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 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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