Magnificent Ride

Last weekend, since my older brother and his family were in the Moab area, I decided to go down too.  To do some mountain biking and camp a night.  I left really early that morning and got to Moab around 10:00 AM after 3.5 hours of driving.  It was really nice, beautiful weather.  Up in central Utah where I am from, was really chilly and cloudy but when I got to Moab, it was delightful.

 I was really stoked to go for a ride and I wanted to do a long one since it was a perfect day and I haven't done a ride like in a week.  I decided to do some of the Maginificent Seven.  First, I started at the top and rode down Bull Run with lots of rocks and technical kind of stuff.  It was very fun and all downhill, I enjoyed it so much.  Then I went down on Arth's Corner which was the same as Bull Run and all the other trails I did that day.

After riding on Little Canyon Singletrack, I turned onto Great Escape Trail and met some other bike riders and talked to them for a while.  They were nice.  Great Escape is one of my favorites, I did it before like last year or so.  It had real good climbing and a lot of obstacles to go over.  Also great views!

 Great Escape

 At the end of the Great Escape Trail, I stopped to look at Gemini Bridges.  Then I did a return ride on Getaway Trail which was the least technical trail.  It was more sandy a little faster to ride on because it's been packed down to ride on.  It was a climb all the way up and you know how I like climbing?  Because it gives me an awesome workout.  At the end of Getaway, the ride got technical again.  I was planning to take a shortcut to Seven Up to finish the ride but I was so worn out and it has been about 3 hours.  I drank all of my water and ate all my food by then and I was really tired.  So I took the Gemini Bridges Road back to the trailhead  just to shorten the ride by 2 miles.  I am glad I did that because I probably wouldn't make it up on Seven Up.  I wanted to do part of Seven Up but I got to listen to my body.  Oh well.

According to the map, I did the figure 8 ride and loved it.  It was great riding.  That night, I went to my brother's camp and pitched my tent and had good time with my niece and nephews and sat by the fire under the stars.  Moab always make a good trip.

Canyonlands

 Here's some random pictures of Canyonland's Island in the Sky my parents and I went to go check out.  Beautiful country.  We were in awe.

 Mesa Arch

 Wow.

 Awesome.

 Upheaval Dome.  Either a metoer crashed in or something else happened.

 Awesome switchbacks.  No, we didn't drive on this road, not part of the Island of the Sky tour drive.  My parents would have a heart attack anyway.

 Dad lovcd every minute of the tour, he even started remembering his river raft trip in Cateract Canyon when he was 14 or 15.  The following Sunday, he talked to his old leader on the phone to Tooele to talk about the memories.  I even had to look for the phone number on the internet.  It was awesome.  Also, how his leader is still alive.

 These cliffs were amazing.

To those who have never been there, you are missing out!  Even my parents were glad to see this before they die.

Early Spring Moab Biking

 I wanted to go to Moab so badly in a long time, it was finally time.  After a harsh winter, I was definitely getting spring fever.  My parents butted along, I paid for the motel room and they paid for gas and food.  When we got there, it was windy and the temperature was ok.  Warm enough, but the wind was gusty.  I still went that night to do a short ride.  I went to the Klonzo Trail System and they were just newly built last fall. 

 These trails are mostly designated as intermediate trails but ya, they were intermediate.  They were also short but you can get a good workout if you fly by.  These trails were mostly dirt singletrack with a little dash of slickrock.  I still liked these trails because they were windy and twisty in most places.  You won't get a real hardcore technical Moab ride out of these trails, but hey, the Klonzo trails are way better than the trails at my home or even Park City I thought.  Because it was still all in Moab.  I think they made these trails not too technical on purpose because they needed some trails in the area for beginners and intermediates also.

 I still had a blast and the scenery was awesome for a Moab arrival late afternoon ride.

 The next day, on Saturday, Moab was cold and windy.  Mom and dad and I decided to go to the Island of the Sky in Canyonlands.  My parents never been there and I have once when I was a teenager when I was with my older brother and sister.  I remember very little of it.  Probably only Upheavel Dome, but not the lookouts.  Anyway, we went there that morning and after that, I decided to go on another bike ride while my parents went into town to eat lunch.  I rode on the Brand Trails, I've ridden there before and wanted to ride there again because they were so fun.  I rode on EZ Trail, Deadman's Ridge, Bar B, and Rockin' A.  These trails were very fun.  Deadman's Ridge was definitely my favorite, it was so technical and challenging and I cleaned most of the trail.  I haven't ridden that good in a long time.

 I'm definitely going back to Moab in a couple of weeks, and hopefully it won't be as cold or windy.

-fun part of Deadman's Ridge.

New biking designation close by: Price, UT

 One weekend when my parents went away to do some grandkid sitting, I was left home alone.  I was going to go up with them thinking I can take my bike with me and do some biking where they were going to be which was Antelope Island.  I called the people at Antelope Island and they said the trails there were still muddy.  So I stayed home anyway.  That Friday night, I felt like going someplace for the weekend to bike where there was no snow or mud.  I browsed all through the internet and found about Price which was right over the other side my mountain, it still was a 2 hour drive though, but less than Moab or St. George, even Antelope Island.  Like places with low elevations and desert environment.

