2016 Summer Happenings

Another typical summer just working and biking, etc.

On this ride, I went up to the Skyline, I started going up from the GBEEC and rode up to the top.  I remember it was really cool temperature wise and it felt really nice.

I went up again on another weekend.  This time it was hotter but I did ride up better than the other time.  I felt really good.

With me in it.  I also rode on Philadelphia Flat a little bit after I rode up to the top.

Then on the weekend after that one.  We met my sister and her fiance in Park City and I also did a ride there.

This time I rode on the new trail in Utah Winter Sports Park.  It was wild because of a lot of switchbacks.  I really liked it.  I wanted to ride a lot more but because of the worn down brake pads, I had to shorten my ride.  But I got new brake pads.  They were worn down all the way to the metal!

Then on a Tuesday night, I did an awesome road ride near Spring City while my mountain bike was in the shop getting new brake pads replaced.  I really like the Canal Road climb above Spring City.  I ran into an old friend I used to work with up there in Horseshoe Mtn Estates, so I stopped and talked to him.  It was a nice evening ride, but hard because I had the headwind on the climb.

On the following Thursday, Duke and I went on a hike on the old Race Loop I used to ride on during the 1990s.  It used to be a popular atv trail loop mountain bikers used to ride on all the time.  I loved that trail, I would love to get a time machine and ride on it again.  The landowner closed it down about 15 years ago and now it's just faded.  

The Race Loop is now a good hiking trail...if you know where you are going.  The landowners are ok with people hiking or pedal biking on their land but not with making new trails.  They are not ok with people driving atvs or trucks in the land though.

Duke loves to hike but he is getting more old and tired now days.

Another typical weeknight mountain bike ride and I happened to take a picture of a rainbow in the canyon.

Another weekend, I went camping and fishing with a friend up at Snow Lake.

It was beautiful up there.  It was on Pioneer Day weekend and there was a lot of people so we just dealt with it.

Tom

                                     

We started fishing at 8:00 in the morning but the fish didn't bite until 9:30 and that is when we caught about 11 fish.  I took 9 fish home to eat and it was delicious.

There's a lot of forest fires around and I took this picture when I was in Gunnison visiting family.

I took a walk on the Sanpitch Dragon trail in Gunnison with Jeri.

This weekend, I went on a hike in Maple Canyon.  It was a hot day but the trail was mostly in the shade which made it real nice.

Duke was tired but had fun.  I gave him water to drink a few times.  There's no streams anywhere.

We went up all the way to the top on Middle Fork Trail, then back down halfway and went up to the View Point Trail and then down Right Fork.

Viewpoint

Duke found a little bit of water in a dead stream down at the campground.  But like usual, a lot of rock climbers from all over the world come to camp and climb in Maple Canyon.  But if you just go hiking on the trails and hike out of there, you are the only one way out there.  It was fun, I like to do a big hike once in awhile.

Park City 2016

My family got together to do a Park City trip.  I went biking while we were at it.  When I got there, I biked in Park City Resort.  Up Armstrong Trail, then along Midmountain, and down on Jenni's.

It was a good ride and I had fun.  A nice summer day like this.

My family swam in the pool at the motel after we ate.  I swam before we ate though.

Everyone had fun swimming.

My nephews and niece went skiing while we were at the Olympic Sports Park.

At the top at Olympic Sports Park there was a ninja warrior course we wanted to try out that it didn't cost us a dime.

We had so much fun on this course and it was challenging.  We all had time competitions and challenged each other.

We want to build one of these in our local parks.  Good Eagle Scout project for the boys.

After everyone left and ate at Arby's, I went on one last ride before I left.  I did the Flying Dog Loop.

I was tired from the previous ride so I figured I just go up a little bit and pedal at an easy to moderate pace.  But I kept going and going before I realized I was at the top at the mountain.  So I figured that I'd do the whole 18 mile Flying Dog Loop.  It was fun.

About right here almost to the end, I was so tired that I was literally crawling with my bike, but it's a good view!

Then that night, I went to stay in Syracuse and Clinton at my sister's place and watched a firework show with my brother's family.

On that Sunday, I finished the trip by riding the Syracuse paved trail and then we ate and went home.

Vike on a Bike Race Loop Trail Repair Project

So, my hometown does this bike race every Memorial Day Weekend which I don't get involved in because I go to Tooele and Clinton every year during Memorial Day.  But I did repair some sections of the trails in the Black Hill area where they have this race.  Someone and I talked about repairing it but I did it mostly for myself because it's a dang fun ride loop in Black Hill, probably the best there is for mountain biking.

Rabbit Run trail had some ravines you go through and it's hard for a mountain bike to ride through but the dirt bikers like it.  So I made a B line for mountain bikers to miss the ravines.

The first ravine is what I worked on first.  I redid the whole thing and the planning and flagging for a whole six hours.

It was a lot of raking with a mcloud rake and shoveling and pulling out the sage brushes.

Fast and fun!

The turns are so much better and more easy and fun by missing the ravine.

Then I got some pictures from the GoPro camera a few months later just 3 days before the Vike on the Bike Race.  You can see that the green grass grew and the trail has been ridden on a little more.

Then here are some pictures of the new B line trail I built to miss the 2nd ravine at the end of the Rabbit Run Trail.

Lots of fun turns!

This trail turned out really good and I got some good compliments.

The trail joining back to the old trail, you can see the ravine on the left and where the old trail is.

Then at the climb right before the Quarries downhill trail, I made a new trail to make it easier to go up on a mountain bike.  Before it was just a steep hill you had to walk and sometimes too steep to walk.  So I made some switchbacks in an area in the southeast of the start of the Quarries Trail.

This one was an easy trail to build but the hardest to plan and mark.  It was so confusing because I was trying to make it 3 or 4 percent grade all the way to the top but I figured it was impossible so it had to be 10 percent grade on some parts.

It's pretty good but for me it's granny gear all the way to the top, but no problem.  A lot of other people liked it!  Sure beats walking your bike.

About 3 switchbacks all the way to the top and a good climb to do before doing the Quarries downhill trail.

The race happened and I've heard a lot people liked the new stuff and I really like the loop ride so much better and no more walking on the hard sections!  And the work paid off.

It took me two months to finish by doing on and off work, like work on it for a day for a few hours, then continue it a week or two later.  It was fun though and I hope it will be good for the future.