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!

Just an escape on a weekend...

I had a few days off while my boss went to an ambulance conference in Vegas so I felt like going somewhere, well, anywhere.  My folks wanted to go to the state fair for some reason and I took my bike with me.  We all headed up to northern Utah.  This is the ride where I got to go which was close by the motel.  The trail is in Eagle Mountain.

This trail loop is actually a high school mountain bike race course for one of the races that are being held this fall.  The middle school kids already had one there at the first of the school year.  I thought I'd check it out while I was in the area.  I didn't feel like Corner Canyon trails and this is where I ended up.  I rode Cow Tracks trail to get to the loop from Eagle Mountain then got on Road Runner trail.  Pretty fun fast trail.

Then at the top, Jackrabbit trail...

Lots of turns but it's just out there in nowhere with no trees except a few junipers.

Then a fun downhill on Deadwood trail.  With a lot of burnt junipers.

Fast flowy trail that made the ride fun.  I did a couple laps on the loop.

Cow Tracks trail.  And the first part of it from Eagle Mountain was very steep but I still cleaned it all up with my bike with extra low gears.  It's awesome!

A picture from the state fair the day before.  These are butter sculptures made with real butter.  Fascinating!  My parents and I met my little sister there and we saw a lot of things at the state fair.  It was fun.  I haven't been to a fair since I was a teenager.

New Bike

The time has finally come.  A new bike.  After waiting a long time while riding on the 3rd frame on my Gary Fisher/Trek Superfly, I finally decided to get a new bike and especially get a different brand bike.  I was disappointed with the Trek frames so I've changed to Cannondale.  Mostly the reason I chose Cannondale is because my local bike shop carries it.  The mechanic at the local bike shop told me after looking at the carbon Trek frames, he could see why they are so lightweight, is because they are kind of flimsy for my kind of weight.  It is probably good for a rider under 200 pounds is my guess though.  So this Cannondale F-Si Carbon 3 is a pound heavier so hopefully this would be more ideal for a big person like myself(over 200 lbs.).  It looks strong though but I really hope it holds up.  It is made out of ballistic carbon.

After doing a few rides, I really love the ride.  It feels smoother and the Shimano XT components worked flawlessly.  And I really love the 2x11 drivetrain.  That's the reason why I wanted to get this particular bike, because the drivetrain sounded perfect, and it is!  I was thinking the 1x11 drivetrain but I figured that I really needed lower and higher gears.  This has 36 and 26 chainrings in the front and a 11-40 cog in the back.  It's perfect.  Low enough gears and even a high enough gear for my kind of riding compared to the 1 by.  So, it's perfect for the XC trail riding and dirt roads around where I live.  There's also a lot of steep trails and roads that feels like a wall so this very low gear is usable for it.  The Lefty fork is a plus on this bike, it works a lot smoother than the Fox fork I used to ride on.  It feels real nice and it absorbs bumps way better and it has a climb it control button on it to lock the fork.  This is a real nice bike for me and I am satisfied with it.  Now more riding!

Labor Day Weekend 2015

I went up to "my mountains" during Labor Day weekend just week ago.  I did a mountain bike ride on a trail just on the other side of the mountains near Pete's Hole called Josephite Point Trail.  I remember biking on this trail with my brothers during the summer of 1998 a little before I left on my mission.

I was really impressed with this trail compared to 17 years ago.  The Forest Service improved it a lot and made it much better.

So I really enjoyed riding it even though there a few walk-a-bike areas but hey, the views were awesome and I could ride pretty much 95% of it.  It is a primitive trail but really good.

A bridge they built like this year.  Really nice.  If I remember it right, 17 years ago, I couldn't ride this section and a hill by Mary's Lake.  So this year, they built switchbacks on that steep part by Mary's Lake.  It is so much better now, I could ride it!

The trail is also getting some love.  It's being ridden and walked on more since it's a non-motorized trail.  Not a lot but way better than it was 17 years ago.

Mary's Lake.  There were also some cows.  All I saw was a few cows and 2 herders on horses so if you want to go on a bike ride all by yourself and not see a soul.  This is the trail for you!  Because it is in the middle of nowhere.

Nice primitive singletrack.  It really needs more bikers, hikers, and horse riders.  And this would be a great out-and-back trail that consists 14 miles with 1,900 feet of climbing!  And an amazing high alpine feel to it.

On the trail, are a few lakes, and one of them is Acamedy Mill Reservoir.  My brothers and I used to hike a mile from Pete's Hole to do some fishing on this lake.  We've had some fun times.

On the way back home, I did a little more driving to see the top of Horseshoe Mountain.

The view was worth it!  I was trying to "spend a little more time in the mountains".

The day before my Josephite Point bike ride.  I did a 4 mile hike in Ephraim Canyon on Jimmy's Fork ATV Trail to look for a "Ted Bundy" tree.

The hike was pretty and I took my dog, Duke.

After about 5 to 10 minutes of searching when I got to this area, I found the name on a tree.  Somebody around here told me about it but he didn't remember the date.  Ted Bundy was in jail in 1986 so I assume it was somebody else that wrote it.  Or the date could be for the name below it?  I just don't know.

And imagine that?  My name I wrote on this tree 15 years ago is 60 feet away from the Ted Bundy tree!  Holy Cow!  Well, I saw pretty much everybody else's names on the trees in this area from all over town.  I used to ride my bike on this trail 15 years ago a lot and I figured I'd write my name on a tree but I didn't know about the Ted Bundy tree.  Well, it was an adventure.