Spring in January?

Since it's been unusually warm in most of January (in the 50 degree range), I had to ditch the fat bike and do some dirt/pavement riding.  The snow is gone in the valleys but there is still mud and some dry or tacky dirt in most places.  Since it still gets dark around 5:30ish, I've been finding ways to ride during daylight hours while still working at my job.  Like some days, I ride during lunch break or take a very short 15 minute lunch then get off around 4 pm so I can have an hour or so to ride before it gets dark. 
 

I've been riding on the roads close to my work which is around Wales, Moroni, Freedom, or Fountain Green.  I've been doing all kinds of rides.  I really like the Maple Canyon road climb that starts from Freedom and up to the mouth of the canyon where the pavement ends.  It is a tough climb for a lunch break ride.  It makes up my day though.  And sometimes I ride around the town of Moroni and do some intervals and sprints because of the short climbs around Moroni.  Then a cruiser by doing the Wales Loop.  But it's great.  By the way, I bought another bike.  I was going to put the money into an updated drivetrain on my mountain bike but I've decided that the present drivetrain on there now is good enough for a little while, and which is a pretty good system.  So, anyway, I used the money for another bike.  It's a bike to keep at work so I can ride around during work.  It's an $800 road bike which I bought it at a bike shop in Ephraim and I had him take off the drop out bars and put on flat handlebars instead which I like better.  I never use the drops on the drop out handlebars.  I also swapped on Cane Creek Ergo bar ends.  It's a pretty sweet bike for 800 bucks.  It's a Cannondale.

Well, I am starting to do some dirt rides also.  I like to ride on Kane Valley Road by Black Hill in Ephraim.  It's just tacky dirt and it's awesome conditions.  Then I ride up on Mill Road up the pond which I call it "Darrel Olsen's Driveway".  Then up on the rocky short cut to Gordon's Farm.  It's just a ride I usually do during the early Spring but it's not Spring yet but it's just weird that it feels like it in January.  Here's my Strava workout I did yesterday.  Last weekend, it was a bigger ride though.



It's been nice, but we sure do need more snowstorms.  It's been a dry January and I hope February will be wetter and get more snow in the mountains.  We need the water.

Winter Paradise

By starting the new year, I've been doing some snow fun on my fat bike into new places.  Just yesterday, I went up to Fairview/Huntington Canyon and tried this trail I was thinking about since last winter.  I finally went up there and I was not disappointed at all.  It made me want to keep going up there every weekend for the rest of the winter.

This is a groomed snowmobile trail at an elevation at 9,000 feet, so it's pretty high up there and that is where the snow is really good.  This trail is the Miller Flat/Joe's Valley Road.  I just went until Miller Flat Reservoir and it's pretty much mostly downhill.

To Miller Flat Reservoir is 3.5 miles, I wanted to keep going but I knew the more I went down, the more climbing I had to do on the way back.  So this was just a test and turned around and started climbing back up. 

I really enjoyed the climb actually because it wasn't really all climbing.  The climbs lasted about 3 or 4 minutes then the trail flattened out a little bit for a while then climbed again.  It just kept going like that on the way back.  At the parking lot near the highway, there was a scouting event going on, they were having some kind of XC ski race and there were a lot of scouts.  They were just in that area by Huntington Reservoir area circling around.  I got a lot of good replies about my fat bike from the scouts.  Like, "that looks fun", or "does that bike work", or mostly, "cool bike!"  Well, it's a cool area to ride and there were no one out there as I went further by Miller Flat Reservoir.  Next time, I will go longer. 

Two weeks ago, I had to go up to Ogden area to help my little sister to carry her digital piano up to her apartment.  So I took my bike with me and thought I'd do a ride in Ogden Canyon since I hear that there are some good fat bike riding there.  The day before I went there to ride, there was a fat bike race in Nordic Valley Ski Resort(Frosty's Fat Bike Series).  It was actually located in the golf course by it where they groom XC ski trails.  I did the course on the next morning after the race.

It was actually a fun course.  I followed the bike tracks and markers.  The course was 2 miles and it just weaved all over the place and there were hills all over.  That made it fun and now I can say, "golf courses should be bike tracks".  Never thought the day would come that I would ride a bicycle on a golf course.  It was awesome.

After the big snowstorm during Christmas break, I'd thought I could pack down a trail near home.  I thought of the top part of the Flume because it's mostly flat and it's always shady because it's located on a north face of a mountain.  I thought it could be good snow all the time.  I tried this idea, dragging an old car tire with a rope while snowshoeing.  

