Park City Summer of 2013

My older sister, "The Karen" came over to Utah to visit for awhile to see us.  It was great fun while she was at home for a few days, we also made plans to go to Park City for a few days.  She got us a great condo with her timeshares and it was great(Marriott Summit Watch).

I definitely took my mountain bike to ride in Park City and the weather was perfect.  The first morning, I did South Midmountain Trail.  It's a great trail and it's somewhat level with mostly rolling hills kind of terrain.  It was good interval training.  The trail was beautiful with trees and such.

The views were great and there were quite of few hikers that day that never said hi back when I waved at them.  Very rude people.  Well, a few people did, but the fancy tall people that looked like they were from Europe or straight from Park City, never waved back.  Just ignorant.  They just kept looking down at the ground as I passed by every time.  Oh well, it's Park City, not Ephraim, probably normal.

I started from Silver Lake Lodge in Deer Valley Resort and did the Midmountain Trail to Park City Resort and did the return trip on the same way. I tried to do this loop following this map above but I couldn't find the starting of John's 99 Trail.  I even asked this girl at the top of lift who worked there.  She didn't know.  But I figured it out by looking at a more detailed map at the bottom after my ride, there it was.  Oh well, I had fun as an out and back.

This is my "special room".  I had the whole living room with the sofa bed.  Also the kitchen and dining area.    Everybody else had their beds in the bedrooms.  I had some good rests in this room.

On the second day, I got up earlier than the previous day and had a good morning start.  It was cooler and felt nice for my planned climbing route kind of ride this time.  I decided to climb up Jenni's trail that started from Park City Resort Base.  This trail is probably the easiest climb ever in Park City.  The grade is not as steep but it was perfect for my riding ability since I am not good as shape I used to be.

The climb was beautiful with sun and trees and a morning breeze.  It took me an hour to get to the top.  I wasn't too fast though like other riders but it was a great reward for me anyway.

The top along John's Trail.  I took the downhill, John's Trail(not John's 99).

John's trail is a very technical and curvy singletrack.  But awesome.  I liked the roots and sharp turns.  After the trail, I took Sweeney's Switchbacks right back to the motel.  RIGHT back to the motel, awesome.

Dad made a new friend while we were walking around Park City with the girls.  Dad didn't like Park City too much, he said, "to have fun in Park City, you got to have a bike".  I don't blame him, if I didn't have my bike, I would hate Park City a lot.  But that's all I did there, biked.  I don't like the people in Park City and everything is too expensive.   It's just all ritzy and artsy.

The third and last day, turned out to be a life changing experience.  Well, I did Lost Prospector for an easy ride then crashed big time.  I did an endo and landed head first right on a rock in the middle of the trail then rolled over while the bike flew ride above me.  I got a big road rash on my shoulder and knee.  My helmet got dented from the rock and cracked it.  It could have been my head! 

I continued on and had like 30 minutes left of riding but it was great fun and took it easy and took it more careful.

Lost Prospector is mostly a level trail but it was short, took me an hour to do an out and back.  But great fun.

I love helmets!  Saved my life.  Well, I have to get a new one.  You're not allowed to ride with damaged helmets, it's a rule I guess.

I had fun being in Park City with Karen and Company.  We ate at some good places and my favorite place was Vinto's which was an Italian place and it was very good.  Also inexpensive.  The pizza was very good and that's what we had.  I went shopping for a little while with the girls at the outlet stores.  I had to buy some much needed clothes for myself.  Bought some cool clothes at a good deal.  Also went swimming at the motel and it felt really good after my 2nd ride.  We also had good ice cream cones and such.
That was the only vacation I get this summer and it was a good one other than the crash.  So, if you have a bike in Park City, it's more fun.

Hikes and Bikes

 Yes, went hiking.  Weird.  But it was great fun and adventurous.  I thought I'd do some hiking because my coworker wants me to climb Mt. Nebo with him sometime this summer so I am trying to get ready for it.  I went on a few hikes and the first one I hiked a little up Pioneer Trail.  I started from the bottom.

I took Jeri and Duke with me and they were having a time of their lives.  As I was hiking, I was kicking all the rocks off the trail, this a bike trail I like to ride on.  Before this hike, I haven't ridden my bike on it yet but I just barely did yesterday.  It's pretty packed down and I was amazed that it was.  I guess a lot of dirt bikers have been riding on it.  It's a great trail and it's all cleared up.

