Corner Canyon Number 2

Yes, went to Corner Canyon again.  I had so much fun last time and for sure I went riding there again but a different route.  It's such a good trail system and the trails are great and butter smooth with an occasion of rocks in a few areas.  It was a very nice Sunday afternoon and hitched a ride with my mother while meeting my little sister in Lehi to switch cars.  My mom used my sister's car and my sister used my mom's car for the week because my sister needed her car fixed down here in Ephraim.  I came along and went on a bike ride while they ate lunch for 2 hours.  It worked out perfectly.

My ride was great, I did some different trails this time.  Started from Coyote Trailhead and went up on Clark's, down Brock's and Ghost Falls.  Then up Canyon Hollow and down Rush Flow Trail.  I love Rush, it's a downhill that last forever and so fun.  Then finally I rode a little bit of BST then met my mom and sister at the Draper Temple.  It was a very fun ride and pleasant weather, a little hot in some spots but there was a lot of trees that gave shade.  There was more people this time but it wasn't that bad and I can't complain because the trails are great.

Labor Day Family Reunion

My oldest brother invited all of us to San Rafael Swell to spend some time camping and do some hikes.  We did two hikes when I was there.  The first one was supposed to be planned for Ding and Dang but the 4X4 road to it looked like it had some rock fall and couldn't go through with our trucks so we just bagged that one and decided to do Chute Canyon when we were in the area.  It was a pleasant hike and good for the kids.  Not as slotty though but pretty good for all of us.

This is the campground and my brother bought a nice brand new trailer.  It's really nice! My nephews made this really nice fire pit area and they did a really good job!
                                  
                                      

The next day we did this big hike called, Eardley Canyon.  It's supposed to be long so we left early in the morning.  We hiked 2 miles on the wash until we got to Eardley Canyon.  Then hiked along this ridge to get to the top so we can hike down Eardley Canyon which is more possible to do.

It took forever to get to the top but we made it, it was hot and tiresome.  It was steep and there was a lot of rock scrambling to do.

At the top, we went down this chute.  It was a freakish hike down!  Lot's of loose rocks and really steep.  My brother calls it "Devil's Descent".  I call it "Devil's Chute".  This took a long time especially for the little kids.

Then we made it down the wash and we took a break.  This is where my brother started getting worried that we were losing time in the day.  It was harder than he thought and thought it would be smoother than this.  There were a lot of boulders to climb over and a lot of water pools to go through.

We had to go through like 15 pools and the water was cold.  Everybody was shivering because there was no sun shining on us because we were in a slot canyon that is always shady.

Little Andrew had a hard time getting through the water parts and had help from his parents but he did most of the swimming.  Good job Andrew!  All the other kids were really brave too.

      

 It took a while to go through all the water parts and we had 4 rappels to go down and with 10 people, it took a lot longer than we thought.  We were worried that we were losing daylight.  When we got out of Eardley Canyon, we were sighed with relief.  We were all happy when we walked along the wash back to the trucks. It was barely getting dark when we got back.  The grandparents back at camp got really worried about us but we stayed positive throughout the whole hike and made it.                                                 

                                                       

This was the first rappel I have ever done.  Not bad!

Reaching My Goals

At the first of the year, I've made a couple goals to try to achieve by the end of the summer.  My main one was to climb up to the Pioneer trail head from the bottom at the town of a Ephraim along the canyon road.  It is a major climb with about 3,000 feet elevation gain.  At first, I planned to climb up to the Flume Trail and see how I felt there.  I took an extra bottle of water and extra food just in case.  I felt pretty good by the time I got there so climbed a little further.  Then planned to climbed to Major's Flat, still felt good.  Then I decided just to climb to the guard rails, then to Willow Creek, still felt good, and finally to Pioneer Trail turnoff, and that was my goal!  I've never had a good ride like this in years.  I must've had a really good day and my legs felt super.  Then I got my reward going down the Pioneer and Flume trails.  They were fast and fun.  It was a good evening.  It's been a long time since I've made it up to the Pioneer.  Here's my Strava workout:

}

 My other goal was to bike 50 miles on my road bike, well, I didn't plan this but I call it a goal after I did it. It wasn't quite 50 miles, more like 43 to 45 miles. I could have 50 miles easily though but good enough.  I went through like 5 cities in Sanpete County on this ride.  It was a beautiful day and I did this ride and the a Pioneer ride on the same week!  My 5 cities in Sanpete Strava ride:

}

Corner Canyon Ride

When my mom went to drop off grandkids in Lehi, I came with her too.  I asked her if she wouldn't mind if I would take my bike and do a 2 hour ride afterwards.  She was glad to because she doesn't mind at all to sit in the car at the trailhead and just read and relax.  Luckily we found a parking space under a tree where there was shade.

Corner Canyon is near Draper, almost a few miles from Lehi, just near Point of the Mountain.  I've ridden on this trail system twice before but they were all I Cup races.  So, this was the first time I've ridden there just for a ride, not for racing, so I went where ever I wanted to go.