I then rode the trail two days later and it was pretty hard.  The trail just needs to be packed down more from snowshoers and fat bike riders.  Since I am the only one that rides on this trail, it was pretty hard, but after the bridge. it got easier and I pretty much cleaned most of the trail.  I hope I can ride it again some other time.

So on that ride on the Flume, I rode up the canyon road from the hydroplant up to the A frame house and then did that top part of the Flume and back then climb up some more on the road to Major's Flat, then rode down.  Duke came with me on this ride.  It was a good ride and it was pretty cold, in the single digits, then warmed up into the teens.

I happened to find this photo on the internet someplace and I really hate this photo.  It looks so miserable.  I really hate indoor stationary bikes and this is just so wrong to see it out on the ice and snow.  It hurts my eyes to see this.  It made me realize that I love riding my fat bike in the snow!  It is a great sport and makes it very worthwhile.  I am just so grateful that I don't have to ride a stationary bike anymore and I have bikes for all seasons to ride outside.  And once you get used to the cold and have the proper clothing, I guarantee that it will get fun!

The Snow Came....On Christmas!

The snow finally came!  And on a special day, Christmas morning.  Christmas Eve was a brown Christmas Eve, then on the next morning when I woke up, there was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground.  I was pretty excited about it and since everybody didn't want to get up until 10 that morning to open presents, I decided to go ride my fat bike in the new, fresh snow.  I went up Kane Valley Road on the backside of Black Hill.  I was first tracks on the road and it was beautiful.

During Christmas break, I went on more rides on my fat bike and it was very exhilarating. The snow was perfect and the weather was beautiful but very cold.  On the ride Friday, it wasn't bad, but on Saturday's ride, it was 12 degrees when I started then it warmed up with the sun shining and the temperature got to 18 degrees.  After working out for 10 minutes, I warmed up fast.

Duke came with me on Saturday's ride in back of the foothills and he ran right by me the whole way and he enjoyed it, well, it seemed like it.  But he was very tired.  He ran 9 miles.

For Christmas this year, I received a very good item for snow biking, the 45 North Wolvhammers boots.  They are the best.  I really like them and they are very warm.  I can also put cleats on them so I can ride on clipless pedals.  It's so much better to ride clipless and I hope by spraying Pam onto the cleats and pedals(got the idea from somebody else), the snow and ice won't stick on them.  These shoes were very pricey for the elves to make and they don't make very much of these.  So I got really lucky from Santa.  I must have been very good this year!

Bucket List a Success!.....Kind Of

During last August, I had the rest of the year left of things to do, then on for another list for next year.  This time, instead of thinking it in my head about fun things to do, I actually got a paper and written a list, then typed it off the computer.  It went like this:

August
     San Rafael trip with the Tony and family

September
      Corner Canyon bike trails near Draper
      Climb up to Bluebell or Pioneer in Ephraim Canyon on bike
       Round Valley bike trails near Park City

October
       Moab bike trip
       The Wedge Overlook ride?
       Captitol Reef hiking

November
        St. George bike riding
         Take a break from biking(fall break)or take it easy

December
         Continue break
          Get back on the snow bike when it snows!

Well, I completed most of it and there were a few changes due to broken bike in November and just had a few change of plans.  So instead of the Bluebell or Pioneer climb I just did the Flume Trail and Black Hill area on one ride because I wasn't really ready for the Pioneer.  Then instead of Wedge Overlook, I did even a better thing like the 11 mile hike on top of Ephraim Canyon which was way cooler.  I had the question mark after Wedge Overlook because I kind of knew I wasn't in the mood for that.  And finally, instead of St. George bike riding, I did St. George hiking due to broken bike.  That was that one time I hiked up Angel's Landing and I actually enjoyed that more than I would going biking on that weekend.  It was a great trip.  So all the things I did on this list were posted in all the previous posts on this blog.

By taking the fall break, I actually started to ride my bike less and did cross training instead, this winter, I took up swimming.  I went 2 times a week at the local pool after work.  It felt great too, to be in the warm water and exercise mostly my whole body without too much impact.  I did backwards swim one time to the end of the pool then freestyle back, then backwards swim, then freestyle and just kept going for 35 minutes or so.  I still rode my bike on the weekends and a lot during Thanksgiving holidays.  Just whenever I am not at work and there is daylight outside.  It hasn't snowed yet here and it's almost Christmas.  It has in the mountains though and I am hoping we get some accumulation in the valley on Christmas Day like what they said it would so I could get back on my snow bike(fat bike with 5 inch tires).  There also need to be 24 inches of snow in the mountains for them to groom a few roads up in the mountains.  It's snowing in the mountains now but it is very slushy though.  Don't know what will happen this week.  Hoping for the good!