 I turned around at the swamp area and walked back down, it was really nice in the canyon since it was very windy down the valley with gusts up to 40 mph if I remember it right.

A couple days later, I went on another hike, this time I parked my truck up above Taylor's Flat and started walking along the top part of the Flume.  I started to plan just to walk along the top part then I decided to walk further down towards the bottom.  I turned around at the top of the very steep section down close to the bottom where the jumps were.  Then I hiked back up and it was quite a workout.  After I got back to the truck, I decided to hike up to Virgil's Yeart from there, but first I took the dogs to some stream so they can get a drink.

The Backbone Trail was very steep but it gave me a good workout.  It was a fun one and I enjoyed it very much.  Duke was very tired but still chased a few squirrels along the way.

This weekend, I decided to get back on biking.  Last Thursday night, I did the West Mountains loop on my mountain bike and it was a great ride, no wind.  Also, the West Mountains gave me shade along the way as the sun went down.  I tried to avoid the pageant crowd in Manti but I made it.
Then I went on another ride Saturday morning.  I parked the car at Major's Flat and decided to climb up the road a little ways and go down the Pioneer Trail.  I was struggling on the climb and took it easy most of the way.  It was hot and tiring though but it felt great.  The Pioneer was a blast and it was the first time this year.  I remember mostly of the view and Haystack Mountain and Ephraim Canyon when I got up top.  I forgot my phone at home so I couldn't take pictures, wish I did though.  It was beautiful.
Today, I went on another ride, I actually missed church because I didn't really care much.  I just wanted to ride.  I went up the Flume this time and took it easy again.  It was also hot but great!  Loved the downhill.  It was a beautiful day and hardly anybody up the mountain.  Got to love summer!

I Killed My Television....Literally.

 I have got to do some awesome rides here at home in Sanpete Valley.  I enjoyed some great evening rides and had a great one last Thursday night and I felt great so I rode hard.  I happened to take some pictures.

This is the Flume Trail and it is the most packed down I have ever seen in all of the 15 years of the trail life, especially this early of the year.  There's been a lot of riders this year!

Great map of Flume and Pioneer trails, I haven't gone on the Pioneer yet and I hear it's great this year.

I have been riding on more flat roads because I haven't been feeling good most of the hard rides in the past first of the year.  I wanted to do more endurance kind of riding and it helped.  I rode a lot on the dirt roads in the west.  The ride I like is to take the dirt road from town and through west of the Manti/Ephraim airport and to the houses on halfway through Highway 89 and ride on the 4 wheeler doubletrack off the side of the highway until Manti.
Then from Manti, I take the dirt road down west passing by the radio station and ride north along the dirt road by the West Mountains all the way to Ephraim.  The ride is 25 miles and takes about 1.6 to 2 hours for me.  I like this ride and I am trying to ride my mountain bike more than my road bike.  I haven't ridden my road bike for like 3 months now.  I don't like the cars on the highway when I ride my road bike.  Never did.

Also, I had more time to redo my parent's main bath.  Just tore everything apart and put in new cabinets, countertop, sink, floor, toilet, bath hardware, and put in new trim.  It looks great!  The new toilet is awesome, it actually flushes poop without using the toilet plunger every time!

Memorial Day Weekend Ride

 I went up on a little trip with my parents to Tooele to put flowers on graves and see some cousins and also to spend time with my sister up in the Ogden area.  I took my bike with me to tuck in a ride during the weekend.  My family decided to come with me and have a picnic while they were waiting for me while I ride my bike a little.  Luckily they found a perfect spot with a picnic table but about when I was done with my ride, we were kicked out because we didn't pay a fee.  But still we all had fun while we enjoyed it.   

 We went to the North Fork Park campground near Eden, UT which was up in Ogden Canyon.  There are some sweet bike trails I wanted to try out.  Plus the campground is where one of the Ben Lomond trailheads are.  The trails I wanted to try out were Mule Ear and Mule Shoe trails.  Great trails except I didn't feel good that day but I took it easy on the climb and walked up the steep sections.

At the top was a beautiful view of Ben Lomond Peak in a distance in front of me(look at the top picture).  I climbed about probably maybe around 500 to 1,000 feet of elevation.  Maybe less though.  Then after that was all downhill until I reached the bottom of Mule Shoe Trail.  Mule shoe was the lower elevation part of the loop and below the campground.  The downhill was awesome though.  Enjoyed it.  Lot's of shade and trees with a bunch of berms at the turns.

It was great how there were no people on the trail, and I was surprised, because it was Memorial Day weekend.

