A.M.M.I.H. - Armstrong-Mid Mountain-Insurgent-Holly's

The Mid-Mountain trail, for years we have been wanting to tackle it but with the Ridge trail in American Fork Canyon so close, we just have never made time. 

This year, in preparing for the Wasatch Bell Enduro Race in July, we sampled some of it and had to go back for more. 

We began with a non-technical, four mile,1600ish vertical feet climb up Armstrong to reach mid mountain. Remarkably the trail was not crowded, nor very dusty either. The views from Iron mountain on the top are worth every pedal stroke.   

From Iron Mountain the trail follows the contours of the mountain towards The Canyons resort. It provides a good sampling of technical rock riding, smooth flowing sections, tree cover, tight turns all with minimal climbing. 

Reaching the Canyons Resort we came upon the "skills course". We messed around enough to take two quick pictures and move on. The gravity course combined with this looks like a sweet addition to the resort. 

From the skills course we continued up and around on Mid-mountain passing the normally used Holly's trail as the downhill route, in search of something more technical, tight, dusty, loose and sweet...Insurgent.

Insurgent is NOT a trail where speed records will be made. It IS a trail where skills and bikes can be tested. It is full of off camber, root strewn, log hopping, dusty turns that cause more off the seat butt hanging then knee out high speed berms. 

It Rocks. We will be going back for more. 

After leaving Insurgent behind we cruised down Holly's with her fast turns and "Speed Bumps" which provide a little more tech in an otherwise techless-but-still-fun-trail.

After the Dirt we hopped on the bike path and pedaled the 4 miles back to Park City Mountain Resort. 

This is a sweet ride and great place to continue exploring...One Trail at a time.

Deer Valley is next!!

A.M.M.I.H (Armstrong-Mid Mountain - Insurgent-Hollys)

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The Blackhawk Trail

When a ride begins like this, you know it is going to be good. 

The Blackhawk trail is a less known Gem that lies atop Payson canyon. Normally it is very dusty from the horseman who love the area and grazing cattle who share the trails.

 We had been putting off the ride, waiting for rain, but we finally decided to make the trip...it was well worth every pedal stroke.  

Both of us felt a little tired due to mid week leg workouts (give us a pacifier and blankie) but as the trail climbed amidst the slightly-passed-blooming mule ears, our weariness grew into excitement and anticipation for the trail ahead. 

The trail climbed passed Blackhawk campground and begins to descend then ascend, via short, steep, punctuated climbs to the Nebo loop road. The picture above is looking down into beaver damn...gorgeous.

After crossing the road gravity took over and we rolled toward rock springs, Payson lakes and eventually Bennie Creek, where the gravity lovers with downhill sleds congregate. 

Because of the popularity of Blackhawk there is very little opportunity to pin it, or really let the bike fly. It provided for a more relaxed, more flowing descent...essentially it meant I could keep up with Guthrie (downhill that is) for the first time in months.

Upon completing the loop and reaching the car, Guthrie road down Bennie creek and I picked him up at the bottom. When I got out of the car a family smiled oddly at me and the father offered a warm but slightly uncomfortable "hello". Seeing myself in the car mirror I saw the reason why...hair by helmet, punctuated by a gone-are-the-pink-bought-at-clearance-sunglasses, pair of Tifosi Ventoux with an irradescent lens. 

Ending on Bennie Creek. 

It was a Great Ride,

in a Great Canyon,

accompanied by Great weather.

All in all a Great day for seeing more of Utah...one trail at a time.

Blackhawk

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Corner Canyon - The after work special.

Lately Corner Canyon in Sandy has served as the place for mot of my after work rides as it is convenient, fairly close to the freeway and offers various one hour 7-8 mile loops which are perfect for a quick ride. 

This Saturday however, I was fighting a cold, so I decided to hit it up again as the more mild grade allows me to bike and still not have to push it hard and Guthrie was doing another race at  Wolf Mountain resort. I decided to do the entire Ann's trail from the Mike Weir trail head, down Clark's and return via the BST. It is a good 11 mile loop, although mostly all in the Sun. 