New bike...almost

You know how I explained that there was a problem with the fork, then the headset?  Well, the whole time is was a bad head tube.  It was cracked and it was out of whack. Mad Dog Cycles, where I bought this bike from looked at it and replaced the whole frame under warranty and the Trek Red Shield.  I guess this is the third new frame and most of the parts on it are still 5 years old.  I guess I'll just keep riding it.  I rode it yesterday and it was a great ride.  I loved the feel of it.  I was thinking about selling it but I figured I probably won't make any money out of it and I hate selling bikes and cars off of classifieds and ads.  It never works out and I could never make money doing it because I am a very bad salesman.  I am thinking of upgrading the drivetrain to a 2X10 drivetrain and it should be a good bike.  It would be updated.  Then just ride it a little longer then buy a new bike but probably not Trek.  Then just use this bike as a second bike.

Angel's Landing Hike

Last weekend, it snowed in all of the state of Utah except in St. George.  St. George was warm and pleasant but a little chill in the air, around the 60 degree range most of the time.  So, it was very nice, better than 10 degrees in Ephraim for sure.

I was going to ride my bike in St. George but my bike wasn't ready at the shop.  They found another problem on it and the frame needed to be replaced because of a crack in it.  So, my parents and I decided to still go down there and go see Zion National Park.  I hiked up Angel's Landing while my parents did the shuttle around the park and saw other stuff.

Angel's Landing was a tough steep climb up to it and I've never done it before.  There was a lot of people there.  But I enjoyed the hike up it.  I was trying to go as fast as I could so I could get back before dark.  The view at the top was amazing.

The top part was very scary because of cliffs on both sides and I had to hold on a chain and I thought that part was pretty cool.
 

There were awesome switchbacks on this climb but the trail was all paved, probably because of the water control.  Later that night, my parents and I watched "Interstellar" at the Imax theatre right outside of Zion.  It was an interesting movie and it made me think for days.  It was a very good time and I won't ever forget this trip.

Weekend at Ogden, UT

After doing errands and going to a hearing aid appointment in Provo, I went up to Ogden afterwards to spend the weekend at my sister's.  I took my fat bike with me and yes that is strange because I didn't take my mountain bike for the ride.  My mountain bike has been having problems on the headset and I can't get it figured out.  The local bike shop told me to take it to the shop where I bought my bike and have them look at it.  So I took it at Mad Dog Cycles and I hope they can figure it out.  I thought it was a bad fork the whole time but after I got it rebuilt, the bike was still having steering problems.  So I've been riding my fat bike instead.

The plan was to go ride at Antelope Island which is near my sister's and brother's places but when I got there, it was so windy that I caved and got back into the car and drove off.  It was like 50 mph wind gusts.  I was going to just ditch riding that day but when I got back to the city, the wind wasn't as bad and I figured I could just do a ride near the mountain bench where the wind wasn't as bad at all.  I got back on my iPad back at my sister's place(still don't have a smartphone) to figure out what trail to do because I've never ridden on any trails near Ogden City.  After browsing on the internet, I figured North Bonneville Shoreline Trail looked like the most forgiving ride.

After riding the first mile from the North Ogden Divide trailhead, I was getting satisfied and I was enjoying the ride so far.  The trail was singletrack and it was smooth and fun.

The first part of the trail was all climbing on switchbacks and I love switchbacks!  At the top, I stopped and looked at the view.  The dust down below is supposed to be Antelope Island.  You can't see Antelope Island because of the dust from the wind.  It looked unreal.

The trail ended at Pineview trailhead.  I turned around there and went back where I went.  Actually you can keep going north to another trail that keeps going to Willard.  It's supposed to be more technical and more demanding.  So anyway, the ride back was just a little bit more climbing then it also had more downhill than the previous direction which was fun.  I really liked this trail and I would do it again if I am over at my sister's and brother's places for some spring and fall riding.

The next morning, the wind finally settled down from a hardcore wind stage that had happened the day before after I was done with my ride.  Instead it was a little colder that morning.  But no worries, I had warm gear with me.  It's good, right?  So I rode on this paved rail trail near my sister's place and went for 2 hours of riding.  It was relaxing and very nice.  There wasn't that much people this time at all.  I was grateful.  It was just a nice cruiser and still was a little slower because of my fat bike.  What a great weekend!  I also visited my family more and ate out at a few places with them.  It was fun.