Days on the Mountain

     The first full week in Utah began with another day on the trails around Park City. Rather than parking at Deer Valley like I normally do, I took the advice of the guys from the first bike shop I went to in Sandy. I parked behind the Park City Mountain Resort, which is way down at the bottom of the mountain range. My plan was to explore the lower slopes of the mountain. The Mid Mountain trail, like its name suggests, runs in the middle of the mountain. The trails below Mid Mountain are newer, more groomed and the new style of "flow" trails. Most of the trails above Mid Mountain are older, more singletrack, and often more gnarly with both technical features and the difficulty of the climbing.

Climbing straight out of Park City

The CMG trail wastes no time in gaining elevation up the mountain

     I made about an hour on the lower slopes before venturing further up Mid Mountain. I love the flow trails, but the remoteness of the top of the mountain sucked me in. After two hours, I found myself on the steepest pitches atop Jupiter Peak on Scott's Trail, passing by the beautiful Shadow Lake along the way. This was one of the areas I rode last year and I just loved it. It's a fun climb, but the best part is the feeling once you reach the top. You have just climbed above 10,000 ft elevation and now it's all downhill back to the car!

Shadow Lake. The color of the vegetation and water is so bright here.

Vertical shafts of bright yellow flowers growing on the banks of Shadow Lake

Shady singletrack through the woods on Scott's Bypass trail.

     It was a good 30 minutes of descending as I tied together some of my all-time favorite trails including Apex and Webster. I took the all-new Tommy's Two Step trail for part of the journey and then caught the high-traffic Spiro trail back to the car. I liked Spiro, but it is used by many people so you can't enjoy it all the way for fear of running over someone.

On top of Jupiter Peak.

     I got finished with a massive headache and was cold. It was another three hour ride that thoroughly kicked my butt. I had started later in the day today and the sun was already setting behind the mountains, bringing the Fall chill into the air.

     I spent the morning mowing grass for Gpa. He stills rides the big mower, but he needed someone to trim for him. It definitely needed it. The weeds around the edge of the backyard were thick and tall. I had a hard time cutting through them with his weedeater. I didn't bring any shoes suitable for mowing, so I did the trimming in my mountain bike shoes. They were stiff, but worked just fine. I got back to SLC in time to catch dinner with the family at Golden Corral. Gpa and Gma wanted to repay me for my yard work with a buffet dinner. That's my kind of payment! Normally, I will eat until my stomach bursts at Golden Corral, but the headache kept me in check tonight. Stupid altitude. It's still winning the battle over me.

     Shannon got her first ride in this week. After my ride behind Park City Mountain Resort, I thought I had found some trails suitable for her to get in a longer ride without too much climbing. We parked atop Guardsman Pass and started from near the top of Jupiter Peak. We found some fun trails taking us down the mountain. Once we reached Mid Mountain, we rode over to Deer Valley and climbed our way back up the Tour des Suds trail. It's a tough little climb that gave Shannon about all she wanted. She was rewarded for her efforts with a nice descent down Corvair, one of the best descents on the mountain.

Shannon on Scott's Hill

Me on the Webster trail

Webster

    I wish I had been able to ride Corvair with her, but I had to go get the car, which was three miles of climbing away. I did the same steep climb up the road to Guardsman Pass that I did at the end of the ride to Midway last week, but this time I was on a heavy mountain bike. It took me a while, but I made it to the car. I went down the mountain, picked up Shannon, and then we were off to lunch in Heber City at Granny's Drive-In. We found this place last year and they have the best burgers and shakes I have ever put in my mouth.

     After stuffing ourselves, we drove back up to Empire Pass and Shannon let me do a few shuttle runs down the Payroll and Corvair trails. There was a spot on Corvair where fresh pine needles had fallen. One 15 foot stretch of trail was completely green. I had never seen a trail look like that before. After an hour of shuttling, we called it a day as it started to get dark. It was the end of yet another fun day of riding in Utah.

Another great view from the trail

Riding a skinny on Mid Mountain

When I got back to the car on top of Guardsman Pass, I almost went to the wrong car. Parked next to us was a black Taurus exactly like mine. Only my car was 1600 miles away.

     Here's a video that highlights our day on the mountain:

Video: Another day on the mountain