New to the trails are signs informing people about the new website Corner Canyon Trails. When I returned home I found the website. It has info about the trails and upcoming Events, like this;

 "Trek’s Factory Demo Rep for the Northwest will be setting up shop in the Equestrian Center parking lot on June 23rd from 10am to 3pm for free bicycle test rides. Here’s the link: SLC Shred fest-Draper"

That's right, free Trek demos this Saturday at the Equestrian Center Parking lot. I doubt I will be there as we're looking to do a big ride Saturday like Strawberry ridge or the Blackhawk trail in Payson canyon. But Trek is coming to Sandy, that's pretty sweet.

I am still convinced Utah is one of the best, if not the best biking state in the nation.  Trails in corner canyon, with Clarks, Rush (the new end of which is a blast) , Ghost falls and Canyon Hollow,  if located anywhere else, would be considered top of the list for riding (believe me I have seen pictures of other states) . Here it is just taken for granted. 

But even with all the options in Utah, Corner Canyon is still a great place to bike. It's nice to see a city set it as a priority and put the resources in place to make it happen. If you have never checked it out, look at their website then hit up their trails. 

 I know I will keep exploring it...one trail at a time.

Tears, Fears and Beers - Enduro race - ELY, NV -

Just a word of warning, this is a novel....

This last weekend, I went to give my first enduro type race a try in ELY, NV.

Enduro races are a bit different from any race I have done. Instead of riding uphill really fast (well, slow for me) like XC races or use a lift or shuttle to get to the top for a Downhill or Super D race, enduro combines pretty much everything. It is similar to what we do on a normal ride for the most part.. Ride up then race down... There are typically transfer sections or uphill sections that are not timed, then you have timed sections, which are mostly downhill sections. The climbing sections require good fitness and the downhill’s require decent bike handling skills along with good fitness. In this type of race, people just use an everyday trail bike so they can climb and descend.

When we started the trip, the car I normally use for biking does not have AC anymore (with 219,00 miles on it, I don’t care to get it fixed..) and with the wife, daughter and dog going, we decided to take the in-laws truck. We packed up the truck at about 4:00 on Friday to start the 4 hour drive to Ely. We started and the truck didn’t have AC either... Sweet. We drove for a while with hot air blowing out, until magically about 40 minutes into the drive, it started blowing cold air!!! Hallelujah!! After that, the drive wasn’t too bad, but there is absolutely nothing from Nephi to Ely... Seriously, it felt like we were driving to the middle of nowhere, but it was cool to go through a place we hadn’t ever seen before.

After our arrival, I headed over to the Jailhouse Casino to check in and when I walked in the door, I thought I recognized this person playing the slot machine. Then I realized it was Ben Cruz from the Cannondale Overmountain team. I thought it was pretty cool to see a couple well known pros at this race. I went and signed in and headed back to the hotel to hang out with the family and grab some dinner.

Finally, it was time to get some rest. However, the night was anything but restful... Our daughter was yelling, “ DADDY!” nonstop and wouldn’t sleep until I got her more juice. Then, just about every hour, right when we were falling asleep, she would yell it once, “DADDY!” and fall back to sleep. In the morning, after very little sleep, I woke up with some stomach issues from the Mexican food the night before.. I jumped up and realized our daughter was sleeping in the pack n’ play in the bathroom. Since her pack n play took up the entire thing, I didn’t want to wake her up and ran down the hall looking for another one. After what seemed like an eternity checking all the door signs, I found one just in the nick of time... literally..

I went back to the room, grabbed my bike and gear and set everything up. I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I only ate a clif bar for breakfast and rode about 2 miles to the park where the race was to start. Everyone was there hanging out and chatting, but I just laid down in the grass acting like I was stretching. Then it was time for the race. With no sleep and nothing in my body, I started out on the 27 mile sport loop.

It was pretty cool and different. We rode past a few brothels, through two casinos, through town and headed up to the hills. The initial climb was about 7 miles (I think) until the first timed section. Everyone was going up at an easy pace and it was just a big group ride. I rode with several different groups going up and being a first timer, asked everyone what the sections were like.

All the experienced riders told me the course is the same, but the trail conditions change from year to year making it interesting. This year was really dry, so there was a LOT of dust.

