It was nice to be back in northern Utah, away from the ugg desert. We had one full day and a partial day left in our trip before time to start the long drive back to Tennessee. Shannon took the day off the bike after a good, long ride for her at the Moab Brand Trails yesterday. She spent today with Gma, getting in that last little bit of family time.
I got up early and hopped in the car, bound for Park City. I couldn't wait to get back into the mountains and sling some dirt on my bike to cover the desert sand. Mountains have always fascinated me, but this group in Park City really had me wanting more and more and more riding.
I parked at Deer Valley, low down the mountain at Snow Park. It was a chilly morning, so I thought starting with a good climb would help get the blood flowing and raise the body temperature. My goal was to explore a few new trails while also ripping a few that I found last week. My legs were hurting from the 5+ hours of riding in Moab yesterday. The steep hill sprint repeats that make up the Slickrock Trail definitely took a toll on my legs.
The Deer Crest Trail took me from Snow Park about 4 miles up Bald Mountain to the Silver Lake Resort, where I then caught Team Big Bear and snaked my way up to the western side of the top of Bald Mountain. Moose Bones took me over to Corvair, a trail I rode several times last week. Today, I descended it, going as fast as I could through the tight aspens and getting air in every place possible. It was such a fun descent that brought me out at the Empire Lodge. I had now visited all three Deer Valley lodges in just over an hour of riding.
Interesting way for a tree to split
The lone golden aspen next to this part of Moose Bones
I really had no plan now except to go further to the west and explore. So I decided Mid Mountain would be the best trail to help me with that. It has endpoints at Deer Valley behind Silver Lake, and also behind Canyons Resort. I was guessing it was probably 7-8 miles over to Canyons. I decided to ride to Canyons, hit some of the jumps there, and then ride Mid Mountain back.
The trail was really flowy and fun. There were some long climbs, but nothing too difficult. There were some spectacular views of Park City along the way. I kept riding my way toward Canyons. Just when I thought I was almost there I saw a sign that said the next cross-trail was the last turn-off from Mid Mountain for 11 miles until it reached Canyons. 11 miles!!!! I had already ridden 7 and there were still 11 more miles to go! I guess weaving around the ridges in the mountainside really tacks on the mileage.
Mid Mountain
Overlooking Park City from the Mid Mountain trail
The last turn-off trail that the sign had mentioned was one I had heard good things about when doing my research before this trip. It was called Pinecone Ridge. The pages I read mentioned a long, steady climb through dense forest with a heck of a view at the top. So I took the chance and headed up. It was the best 4 miles of climbing I have ever ridden. The trail snaked its way up to the tip-top of a tall ridge, alternating through bands of aspen and pine forests along the way. Some sections were super dark because the pines were so thick that it blocked out the sun. I caught several other riders along the way. It's really becoming a popular trail and now I understand why.
The wind was howling at the top. I rode over to the edge of the ridge and sat down for a lunch overlooking the entire Park City valley. I had Jupiter Peak and Bald Mountain off to my right and Mt. Timpanogos towering up behind me. It was a very cool spot to be in. Definitely worth the climb up.
Looking north from the top of Pinecone Ridge
The choices for trails are sort of limited when you are on top of Pinecone Ridge. You have two choices: go back down the Pinecone Ridge trail, or descend the south side of the ridge on a steep fire road known as "puke hill" to the locals. The problem with descending "puke hill" is that you have to climb back over the ridge at some point in order to get back to Deer Valley. I had already climbed over 12 miles today, but I still chose that option as I wanted to explore the south side of the mountains.
It was a good choice, as I found Scott's Bypass, another climbing trail through beautiful groves of aspens and mountain pastures that took me up to the top of Scott's Hill, which sits next to Jupiter Peak. I had to jump on a scenic drive for a few minutes, then took the Jupiter Peak trail which sharply climbed to the lower of the two tips of Jupiter Peak. Elevation was well over 10,000 ft on Jupiter and I fully felt it as I struggled to get myself up to the top.
Riding up Scott's Bypass with a peak ahead in the distance
Looking off Scott's Hill
The view from over 10,000 ft atop Jupiter Peak
Looking down on Shadow Lake from Jupiter Peak
I enjoyed another awesome view on top of Jupiter before coming back down. I descended for over 30 minutes, taking many trails down from the peak including the black-diamond Dead Tree, the fast, turn-filled Apex, and Steps. I had in over 4 hours by the time I got back to Mid Mountain and made my way back to the Empire Lodge. My choice now was to either descend back down to the car and call it a day, or climb back up Bald Mountain and take a new trail down. The legs were tired, but mentally I wasn't done yet. So back up I went on the Tour des Suds Upper trail.
Riding off Jupiter Peak
Heading down Steps with a nice view ahead of me
The top of Tour des Suds provides a nice view, with the Silver Lake lodge area in the foreground and Park City in the background
I climbed all the way to the very tip of Bald Mountain this time, getting one final overlook of the Deer Valley Resorts and of the Jordanelle Reservoir. This time there were no storms in the distance. I chose Alpine Slalom to bring me back down the mountain. It turned out to be a rather difficult trail. The turns were very steep and most of them were rocky and very technical. I walked a few of them as the drops were more than I could handle. It was so steep at one point that my camera flew out of my Camelbak and passed me as I was going down a set of roots. It really heated up my brakes and I found that the Avid Juicy 7s don't like that too much.
Wooden obstacle on Alpine Slalom
Alpine Slalom brought me out just before Silver Lake. I got to hit the wooden S-curves of Dog Pound before passing by Silver Lake on my way back to the car. After a short climb, the last few miles were all descending. I took the downhill trail of Devo to get me to the bottom. Devo was used as part of the downhill course at some of the old NORBA Nationals races that Deer Valley hosted in the past. It was my first time down it and I had a lot of fun. There were some good rock gardens, some small jumps, fast corners and even a big drop near the bottom. It was a 6-foot drop off a concrete pad that made more interesting by the fact that you could not see the landing until you were in the air. There were rocks lining the take-off zone as you approached the edge.
Rocks lined the take-off before the drop of this concrete pad
In the air off the concrete pad drop
The Snow Park area from Devo
GPS of today's long ride
Video highlights on today's ride
I made it back to the car in one piece with a hot set of brakes. It was a great day of riding. I covered 41 miles in 6:20, including 4 major climbs that accounted for an estimated 20 miles of climbing. Now that's the kind of day I was hoping for when we decided to leave Moab early!
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