Fat Biking on the Dirt

I sent my suspension fork off of my mountain bike to the suspension rebuilders in Colorado and so I don't have a mountain bike for a while.  But I did take out my fat bike for a ride.  It was better than I expected when riding out on dirt thinking fat bikes are only great in snow.  It just turned out it was just plain fun.  I never had a fun ride like this one for a long time and the bike felt really cushy because of the fat tires.  It felt like a full suspension bike with a lot of travel and could go over anything.  So I went out on a couple rides this week.  My last ride was awesome.

I went out at the Black Hill riding area and did some of my favorite trails.  I can't believe I beat my old times on a fat bike and fat bikes are supposed to be slower!  I don't know, maybe they just go over things better.  Well, I went on a couple good rides after work and here is one ride on Strava:

More Therapy...

I have this "Year end Bucket List" I made about 2 months ago and I am crossing most of them off and riding in Round Valley in Park City was one of them.  It's been a long time since I've ridden in Round Valley so it was kind of calling me.  I went yesterday to do some trails and there were some trails I haven't ridden.

It's not really a "great" area compared to other Park City riding areas.  Round Valley is usually the place where bikers go at the first of the year because it's one the few areas that is first free of snow in the spring.  I just missed going up there and it would be warmer than the higher elevation trails even though it was a little chilly yesterday.

I did the figure 8 ride and the climbs were awesome and the downhills were very fun.  I really liked the Rusty Shovel downhill and the Rambler On and Rambler XC trails.  They weren't too steep and I can go really fast.  Also Nowhere Elks and Somewhere Elks trails were pretty fun climbs.  It's not that scenic really but it was nice to go out and ride a bit on some superb singletrack.  My fork has about had it too.  It's been having problems in the last month and a half and it was really bad on this ride that I couldn't turn easily.  It was scary though.  It needs a complete rebuild and I am going to have to send it to a fork rebuilder company this week.  I heard that it usually takes three weeks to get it back and costs around 150 to 200 bucks.  So I will be without a mountain bike for a while.  I guess I will ride the road bike and fat bike, and do some hiking for the rest of the fall season before it snows.  Then take a break and get on a fat bike for the snow!  Hopefully do a St. George trip when I get my fork back.

Moab Fall 2014 Therapy Session

I went for the day to go biking in Moab yesterday on the first weekend of October.  October is usually the month that is the most crowded in Moab.  Yep, there was a ton of people there.  I was planning to camp one night but after I rode for four hours, I thought, it's a 3.5 hour drive home, why not just go home?  So, that's what I did and I did have a great bike ride.  I couldn't find a camping spot anyway.

I did Navajo Rocks ride first when I got there about 11:30 in the morning.  It's up by Monitor and Merrimac buttes where that Dead Horse Point/Canyonlands road is.  It's 6 miles from the turnoff.  I parked there, ate a light lunch then took off.  It was great and the temperature was dead on perfect.  The trail was really awesome and it's a brand new trail that was just barely built last spring.  There was a lot of short sustained climbs that lasted about 3 minutes in most spots and quite a bit slick rock and dirt mixed.

It was pretty technical and it was a well-made trail.  I really liked it and I wish there was more.  The loop itself is 8 miles and I think they are planning to build more trails in this area.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's nice that they are building a lot more bike trails in the Moab area and I can't complain but I can complain about that they need to develop or allow more camping spots in the area.  Or at least more motels, maybe some affordable ones for sure.  If they get more and more visitors each year, they've got think about better lodging.

Monitor and Merrimac buttes in the background on my Navajo Rocks ride.

After Navajo Rocks, I loaded my bike into the truck and drove up to Dead Horse Point and did more riding up there.  I rode there last spring and enjoyed it.  I wanted to do it again.

I went a little faster this time because I already knew what to expect on the trail ahead of me and knew where I was going.  This was fast and fun.  There was quite a bit of people this time.  Especially entry level riders because these trails are a little more easy compared to the original Moab trails.  Dead Horse Point trails are also fun for the advanced riders too.  The views are good too.

After I was done riding the trails, I rode my bike on the highway to the Dead Horse view point.  Which was like 3 more miles.  This was great and I think next time I go to Moab, I am probably going to do the Klondike Bluffs trail system.  I haven't been there in a long time.  We will see.

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:

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 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:

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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!