We came to the first timed section and it was super fun. The corners had 2-3” of dust and it was super loose with a little climb thrown in there. After completing this section, we started up on the next transfer section. There was this girl in front of me, that had calves of iron. I could hardly keep a comfortable pace and keep up with her, so she slowly started pulling away from me. We came to the second timed section after a climb up a dirt road and some single track. When I pulled up, I realized all the pros were about to take off. The first part of this section had a few tighter turns that went to a few short steep up hills that just burned my legs, then it opened up and was just fast and fun. The race pretty much just followed this format for 4 timed sections and was rad. They had built some nice burms, some pump track type stuff, jumps, and natural spines. It wasn’t too technical or anything, but the dust and rocks tested your handling skills as well as fitness.

On the last timed section, the trail met up with a dirt road with an arrow pointing right. I started up the road (the correct route) looked to my left and saw a trail with a couple tire marks. Thinking I had missed the turn off, I jumped off my bike, got on the trail (the wrong route) and followed this for a bit. After a while, I realized there was only one tire track on the trail behind me and that was mine... Great.. I went back up to the road, got on the right course and came down to the finish. I didn’t really care as I was just having fun and enjoying riding totally different stuff than I am used to. I ended up in fourth place and lost by less than two minutes to the first place finisher.

Right after the race, we packed up and headed home. Unfortunately, our daughter was done and there wasn’t much to see with the family. On the way home, we went through a massive dust storm complete with dust devils that were 100’s of feet high and wider than I had ever seen, we stopped at a dried up lake thing, walked out in the wind storm and took our time. We finally made it home in time for the sister-in-laws birthday.

The trip was actually a lot of fun. The race was well organized and just a blast! The trails were loose, but well maintained and the format was awesome. I can’t wait to do a few other enduro’s this year. As far as the town goes... well, I wouldn’t go back, except to do this race again... and the wife said I should probably go without her and just camp at the park next time.

End of the race... Big stupid grin...

of warning, this is a novel....

kend, I went to give my first enduro type race a try in ELY, NV.

rent from any race I have done. Instead of riding uphill really fast (well, slow for me) like XC races or use a lift or shuttle to get to the top for a Downhill or Super D race, enduro combines pretty much everything. It is similar to what we do on a normal ride for the most part.. Ride up then race down... There are typically transfer sections or uphill sections that are not timed, then you have timed sections, which are mostly downhill sections. The climbing sections require good fitness and the downhill’s require decent bike handling skills along with good fitness. In this type of race, people just use an everyday trail bike so they can climb and descend.

n we started the trip, the car I normally use for biking does not have AC anymore (with 219,00 miles on it, I don’t care to get it fixed..) and with the wife, daughter and dog going, we decided to take the in-laws truck. We packed up the truck at about 4:00 on Friday to start the 4 hour drive to Ely. We started and the truck didn’t have AC either... Sweet. We drove for a while with hot air blowing out, until magically about 40 minutes into the drive, it started blowing cold air!!! Hallelujah!! After that, the drive wasn’t too bad, but there is absolutely nothing from Nephi to Ely... Seriously, it felt like we were driving to the middle of nowhere, but it was cool to go through a place we hadn’t ever seen before.

arrival, I headed over to the Jailhouse Casino to check in and when I walked in the door, I thought I recognized this person playing the slot machine. Then I realized it was Ben Cruz from the Cannondale Overmountain team. I thought it was pretty cool to see a couple well known pros at this race. I went and signed in and headed back to the hotel to hang out with the family and grab some dinner.

ly, it was time to get some rest. However, the night was anything but restful... Our daughter was yelling, “ DADDY!” nonstop and wouldn’t sleep until I got her more juice. Then, just about every hour, right when we were falling asleep, she would yell it once, “DADDY!” and fall back to sleep. In the morning, after very little sleep, I woke up with some stomach issues from the Mexican food the night before.. I jumped up and realized our daughter was sleeping in the pack n’ play in the bathroom. Since her pack n play took up the entire thing, I didn’t want to wake her up and ran down the hall looking for another one. After what seemed like an eternity checking all the door signs, I found one just in the nick of time... literally..

ack to the room, grabbed my bike and gear and set everything up. I wasn’t feeling too hot, so I only ate a clif bar for breakfast and rode about 2 miles to the park where the race was to start. Everyone was there hanging out and chatting, but I just laid down in the grass acting like I was stretching. Then it was time for the race. With no sleep and nothing in my body, I started out on the 27 mile sport

It was pretty cool and different. We rode past a few brothels, through two casinos, through town and headed up to the hills. The initial climb was about 7 miles (I think) until the first timed section. Everyone was going up at an easy pace and it was just a big group ride. I rode with several different groups going up and being a first timer, asked everyone what the sections were like.

ll the experienced riders told me the course is the same, but the trail conditions change from year to year making it interesting. This year was really dry, so there was a LOT of dust.