 Down at Mule Shoe, I ran into two moose.  The first one I ran into was just sitting there off the side of the trail for a Sunday rest.  I stopped and looked at it, she didn't move.  Until I got on my bike again, she ran off.  I even got a good picture.  Later, I continued on some more trail and all the sudden a bull moose was in front of me and I startled him.  He started running down the trail through the turns and everything.  I slowed down a lot to let him run away from me.  Then finally there was an open area where he can escape from the trail.  It was pretty cool to have a moose do some biking with me for a while there.  I called him Bullwinkle the Moose.

I was this close to the first moose I ran into, don't see that in Sanpete.  There are no moose in Sanpete so that's why it's so cool to me.

This is after the bottom of Mule Shoe right after the trail goes right along the side of a stream and this where you start climbing again to get back to the campground.

These trails are probably my favorite trails in the Ogden Canyon area besides Green Pond Trail in Snowbasin.  I would like to go there again and make sure I feel good and wired next time because I would like to experience these trails going fast.  It was very fun still.

Price is right!

So, I went back to Price and decided to do the whole deal this time, all the trails showing in the map, and it was hardcore.  Last time, in March, I did just Luke's and S'mo Joes, it was fun but i was wondering what is it like going further north.  Going north had more climbing and more technical kind of features.

The trails further out north were Meads Rim, Floating Rocks, Lollipop, Shamrock and Roll, and Yoo Hoo.
They were all awesome, except for Yoo Hoo, which was a worn down trail that nobody rides anymore and cows destroyed most of the trail.  I should have tooken Floating Rocks back down but oh well.  I did walk most of Yoo Hoo on the way back.

 Floating Rocks was a fun climb all the way up but it would have been a fun, fast downhill if I took it instead of Yoo Hoo.  But maybe next time!

 At the end of Lollipop which was the north point, it had good views of the town of Kenilworth.  Didn't know there was a town there.  It was cool.  I stopped there for a while and ate a snack.

 Town of Kenilworth

On the way back, I took Shamrock and Roll and that was my favorite part of the trail system.  It was fun, fast, kind of stuff and had some switchbacks and still had some good views as I rode along the ridge.  Then after that was Yoo Hoo which I should have never taken.  But after Yoo Hoo, I took the ride back on S'mo Joes and that was really fun.  I remember I got so tired and my hands felt fatigue and I got sick.  But after 13 miles of total ride and 2 hours, I made it, and it was hot.  I couldn't wait to cool down at the top of Skyline at Fairview Canyon on the way home.  It was nice and cool there.  It was a fun ride and since it's getting hot there, it's probably time to bike in the mountains where it's cooler.

Vernal Trip

 For the past five years I have been going back and forth to Roosevelt/Vernal, UT for work.  I work as a builder in a home building company.  We have been building a lot of stuff in the Roosevelt and Vernal area which is the area where the oil boom is.  So we get quite a bit of business there.  I have been wondering how the mountain biking is in the area.  I decided to take my parents and spend a weekend there.

 In fact, that weekend was my birthday so I wanted to go for a birthday ride.  I went to the McCoy Flats Trail System.

The trails were great and they are similar to the St. George trails but has way cooler weather, so it's perfect for the summer rides if you want some desert riding.  I actually enjoyed it better than St. George because of less people and the environment.  I ran into a few people and it was on a Sunday morning and very early but not too much.  I had so much fun and the trails had so much rolling hills and singletrack.  They were especially fast.  There were also a quite of few technical riding in a few areas that had slickrock and boulders.   I did Retail Sale and Milk and Cookies.  After about 15 miles, I wanted to do more but had to get back.  Next time, I will go alone and go camping at the primitive camping spots at the trail head, then do more riding.  There's like 35 miles worth of trails in the trail system.

The day before I went riding, my parents and I checked around to see some dinosaur bones.  We went to the museum in Vernal and the quarry in Dinosaur National Monument.  We felt bad there were no kids with us.

 Cool looking bones.

 Allosaurus

We drove around everywhere, we even went to Dinosaur, Colorado.  A place where a kid dreams to live(because of the name), but the town was a dump.  We drove quite a ways around Dinosaur National Monument.  It was cool.

There's the mammoth from Ice Age movie.  So awesome!

 More pictures of the trails.

Miraculous

These are the before and after pictures of my finger I cut with a utility knife at work not too long ago.  It's amazing how the body heals in a matter of 3 weeks.  It really got me this time.