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!

Eagle Point Biking

Yesterday, I went up for a ride south from where I live.  Eagle Point Ski Resort is in the Tushar Mountains near Beaver, UT.  It's basically one of my favorite places to ride.

I rode there last year when the trails were barely built and they were built by Alpine Trails which is a very good trail building company.  They did a lot of trails in Park City and everywhere.  I really like these new trails in Eagle Point, they're short, but all you have to do is ride laps.

I saw one other biker there and a few hikers.  There was also a big bike race event going on in the Tushar Mountains called Crusher in the Tushars.  It's a big dirt road/paved bike race with a lot of climbing(10,000 feet total gain).  The race ended at Eagle Point, so I kind of watched the racers finished.  Levi Leipheimer won the race so there were some big names in the race and I also had a couple of friends who did it.

I love these trails in Eagle Point and it's up high so it's really nice and cool for those summer days.  I climbed from the bottom and up on Eagle's Egress Mountain Trail then did two laps on the Monarch Mountain Loop up on top then went back done on Eagle's Egress.  The views were amazing and it's a nice, quiet place to be and also if you want to get away from the crowds in the Park City bike trails, this is where you want to go.

North/South Carolina Trip

At the end of June, I went to see my sister and her family in North Carolina.  We were there for a week and while we were there, we did a lot of things.  At first, I wasn't planning to ride a bike at by my sister's place like what I usually do.  I didn't want to go through all that trouble taking my bike stuff and renting a bike because there wasn't much time and I didn't want my older sister running me all over the place.  Well, I ended up using my brother-in-law's old bike and buying a cheap helmet at a bike shop.  The bike is a 1992 Nishiki Alien mountain bike and it still pedals good.

The roads are great by my sister's house, they are so much funner than the roads in Utah which are more boring.  North Carolina roads are more windy and hilly.  I didn't take my Garmin bike computer and I wish I did so I would know how long I went.  But I figured it out on Google maps and it turned out to be 17 miles on the route I like and I rode it 3 times on different days the whole time I was there.  It was very humid but still very fun.

Also, while being there, my sister took us to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina which was a nice place.  Of course, instead of sitting on the beach, I rented a cruiser beach bike from the motel we were staying in.  Hilton Head Island beaches allowed people to ride bikes on the beach so that's what I did.

There were a lot of bike pathways on Hilton Head Island also, so I rode all over them all day while we were there.  I got about 5 hours of beach cruisin'.  We ate at a lot of good places and my favorite was crab at Crazy Crab restaurant.  Such good crab, mmmmm.

After the beach, we stopped in Charleston, which I've never been to.  We saw a lot of old houses and Civil War stuff.

In Charleston with the girls.  We just walked around.

We ate at a fancy restaurant called, Poogan's Porch.  Named after a dog that looked like Speedy that sat on this very porch.  Pretty awesome.

We also have got to visit Fort Sumter which my mom really wanted to see.  It was really neat, it was way out there in the water and we took a ferry ride to it.

Fort Sumter is where the Civil War first started and it was pretty cool to see all the stuff.

It was a fun trip even though I got to do a lot of biking.  It was fun to see my sister and her family.  They are doing really great and my brother-in-law is a dentist and gave me a free visit.  So I got a cavity and got that fixed and another tooth fixed so it was basically a free trip to me because the dentist visit is pretty much the same price as my plane ticket.  Maybe I will not take care of my teeth anymore so I can go to North Carolina more, ha ha, just kidding.  I will still try to take care of my teeth. I hope.

Park CIty

I was totally desperate for Park City trail riding.  It's been a long time since I've ridden there, like a year or so.  On Saturday, I just went up there for the day and did some good riding.  On the way up there, I stopped in Provo to pick something up at the bike shop, a replaceable derailler hanger.  I didn't need one because the one I have on my bike is fine but it's nice to have an extra one sitting around the house just in case this one on my bike breaks, I will have a new one right away and be back riding again.  So anyway, I got to Park City and it was supposed to be the day with a cold front in Utah so it was a little chilly.  It was still bearable with shorts and jersey but I still had to wear a windbreaker jacket for the downhills and being at the top of the mountain.

This guy in this picture followed me most of the way then I finally stopped and took a picture of him and let him pass.  The trails I did was the uphill Jenni's Trail, Midmountain, and down the Spiro Trail.  Pretty much a good ride for myself.  I wasn't really fully recovered from the last few previous rides but I still rode pretty decent going up on Jenni's.  I really like Jenni's, not too steep, and getting a lot elevation without even noticing the elevation gain.  It was a good climb.  Then Midmountain was in great shape and there were a lot of people on these trails while I was riding.  But I still enjoyed it.  Going down Spiro was fun also.  I've never done this loop but I did do these trails before.  Last time I went on Jenni's, I went up it and down John's Trail which was a lot harder trail.  I did like Jenni's/Spiro loop better and I'd do it again.

I really like Park City trails because they are fun and there are so many of them!  I wish I live closer to them.  I wouldn't like to live in Park City though because it's too ritzy but I do love the mountains.  I guess I will just have to drive 2.5 hours to there and back every time I want to ride them.

Maple Syrup

A decade ago, I kind of built this trail and told people about it then everybody started riding on this even with motor bikes and horses.  So today this is what it looks like.  I rode it during the weekend and what a blast it was!

I rode on my mountain bike and climbed up to Willow Creek by going up Power Line, Green Gate Road, and the Canyon Road.  After the Green Gate Road climb, I was already spent and while climbing up the main canyon road, I was already cramping up.  I wanted some electrolytes but I didn't have any.  Next time, I am putting Hammer Nutrition Fizz tablets in my water.  See if that works next time.

So I crawled up the rest of the way, by crawling, I mean just spinning easily to the top.  I even had to take breaks.  I made it though, and the downhill on the Maple Syrup and the Flume was a blast.  It was worth the crawl.  Earlier the week, I even had another fabulous ride.  It was a 35.5 mile ride to Mount Pleasant and back.  I took the Little Pigeon Hollow dirt road then on the Spring City back road. I like the Spring City road because of the wide shoulder.  I was planning just to ride to Spring City and back but I felt good so I rode another 5 miles to Mount Pleasant.  It was a great evening and the spring water from the spring fountain in Spring City was delicious.  It was a great week event though I went on a few rides on that week.  I even rode the cruiser bike and town quite a bit.

Memorial Day Weekend

During Memorial Day weekend, I went up with my parents to Tooele to see the graves of my relatives, like my grandparents, etc.  We put flowers on them and visited somebody while we were there.  Then we went to my sister's in the Ogden area to spend the weekend.  I took my bike to do some trails near there.

This area is one of my favorites because it's so pretty.  It's near Eden which is in Ogden Canyon.  The trails I like to ride are called "Mule Ear" and "Mule Shoe" trails.  There's hardly anybody there usually and it was very nice especially during Memorial Day weekend.

I did this same ride last year during Memorial Day weekend and last year didn't turn out so great because I didn't feel so good so I walked up most of it.  This year I completely rode the whole thing and taking a few breaks while riding.  I did way better this time.  Plus I rode a lot more, so I did a little bit of Cutler Flats trails also and then did Mule Shoe again. It was great and the weather was perfect.

My sister lives right by a rail trail which is called the "Rio Grande Rail Trail", so the next day I just did a cruise on this paved trail.  It was a very nice ride and there were quite of bit of joggers, walkers, skateboarders, and cyclists.  I went on this for 31 miles and it was mainly flat.  It was a very nice cruise and comfortable.