We came to the first timed section and it was super fun. The corners had 2-3” of dust and it was super loose with a little climb thrown in there. After completing this section, we started up on the next transfer section. There was this girl in front of me, that had calves of iron. I could hardly keep a comfortable pace and keep up with her, so she slowly started pulling away from me. We came to the second timed section after a climb up a dirt road and some single track. When I pulled up, I realized all the pros were about to take off. The first part of this section had a few tighter turns that went to a few short steep up hills that just burned my legs, then it opened up and was just fast and fun. The race pretty much just followed this format for 4 timed sections and was rad. They had built some nice burms, some pump track type stuff, jumps, and natural spines. It wasn’t too technical or anything, but the dust and rocks tested your handling skills as well as fitness.

the last timed section, the trail met up with a dirt road with an arrow pointing right. I started up the road (the correct route) looked to my left and saw a trail with a couple tire marks. Thinking I had missed the turn off, I jumped off my bike, got on the trail (the wrong route) and followed this for a bit. After a while, I realized there was only one tire track on the trail behind me and that was mine... Great.. I went back up to the road, got on the right course and came down to the finish. I didn’t really care as I was just having fun and enjoying riding totally different stuff than I am used to. I ended up in fourth place and lost by less than two minutes to the first place finisher.

fter the race, we packed up and headed home. Unfortunately, our daughter was done and there wasn’t much to see with the family. On the way home, we went through a massive dust storm complete with dust devils that were 100’s of feet high and wider than I had ever seen, we stopped at a dried up lake thing, walked out in the wind storm and took our time. We finally made it home in time for the sister-in-laws birt

rip was actually a lot of fun. The race was well organized and just a blast! The trails were loose, but well maintained and the format was awesome. I can’t wait to do a few other enduro’s this year. As far as the town goes... well, I wouldn’t go back, except to do this race again... and the wife said I should probably go without her and just camp at the park next

nd of the race... Big stupid gri

The First Time...Glenwild - Flying Dog

For quite some time I have been wanting to ride the Glenwild-Flying Dog trail complex near Park City Utah.   
 It is fairly close to The University of Utah where I work so Friday after work I headed up the canyon. Getting to the trail head is so simple yet I made it so difficult. Driving up I-80, I turned left off the exit, then realized I just got on I-80 and down the canyon. I turned around a few miles later and headed back up...and missed the exit. So out toward Wanship I went looking for a turn around. Long story short, it took me about an hour and a half to reach the trail head. Moron, sucky start...


The trail head was packed with cars. I got ready and began to ride but with two trails leaving the parking lot,  I didn't know which trail to take. Two guys seemed familiar with the trails so I inquired of them. They said I was welcome to join them, but with spandex and two light weight racing bikes, I figured there was no way I would keep up with my larger-than-average-body-mass-and-thirty-plus-pound-bike. They showed me a longish loop, beginning with Glen wild, which I had heard was okay but nothing fantastic, and ending with flying dog, which they described as a "killer downhill" and "sweet riding". 


They had me at "killer."...and so it begun.


I rode with them for about 30 seconds, then for the rest of the ride would catch up only to see them ride off again. 


My goal was to be back before they left the parking lot. 

The Beginning of Glenwild is mostly sagebrush, but as I entered cobblestone and then Flying-Dog the sagebrush turned to aspens with a few pines and the views weren't half bad. 

I don't know what the white thing is. I probably took this because I was feeling a little sick and needed a chance to rest. 

The Entire trail is fun to ride, but it really shines in the downhill of flying dog, when ridden counter clockwise. It is fantastic, flowy, swooping, bermed and buffed goodness mixed with light technical sections and smallish jumps. Essentially this trail is about 9 miles up then 7 down (punctuated with small climbs). The last part makes the rough beginning on Glenwild worth it. I will definitely be riding it again. 

