, they finished it off by putting a lot of boulders and rocks over it for blocking the cars.  So I cleared enough room for a singletrack trail and made it a lot better than the old trail was.  Added some turns and the climbing is easier.  It's fun downhill also.  I spent maybe a day and a half on it, mostly clearing rocks and medium sized boulders(they could be barely be moved by one person).  Then a lot of shoveling. 

 The start of new trail, short but fun.  Sure beats going up the main canyon road.

 I call this the Rock Garden section. 

So, I have been climbing up the trail quite of few times up to the creek past New Canyon and over to the top of the Flume.  Good rides.  It's really been good to do some hard mountain biking again and it's been a long time.  During the off time, I've been doing quite of bit of easy spinning road riding.  It paid off though.  Next weekend, I am looking forward to try some mountain bike riding down at Bryce Canyon.  Heard some pretty fun trails there, such as Thunder Mountain Trail and Cassidy/Lossee Trail.  Don't know which I'll do but I'll decide which one I'll do when I get there.  Going down there for a mini family trip.  Bryce Canyon is the only National Park in Utah I haven't been to and wanted to see it for years.  It's only 2 days long though, should be fun.

Park City summer of 2012

I always liked to mountain bike in Park City in the summer with smooth flowy singletrack.  Lot's of singletrack too.  My mom and sister decided to go to do some Park City outlet store shopping for their birthdays.  I decided to go and took off a couple days of work.  For sure I wanted to bike, I haven't really mountain biked in a long time and it was really nice to do some of it.  I was still having this sore muscle leg problem thing from riding too much in the past two years and I finally felt good again on a few road rides before this trip.  I don't know if I am recovered fully but anyway at least I could go out and do some climbing again!  ....without the sore legs all the time. 

I decided to do some trails I haven't ridden before.  I wanted to do the Armstrong Trail climb.  It is a one way traffic way, only uphill traffic.  It was probably greatest climb I did in Park City.  Lot's of shade and not too steep like granny gear climbing.  I was mostly in my middle chainring going up and I like climbs like that because you are going a lot faster going up.  It was great.  I felt good too.  I got really hungry and wished I had that clif bar I left in the car.  Why didn't I take that with me?  So that last 2 miles of the climb was tough with an empty stomach.

Armstrong Trail

When I got to the top, I got on the Midmountain Trail which was a great flowy, fast singletrack.  It was leveled most the way and very pretty.  Then I went down the Spiro to get back to the car.  It was fun.  Next time I should go more on the Midmountain and go down John's 99.  That should make a longer fun ride.  I wished I went longer on the Midmountain but I was too hungry and couldn't go more.

Love the Gary Fisher Logo on the top tube of my bike.  Also life behind bars in Park City is great.

The next day, I decided to the short Gambel Oak Loop and it consisted 4 miles.  It was very short and I decided to go more on the Prospector Loop and back which added my ride to 10 miles.  I was sore from the previous ride and felt like riding easy and so that's what I did.  It was nice and cool and still was in the lower elevation rides of Park City.  Now I pretty much ridden all over Park City...a little bit, there are still a lot more trails I haven't done.

Lost Prospector

Gambel Oak with a view of Deer Valley below

Bike: Resurrection

This is an old bike I bought back on the year 2000.  I rode it a lot for like 5 to 6 years then bought another Klein bike then rode that for a number of years, then bought my Gary Fisher.  Sold the other Klein but kept this one because I just did.  The parts were all worn out and beat up.  I decided to replace all of the parts and keep the nice Klein frame.  To keep the budget down, I bought like the cheapest decent parts from the internet bike shops.  Got some good deals and for a new wheelset, fork, drivetrain, pedals, Maxxis tires, handlebars with grips, bottom bracket, and headset.  The only things I kept was the seatpost, saddle, stem, shifter/levers, front and back deraillers, and of course the frame.  At first, I thought about selling the bike after rebuilding it but after I was done, I decided to keep it for a backup bike.  Also thinking about every time I go to my sisters house in North Carolina every summer, I could just ship it there every time and I can a bike to ride there.  Then I can ship it back before I leave home.  I will check the shipping prices and if it cost more than just renting a bike, then I will forget about it and rent a bike when I go there.
I rode it a little bit outside of town and it rides nice, it is a bit heavier than it used to be because I am so cheap on parts on this bike since it's just a bike I ride occasionally.  But overall, it is a decent bike.

Great Escape

 Whoever made all these new bike trails should get the Pultzer's Prize!  Seriously!  Now I love Moab riding.  The next day after I did the Klondike Bluffs riding area, I decided to drive up to Dead Horse Point Highway and then go down Jim and I Bridges(Gemini Bridges, I call it "Jim and I") Road then park at Jim and I Bridges parking and then start on a brand new trail called Great Escape.  I wasn't in the mood for another big ride like what I did the day before, so I did the 7.5 mile Great Escape Loop.