I started from Potato Trailhead and went eastbound on Ann's Trail and went down on the Rush Downhill flow trail.  I loved it.  After that, I went on a little bit of Canyon Hollow and Clark's then went westbound on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail a little bit.  Climbed up on Potato Hill Trail, passed the trailhead again and went on the west of Ann's Trail westbound and down towards BST and went eastbound up to Red Potato Trail and climbed back up to the trailhead.  

This Corner Canyon trail system is better than I thought.  I wouldn't be surprised if I ride up there again sometime soon.  It's great and not far from home(about 1.75 hours).  There are many different routes and trails to do and I think I know what to do next.  Most of all these trails are in the trees and is very shady.  The trails are super used up, and I was surprised there wasn't that many people on the trails when I went out there because I hear stories that this area can get crowded.  It's been fun!

Crossing Off the Summer Bucket List

I am trying to do a number of things before summer ends.  One of them was going to Eagle Point again to bike.  I did go there about a month ago or so and I planned to go again because it's great there.  So I went yesterday.

This time the trails are packed down more so that means more people have been riding it.  That's a good sign, right?  I did the same ride I usually do there, go up on Eagle's Egress, do a couple laps of the Monarch Mountain Loop, and go back down Eagle's Egress.  I wanted to go up and down Eagle's Egress again after the ride, but I was really worn out.

I probably won't go again until next year.  I did make segments on Strava for this ride and a few names of other riders popped out so I am still not King of the Mountain. Oh well, at least I am second place on one of them, but it will get filled up in no time.   There really needed to be some segments there in the Eagle Point mountain bike trails.

The other thing I have crossed out on my list this summer was hiking in Maple Canyon.  Maple Canyon is 25 minutes from where I live and I have always loved Maple Canyon.  Last year I hiked up to the viewpoint above Maple Canyon on one trail but didn't do the hiking loop, just the out and back.  This time I did more.

I hiked up the trail I never did and it was a lot steeper and challenging.  So after that, I made it up to the viewpoint and hiked down the other side which I hiked up last year.

When I got to the fork that goes down the canyon, I decided to take the trail up that goes up to the Sanpitch Mountains skyline.  I decided to just go up a little bit but I just kept going up all the way to the top.

This is the top and I've never been up there before, I was great and was quite a bit of climbing.  The view was great and I even saw the other side of the mountain which was Levan Canyon.

This is what the road looks like up at the top and I've been wondering ever since I was a kid while camping at Maple Canyon with my dad and brothers over the years.  It was a great hike and I would love to do it again.  Here's a Strava recorded hiking workout I did, I was really sore and was wobbling around for like 3 days after, not used to that much hiking!

Happenings

A few things have been happening around my everyday life other than biking.  There was a wildfire close to Ephraim just at the other side of West Mountains.  I think it's out today from the pouring flash flood rainstorm.

Then a house that nobody lives in like 2 blocks away caught on fire.  The whole town rushed over there to see where the smoke was coming from because I guess all these small town folk care about each other.  I don't know how it started though.

Here's a book I found in a book store in Park City.  The title says, "Good Advice from Bad People, Selected wisdom from Murderers, Stock Swindlers, and LANCE ARMSTRONG"  Ha ha, this made me laugh out loud.  Lance Armstrong!  I should of bought the book.  Man, I feel sorry for this guy.  I really do!

This is the truth.  This is why I don't watch sports on tv.  Soccer players, football players, basketball players I think are a bunch a wimps and yet bike racers just keep going no matter what.  This reminds me, I just read an article today that a cyclist got shot by somebody while riding and just kept going and rode to the hospital.  Wow.  Well, I did keep going without whining every time I wrecked and scraped up myself so bad when I was racing.

I made this fireplace mantle during free time in the cabinet shop where I work.  I made this for my brother and sister-in-law and they really like it!  It looks good in their living room.

Park City Part 2

My mom and little sister decided to go to Park City to do some shopping and stay overnight for their birthdays(their birthdays are 2 days apart).  I butted in and wanted to do some bike riding.  We went there on Saturday and shopped around.  I bought some cool Pearl Izumi apparel at a good price and we ate good food.  Then Sunday morning I went on a big ride just north of the motel, at Snyderville Basin area.   All I had to do was ride from the motel which was nice.  There's good singletrack bike trails called Stealth, Flying Dog, Glenwild, etc.

These pictures I took were at the top of the mountain where I climbed on my bike.  The trail was like 8 miles to the top and about 8 miles down on the other side.  I went up good and without stopping which was a good achievement for me because I haven't done that for a while.  I did it like in one hour and 19 minutes to the top from the bottom.  Not the best time like what the pros do but pretty good for myself.  The trail was perfect too, not too steep and at a great moderate incline.  About 3 to 4% average grade.  The climb was my favorite part of the ride and the downhill was also fun to ride.  This is one of my favorite rides in the Park City area but I am starting to think it's my favorite ride in Park City, but I don't know really, I also like the Jenni's/Spiro Loop.  But they are all good.  And when I came back down and checked out the motel, we at a pizza place and I had a good plate full of spaghetti, yummy!  Good reward!