Park City

     Our first Sunday in Utah was a good day to recover. It came the day after the XTERRA USA Championship. I was still in sad shape. I was weak and still feeling a little questionable in the stomach region. As LDS members, Utah is the ultimate place for us. I was grateful to have at least seen Temple Square, but there was another church surprise for us. A new temple was being dedicated in Brigham City this Sunday and all the churches in Utah were spending the morning service watching the dedication ceremony. It was my first ever temple dedication and it was really cool to have been able to experience it in Utah.

Brigham City Temple

Photo taken from ldschurchtemples.com

    After church, we just hung out with family and got caught up on everyone's lives. Once my stomach finally felt back to normal, I got to eat some of Gma's home-cooked food to refuel for the week ahead. Our plan was to spend the next few days in Park City, then move down to Moab for the weekend and beginning of the next week. I was pumped for Moab. It's definitely the most famous place in mountain biking. I had heard good things about Park City, but I was not near as excited to go there.

Looking toward the Wasatch Mountains from the street Gma lives on

     It was a gloomy Monday morning when I departed Gma's house bound for Park City for the week. We were camping all week at Jordanelle State Park, just a few miles from the center of Park City. Shannon stayed behind today, spending the day with Gma and then hanging out with Amber in the afternoon. I set up camp at Jordanelle in the sprinkling rain, then grabbed my bike and headed over to Deer Valley. There are several resorts in the Park City area, all of which feature miles and miles of mountain bike trails. The maps provided by the resorts were just downright confusing. If I hadn't discovered SkidMap I would've been lost the entire trip. SkidMap is a great idea and I hope they expand it to other states soon. Check out the site here: http://www.skidmap.com/

Low-hanging clouds on I-25

Looking west at the Oquirrh Mountains from I-215. This was the least haze I had seen in the valley yet.

Entering the canyon before Park City on I-80

Our campsite at Jordanelle State Park

View from our campsite. The Reservoir was blocked by a few trees.

View of the Jordanelle Reservoir from a few steps away from the campsite

A magpie stole a few Cheez-Its while I was snapping the lake picture. They are some clever little birds. And quick too.

      Deer Valley was the resort that caught my attention because it has previously hosted a NORBA National race. I was disappointed to find out that the lifts were not running. Apparently, September is the off-season at the resorts. Only Canyons had any lifts running and they were on limited hours and quite pricey.

      The Deer Valley area contains three major lodges/villages and a ton of cabins. Snowpark is the main lodge lower down the mountain. Midway up the mountain you can go to either Empire Lodge or Silver Lakes. The biggest gaggle of mountain bike trails are closest to Silver Lakes so that is where I parked. There were no signs to the trails and I got lost right away. I ended up riding a big loop on the road looking for trails. I rode partway down the mountain before I realized I was going the wrong way, then had to climb almost 2 miles back up the road to finally get on a piece of singletrack.

      I was frustrated by the time I finally got to the trail, but that quickly faded from the shear beauty of the woods. It was indescribable. The leaves were so bright and yellow on the aspen trees, way brighter than anything I have seen in Tennessee. The contrast of the white trunks against the yellow leaves was stunning. I enjoyed every pedal stroke through those woods. It made the 27 hour drive out here totally worth it.

Tour des Suds Upper Trail. My first piece of trail encountered in Park City.

View North from Tour des Suds Upper Trail.

    I got lost a few more times, but honestly I didn't care. I worked my way up the mountain, basically having the trails to myself. I saw a lady trail running, but otherwise saw no other person on the trails.The main mountain at Deer Valley is Bald Mountain. That's where the bike lifts go to and where most of the downhill and freeride trails begin. The west side of the resort features more XC trails, but most of the trails either go up or down. There isn't much in-between.

       I did a lot of research on the trails here prior to this trip. UtahMountainBiking.com is a good source for trail reviews and maps. I had seen pictures of some of the trails around the top of Bald Mountain and knew that's where I wanted to be. My bike of choice for Park City was my Trek Remedy. It's my play bike with 6 plush inches of travel front and rear. There are not many freeride and downhill trails to be found in Tennessee so I was on the hunt for some big stunts here in Utah to challenge my skills. It was the first I had ridden my Remedy in several months so it felt weird at first, but I quickly adjusted to being able to run over everything in my path.

Aspen-lined trails

Looking down on Park City form the trail

      The top of Bald Mountain is one huge pasture. There are no trees, hence the name. The pasture was beautiful. It was bordered with more bright yellow aspens and there were views a-plenty. Several mountain peaks were visible to the south and there was a nice view of the Heber Valley off to the east. I didn't go all the way to the top because I got distracted by the sight of wooden obstacles on the Homeward Bound trail. I played on a pair of big dirt tabletop jumps and a wooden roller-coaster for a while, taking pictures and video with the GoPro.

Looking toward Ontario Canyon from the Flagstaff Loop Trail

Mountain pasture

Wooden roller-coaster of fun on the Homeward Bound Trail

Big berm on Homeward Bound

Two well-built tabletops in a row

The second tabletop of the two that start off the Homeward Bound Trail

Jumping the tabletop on the Remedy

     It was so peaceful up there by myself. Nothing but me, my bike and the trail. It was such a beautiful afternoon too. I could've just laid down and stared at the sky all day. But there was so much to ride! Amber brought Shannon up to Park City so we could have dinner. I had to cut my ride a little short, but that was fine. I had discovered my paradise. I stayed on the Homeward Bound trail back down to Silver Lake. The trail was full of stunts and berms that kept me smiling. It had everything from narrow skinnies to wall rides and log rides. My face hurt from smiling by the time I made it down.

Multiple trails are criss-cross the pasture at the top of Bald Mountain

     The very bottom of the trail featured a split off the main trail onto a section called Dog Pound, which featured more wooden stunts, including a long, twisty wooden section that dumped you out right at Silver Lake. What a ride!

Dog Pound

     Here's some video of my first day of riding:

Day 1 video highlights

     Amber, Shannon and I had pizza at a small joint in Park City, then we parted ways. Amber had to go back to West Jordan for her new job teaching. She's an official nerd now: a math teacher. Just kidding Eber! Shannon and I headed down to Jordanelle for our first night of camping. Tomorrow's plan was for more riding, this time taking Shannon along to help explore the area on two wheels.