Payson Spring of 2016

Well, no more desert riding for a while now.  It's time now for the forests and grass.  This weekend, I went to Payson 4 Bay Trails.  I went up there mainly to take this desk up to my sister-in-law's brother I have been making.

It was raining on the way up from Nephi to Payson and it was raining a lot.  I thought my ride would be long gone because I thought the trails were muddy.   After I delivered the desk I went up the canyon to check for the heck of it.  Shockingly, the trails were dry as bone but down at the city of Payson, it was all wet.  

So I rode and it was a blast.  It was very windy but that didn't stop me.  I love these singletrack trails and they are very well made and this is like the 3rd or 4th time I rode in the Four Bay.  After the trail riding, I wanted to ride more and then I rode up Payson Canyon Road a little bit and just kept going.  I made it up until the gate that said, "Road Closed".  I could of passed the gate and gone more but I ran out of water.  I then headed back down.  It reminded me that I have to do more canyon road climbs, not just trails only.  I need to be more versatile on my bike riding.

This is the desk I made since President's Day during my free time in the shop.  My sister-in-law's brother got this granite top from Morocco and he asked me to make a standing desk with it.

My boss helped on all of the thinking and this is how we planned it.  I did all the work and my boss did the clear coat on it last.  It looks really nice!

Now one less thing to worry about.  I have a few more "free time projects" to do and it's like people are on a waiting list.  Ha ha.  Well, it's just for my family members though.  But it's nice to be able to work in a cabinet shop and have all this equipment and tools to work with.

Cedar City Spring of 2016

This weekend I went to Cedar City to check out the new stuff there.  There's been some new trails being built and there will be more being built later on.

On Saturday, I did Thor's Hideout out in the hills by Cedar City.  It was great, kind of steep but really good.  Because of the steepness, it's not a beginner trail.  It's great for me and I liked the trail.

I climbed all the way to the top and then down Red Hollow Trail.  There were some trailbuilders fixing the trail and I stopped and talked to them.  They told me they are building 15 miles of more trail in the area starting in end of May.  I'm looking forward to it.

Then I went along the Razorback Trails back to the trailhead and did Thor's Hideout again and back down Thor's.

The next morning, I did some more new trails in the southwest part of Cedar City, Lichin It and Lava Flow.  Great loop!  I did a couple laps.

Lichin It is a very low grade percentage climb to the top and really fast.

Lava Flow downhill flow trail has lots of berms and rock gardens.  Very enjoyable!
It was a fun little weekend trip.  I kind of wanted to do Three Peaks again like last year but it was very windy all weekend and these trails I did were perfect for the gusty winds because they were mostly north face trails with mountains blocking the southwest winds.  Well, fun!

Good Water Rim and Buckhorn Draw Spring of 2016

I went to my annual Little Grand Canyon trip.  This time I rode the whole thing with a total of 29 miles on Good Water Rim Trail.  It was fast.

Spectacular.

My dad and my dog Duke came along.  I let Duke run with me a little bit and then I went back to take him back then I rode the rest of the ride.

We then camped down at Buckhorn Draw that night.  We got a good camping spot.

Really pretty.  We had a good campfire and it was perfect.

The next morning I rode my bike on the Buckhorn Draw Road.  A very pretty ride!

The fee campground down at the bottom.

Like always, I saw the pictograph panel along the road.

I got a total of 27 miles on the Buckhorn Draw Road.  I also rode some of the roads at the top.  It was a good trip.  I needed it!  So did my dad and my dog.

Two Day Spring Break

I went down to Calf Creek Falls with my brother and his family.

The hike was about 6 miles and it was easy.  I showed up late because of truck problems so my brother and his family had a head start and I met them on the trail.  I walked very fast to there and back.

Lower Calf Creek Falls was a really cool waterfall.  It was pretty cold in the area too so nobody was swimming in it.

It would be fun to swim in it in the summer time though but the hike to it would be gruesome because of the hot sand on the trail.

They invited me to camp with them so we camped in Caineville.  We got to take some cool pictures that night!

Rainbow.

Pretty cool.  We watched two movies in the trailer and I slept really good.  It was very nice of them to let me stay in their trailer.

The next morning, we hiked to Hickman Bridge in Capitol Reef.

Got some pretty pictures.

Then I went on an alone hike up to Navajo Knobs and said goodbye to my brother and his family.  Navajo Knobs is a really long hike and has a lot of climbing.  It was uphill all the way to the knobs with a few breaks of downhill.  The whole hike was 11 miles.

Made it!  Powered by two kippered snacks....and a banana.

And there were some other people there too.

It was a hard 4 hour hike and I loved it.  It was very enjoyable and scenic.  I got a free motel stay in Torrey and I can use it anytime.  Another excuse to go back to Capitol Reef!

Early Spring Riding: Eagle Mountain and Price Areas

I had some pretty good rides out of town in the last 2 weeks.  Last weekend, I went and did the Eagle Mountain high school race course again.

It's a good little area with no crowds.  I know Corner Canyon is in the same area but out in Eagle Mountain, it's so much better.  Out of the city and no people.  I liked it.

So, I started on a trail from Eagle Mountain which was a steep climb and I cleaned it all and rode to the little meadow area with the race course and did a couple of laps.  It was fast and fun!  I got some personal records on Strava this time too.

The next morning I rode on the Murdock Canal paved trail from the motel.  I rode about 12 miles from Thanksgiving Point to Pleasant Grove and back which made the total ride at 24 miles.  It was a pleasant ride but a little chilly.  It was still nice though.

Then this weekend, at the last minute, like in the morning, I decided to drive over the mountain to Price and ride the trails there.

It was nicer than I expected, not too cold, just pleasant.  I did wear a jacket and knickers though but it was just still warmer than I thought.  And the wind wasn't as bad as I thought.  Sometimes there was no wind or when there was wind, it was light and variable.

I did Allen's Alley, Luke's, IMBAtween, Therapy, Smo Joe's, back to the trailhead, then a new trail(which i liked best), IMBAtween again, then back down the new trail and backtracked Allen's Alley.  The ride was 16 miles with 1,004 foot vertical.

It was a good ride and the singletrack was fast and packed down.  It was just what I needed for a day like this.  At first, I was kind of undecisive on this trip and now I am glad I went.

There was a lot of artwork along the trails and even some new ones I've never seen before even though I ride on this trail system every year.  It was entertaining.  Good ride!