It was two hours of peaceful fun.  Just me, music and the mountains. 

Pulling into the parking lot, the two guys who pointed me in the right direction were just pulling out. I thanked them for introducing me to such sweet singletrack goodness, assured them I would be back,  and then left. 

In retrospect I noticed that whenever the talked with me they had a slight grin on their faces, then I remembered...I wear pink sunglasses (again...bought on clearance).

I will definitely be exploring this area again... one trail at a time. 

Glenwild - flying Dog Loop

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Sundance Showdown Super D Race

Super D races are rad!

This weekend I entered my first super D race of the year and second super D race ever. It was held at the beautiful Sundance resort 10-15 min from our condo. The only problem was it was on my 5 year anniversary. My awesome wife thought it would be cool to have me go to the race anyway. She is such a good wife!

The reschedule for yesterday, after the massive amount of rain last week, could not have been a more perfect day for the race. Temps were nice and warm, but not too warm, the sun was out, trails were pretty tacky, and there were a lot people with some pretty nice bikes ready to head up the lift.

The race was scheduled to start at 10:30 and with the lifts starting at 10:00, it didn't leave a lot of time for the pre-ride. I got there a bit early to set my suspension, tire pressures, put on my number plate and ride around for a bit to warm up.

After riding around for a bit, I decided to catch the lift. The lift took about 22 minutes to the top and a few of us rode around waiting for the race to start. I was racing in the Cat 2 19-29 group. It was the largest group of the day with around 25 riders. It was pretty intimidating and I had no idea what to expect. The only other Super D race I had done last year and I fell somewhere in the middle of the Cat 2 group..

The course started out on a super sketchy gravelly road, then went to single track for most of the race. It was a fun track and not too technical and not difficult to ride, but it was hard to ride fast... at least for me.. I am not the best at corners and have been trying to get better, but still suck. On this course there were probably around 30 turns/switchbacks/corners, so it was a good track to practice on and it required a lot of cornering technique and sprinting out of those turns. Then the last, probably 200 yards, was an uphill sprint on a road to the finish line.

My goals for the race were to have fun, not completely blow the corners, and pretty much push it as hard as I could for the entire race and still being able to sprint up the entire last section.

So finally, the race started. Riders were being sent off at 1:00 minute intervals. While we were waiting in line, I turned to the guy behind me and asked him nicely to try not to pass me.. The clock ticked and I was off. It was a full on sprint from the top to the gravel covered road with a turn at the bottom. I kept off my brakes and put out a foot in the corner in case I lost control. I stayed on the bike, so continued with the sprint.

The top switchbacks felt a little slower than the day before while practicing, but just reminded myself that it was just another trail. The whole time, I was just having fun trying to go as fast as I could down the mountain without worrying if a hiker, a biker, or horseman was coming up the opposite direction. As I came down toward the end, I knew I had a long hard sprint and the end, so I let up a bit on the sprinting, raised my adjustable seat post and pedaled sitting down on the last two switch corners.

I hit the road and then started the sprint... In the pic below, my head was down. It pretty much stayed like that the entire time except when I would look up for a second to see how much longer the suffering would last.. it was brutal. People were yelling, hitting cowbells, and cheering, so you had to keep going.

After the sprint and race were over, I stopped, sat on my top tube and literally, could not walk. My quads were like Jello... They called out my time of 7:56 and I honestly thought I had heard wrong, I didn't know what I was hoping for, but I was expecting something around 9:00.

I sat there for about 10 minutes until I had enough strength to get off my bike and sit down. I heard the other times in my group behind me and it seemed that I had done fairly well. My wife came and greeted me and we sat down and waited for the raffle and awards.

Much to my surprise, I took first in my category and second in the category above me (there were only a few racers). I was happy with how I did whether I placed or came in last and since I couldn't really move after the race, I think I hit my goals of having fun and pushing myself.

The race ended up being a blast and I did a LOT better than I thought I would. I just got lucky and had a good race and the trails were perfect! I still don't consider myself a racer really or even that good of a mtn biker, I just like to ride and enjoy the atmosphere. The races, however, are a blast and give me an excuse to ride, get in shape, and become a better rider.

Mountain biking is fun and keep exploring..one trail at a time.