Little Cottonwood Canyon parallels Big Cottonwood Canyon, running east from the valley up into the Wasatch Mountains. Only a single row of mountains separate the two canyons. Little Cottonwood is shorter and a little steeper than Big Cottonwood. I parked a little over a mile from the official start of the climb, but it was still uphill from my parking lot to the turn onto Little Cottonwood. That gave me a little time to see how the legs felt before the climb began. I actually felt much better than expected, so I decided to hammer it once the main climb began. There was a rider with me when I started hammering. He caught me just before the turn and was sitting in my draft. I attempted to talk to him, but he would not pull up next to me. That was part of the reason why I decided to turn up the pace.
Going up Little Cottonwood Canyon
The climb is steady early on, then has some steeper sections, but nothing incredibly difficult. I managed to shell the wheel-sucker and got into a great rhythm. I caught several other riders who were much nicer and more social than that guy.
My legs faded out after three miles and my hammer ride turned into a fun, sight-seeing ride. The leaves are changing more in this canyon and provided some very bright colors, especially at the top in Alta. The Tour of Utah finishes a stage on this road. They climb to the Snowbird Resort, which comes after 6.5 miles of climbing. The road continues up for two more miles to the small town of Alta, which sits at 8,717 ft. elevation. It looked like the road went up even farther, just on gravel and dirt. It makes me want to do some research for next year and maybe bring my mountain bike to do a long combination ride of pavement, gravel/dirt roads and singletrack through this whole section of the Wasatch range.
Looking down on Snowbird and its green grass rooftop
Bright fall colors at the top
There are no hairpin turns on this road, but there are plenty of fun corners that are sharp enough and fast enough that you can really lay the bike over on the descent. I had a lot of fun. It was kind of cold at the top with dark clouds hovering over the canyon, but the bottom was still warm and sunny. It was like descending into a totally different day.
Alta ski area
On my way down Little Cottonwood Canyon
Back to full sunshine near the bottom
After riding, the whole family met up at one of our favorite places to eat, Brick Oven. They have good pizza and homemade root beer. I'm all about the root beer. I've also discovered apple beer here in Utah. It has a strange taste, but I like it and will be bringing at least one case home with me.
Thunderstorms rolled in after lunch and made for a soggy afternoon. We had planned to go with Amber to her school's homecoming football game. She works at Summit Academy High School and they were hosting Milford High School. It seemed like a bad idea to go to the game with such bad weather looming, but somehow we ended up in the car and on our way to the school. We got there and sat down in the stands just in time to get hit with a massive storm. Lightning was flashing alla round campus so the game was delayed and everyone took shelter inside the school for about 20 minutes. Then the storm passed and we were treated to a sloppy football game. It was a dull first half until three touchdowns were scored inside the final 1:30 of the second quarter. The teams were tied at halftime and played really well in the second half. The game went down to the final 30 seconds, when Summit made a goal-line stand to keep Milford out of the endzone and secured the win. It was totally worth getting wet for.
It rained all day Saturday, And I do mean all day. It was colder too so I did not venture out for a rain ride. The Tour de Donut was supposed to be on Saturday morning, but I was not about to eat soggy donuts, so I stayed home. The forecast called for three more days of rain, so we decided to pack up on Sunday and head for Tennessee. The skies cleared a bit as we loaded the car and we could see the storm had left some snow on top of the mountains to the east.
We left just after lunch and drove straight through to get home in just over 24 hours of driving. Thankfully, we did not encounter any tornadoes or bad traffic like last year, but we did go through a nasty storm around Cheyenne, WY just as it was starting to get dark. I was dreaming of the Curt Gowdy trails until we got to Laramie and it was pouring rain. There actually was a nice rainbow over toward Curt Gowdy as we went by. The storm featured some of the most impressive streaks of lightning I have ever seen. Each streak was longer and brighter than I have ever seen before. They seemed to jump cloud-to-cloud several times before finally shooting down to the ground. Also, the streaks were slightly red in color making them even more visually stunning.
Rainbow over Curt Gowdy
I think this was the best trip we have ever taken. I had a great time and got in a lot of riding while still getting to do the family thing. I still cannot believe how good of shape I was in for this trip. So many things were better. My endurance was killer. I did four 5+ hour rides each week with little fatigue in the legs. I handled the altitude with minimal change in fatigue levels and only one headache this year. My speed was obviously better. I blew out my previous best times up Big Cottonwood Canyon, Pine Canyon and Butterfield Canyon. And I stepped up my game on the downhill/freeride trails at Canyons, hitting bigger jumps, taller drops and higher skinnies than I have ever ridden in my life. All of these things were such a surprise to me. I guess all the hard work at the end of the summer finally did pay off.
My main goal for the trip was not to gain weight. I have been steadily dropping weight since last November. I was up to 17-18 lbs. lost when I started the trip. Last year, I gained six pounds while we were gone, even with all the riding I did. Gma is a food fanatic. Seriously, she cooks big meals every night and as soon as we clean up for one meal she begins to talk about the next one. It's hard not to fatten up when you stay with her. Now I now where Shannon gets it from! Add in several meals at restaurants and you have a great recipe for weight gain. I dropped weight the first week of the trip, but then Gma started to get to me at the end. In all, I gained less than a pound. Now I just have to make sure I don't get into a bad habit of eating too much here at home.
Thanks Gma and Gpa for hosting us! I really do enjoy coming out there and am happy that they can tolerate me for two weeks every year. It was good to see the family and I cannot wait to go back. We may go at a different time of year next year. I would really love to go out in the spring or early summer to do some training, but we will have to see how the budget and race schedule are looking before that can become a reality. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures!
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