 Starting of the Great Escape

"Jim and I" Bridges below

 After Great Escape, I go northwest on Little Canyon Singletrack and Arth's Corner Trail to finish the ride.  It was fun and technical but not as technical as EKG I did yesterday!  It was a great ride and loved the scenery especially when I did this ride like at 9 in the morning before all the crowds came.  It was beautiful.

There are many trails from Gemini Bridges turnoff at the top that go down all the way to Portal Trail near Moab.  These series of trails are called the Magnificant 7.  They are all 27 miles long and someday I want to try them.  It goes through Gold Bar Rim.  There's a new trail in that area called Gold Bar Singletrack.  You do ride a little bit of the jeep trails to make the ride but it's mostly fun, technical singletrack for mtbers. 

Arth's Corner

Klondike Bluffs Ride

 I remember back in the day when Moab mountain biking was all just jeep roads and the famous Slickrock Trail.  Now in the past five years, at least 5 new mountain bikes only trails were built each year(I am not sure, but it seems like it).  I found out about most of them and wanted to give them a shot.  This area I tried is the Klondike Bluffs Riding Area, it consists many singletrack trails instead of just the Klondike Bluffs Road.  This place made me more excited about the area. 

 At first I did the Dino Flow Trail, then Baby Steps Trail which most of it was dirt and maybe 35% of it was slickrock.  It was great fun and it was all climbing to the top.  I had a good climb.

 Dino Flow Trail

 Baby Steps

 Baby Steps Slickrock

 After I did Baby Steps, I went on a brand new trail that was just barely built this year, called UFO.  More climbing and singletrack fun.

 UFO had a few Switchbacks also.  After UFO, I went downhill on a technical Little Salty Trail then Dino Flow then the hardest part EKG!  EKG is pure fun and all slickrock with a bunch of tricky sections.  At the bottom, I went on Dino Flow all the way to the north end side, the went southward on EKG, I bailed out down Little Salty and finished the ride south on Dino Flow back to the car.  The ride took me around 3 hours and I think it was a total of 22 miles!  I was beat.

I don't know when I will go again but maybe when I want to go another fun, hard ride.

The San Rafael Swell Bike Trip(Devil's Racetrack)

My older brother invited me to San Rafael Swell on Easter Weekend. His family rides dirt bikes and do a lot of camping. I've heard of Devil's Racetrack trail before and thought that would be a fun trail to ride on my mountain bike. When I got there, my brother and his family has ridden Devil's Racetrack and told me I was crazy to ride on it on a pedal bike and thought it was too technical for it. I didn't listen to them and decided to go ahead and do it since the trail is right by the campsite. Devil's Racetrack is primarly an atv trail and I went out and back because most other trails in that area were too

sandy and I can't ride in sand. So I (walked) to the trailhead about a mile from the car which was very sandy. Then from the trailhead is all fast to the bone! It was downhill all the way to the wash which was about 10 miles or so and it was a fun, fast, technical ride. There were some parts I walked on like in the middle of the trail and was the most technical and hardest section of the trail.

The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect. What more is there to ask? It was great. It was cold at first because I started early in the day and when I started heading back uphill, I got really warmed up.

I found my brother's buggy his wife was riding on out there, way out there, like 8 miles out just before all the technical stuff. They did the big 50 mile loop on the day before. The wheel broke off the buggy and they were on like the last 8 miles of the trail, and that last 8 miles was all the hard stuff. So they left it out there and had a rough time carrying all the kids on their motorbikes but made it. Then it took my brother a lot trips and a trip to the city of Green River to get the part fixed and finally got the buggy back to camp. I'm glad!

This is about where I turned around, well, a little past that, almost to the wash. It was a good technical climb back to the beginning. It was a fun bike ride.

The next day, I decided to go on another trail, Eagle Canyon Trail. It is also another atv trail but way easier, no rocks, and quite a bit of sand down at the wash. I'd rather ride on rocks than sand though so maybe this is a harder trail because I can't ride on sand! I started from Swasey's Cabin and went down the trail and I wanted to get to the I-70 bridges and then ride back. It didn't take long but the ride back was all a climb back. It was fun.

When I got the I-70 bridge, it was pretty cool. All of my life, I've wanted to see the I-70 bridge from down below and people around where I live have told me that there is a trail that goes under the bridges. Anyway, it was awesome how they built them. There were a lot of broken tvs down below. One day, somebody is going to get hit by one, ha ha!

Anyway, it was a great trip and I'd do Devil's Racetrack on my bike again! The scenery was awesome.