 When I got there at the trailhead, the weather was decent and good enough for jacket weather.  Later on, I was in shorts and a thermal jersey, it was perfect weather.  The trails I did was Luke's and S'mo Joes.  They were awesome trails.  They looked like they weren't ridden much because of early of the year.  I think all the snow just barely melted off like a week before.  These trails had a lot of turns and twists and this system of trails reminded me a lot of a trail I used to love in Farmington, NM.  They both have trails on a mesa and goes in a loop like this.  The trail in New Mexico was the Road Apple Trail.

 At halfway of the loop, at the top, was a fork out of some more trails that go further north, I guess I've read that they are awesome too and adds like 1,500 of vertical climbing.  There were no tracks at all on these trails, so I figured don't do them yet and wait like a few weeks later after a few people have ridden them so I would know where I would go.

 The total miles in the loop was like around 8 or 9 miles, when I got back to the trailhead, I wanted to do more.  So I did Luke's again and did it an out and back, and also rode Alan's Alley.  So the total miles I did that was 15 miles.  It was a blast.  I am planning to go back again and do this loop plus the northern trails, since it's so close to where I live.

Here's a sweet map of all the mountain bike trails near Price.

Fat bike up the canyon

Pretty much the whole winter before going up the canyon road was not really in my agenda, I decided one weekend to give it a shot.  The first day I went, I parked the car at the bottom of Ephraim Canyon by the hydroplant, there was maybe a couple inches of packed down snow on the road.  First, I planned to climb up to Major's Flat where mostly the plowed up road ended and a big parking area for snowmobilers.  The continous road was only open for snowmobilers and was packed down pretty much by snowmobiles.  While I had some energy leftover, I decided to try out the roadwide packed down snowmobile trail.  It was great and I really enjoyed climbing up more on it.  I climbed up and stopped right below Ponderosa Pine Plantation.  I put on my jacket and headed down, it was a blast.  This road is the funnest downhill I've ridden my fat bike on so far because the road was wide and packed down which felt safer.  Duke kept up with me and had fun going down too.  The wide low pressured tires had so much traction on this road and I was impressed. 
I went another ride up the canyon road about 3 days later which was on Presidents Day.  That time, I started from Major's Flat and made it up to Willow Creek Road and rode on that road for a little bit until I got really cold.  It was cold that morning because it was early.  The ride down was also cold.  I had some pretty good rides on the fat bike up the canyon road. 

Best fat bike ride of the year so far

After little snowstorm on a Friday night, there was maybe an inch or two of snow on the roads and I did want to go on some ride or some sort.  I couldn't go on my road bike because the roads were too slick, I couldn't go on my mountain bike because I just got it the day before and I was hestitant about getting it wet and snowed on(brand new bike), and I couldn't go on my fat bike because it was sitting in the laundry room with no bottom backet and crank hooked onto it.  So I just laid on my bed all morning staring at the ceiling thinking about what to do, I was thinking about going on another hike like I did the week before or maybe the roads would be clear and dried by the afternoon.  Then I got a call from Brian at Alley Cat Bike Shop and told me the good news, the bearings for the bottom bracket for my fat bike had come in the mail.  I then went down with my deranged fat bike and he put the new bearings in the bottom bracket cups and hooked my crank back on.  Before, the bearings got seized from the whole winter of snow and slush so I had to replace them.  Anyway, I went on a fat bike ride that afternoon and it was awesome.  I rode up on Kane Valley Road and all the way to that flat at the top and kept going down by the Quarries, then rode out on the base of Black Hill.  There were old truck tire tracks I could ride over and there was a little snow and was a long ride(for me), it was beautiful.  The sun came out in some spots and I have got some snow flakes fall on me, and a little wind.  The temperature was cold but was still perfect for my kind of riding.  This might be my last fat bike ride, depends how warm it gets in the next few weeks because it's not fun to ride in slushy snow while it's warm, plus it really ruins the bike when it's really wet.  The perfect fat bike temperature is 25 degrees or lower and the perfection conditions is when the snow is packed down and not too deep and not too slushy.  Well, we'll see, it's Utah, you never know.  

A little hiking

 While all 3 bikes were broke down(fat bike needed new bottom bracket, mountain bike needed new frame, and road bike was getting a tune up), I felt like I still needed to do something.  I took hiking back to attention.  I got in the car, took Duke and drove up the road from my house to Gordon's farm and started hiking.  I did dress for it, I had snow hiking boots and gaiters and took a water bottle.  I climbed up to the screen on Bald Mountain.  The road up to it was partially ridden on, well, just one four wheeler, so I followed one of the tracks.  Duke had a blast and so did I.  It was super fun and good exercise.  And good cross training, especially for the winter.  The view at the top was awesome.  Then later that weekend, I went on the hike again and this time it was easier and I wasn't sweating as much.  The weather was beautiful, ok, maybe not, but for Utah it was.  This is perfect cross training for me because I love to hike.  If mountain bikes didn't exist, I'd be a serious hiker.  Hiking is my second favorite outdoor vigorous activity after mountain biking and cycling.