Picking grapes for Gma
After a late lunch, I had little time to go anywhere to ride, so I kept it close to home and did a short ride up Butterfield Canyon. I love this climb. It's 6.5 miles long and gives you a little bit of everything on the way up. It starts with 3.7 miles of rolling climb. There are several flat spots and false summits in this first section. Then comes the punishment. There's a 1 km section that ranges from 15%-20% grade up to a tight switchback. The rest of the climb is narrow along the side of the mountain, twisting its way up at 6%-8% grade. There are also several patches of gravel on this top part, making it more of a climb for the mountain biker-types. The gravel washes off the hillside and is different every time I have been up this climb.
Last year, I did an easy ride up the first time I came here, then returned a few days later and hammered the climb to see how fast I could get up it. I wanted to hit it hard today to get another comparison of my form. I did a short warm-up, then hit the climb at TT pace. My heart rate ran 165-168 for the lower portion with the occasional bump up to 170 on the rollers. I was strong up the steep section and was able to run 172-175 heart rate up that section. I had to back off some once I got on the upper section. It was more of a breathing and heart rate issue than a leg strength problem. The altitude was holding me back just a little.
Going up Butterfield Canyon
Around the last turn I spooked a couple taking their engagement pictures. I'm pretty sure I am in the background of one of their pictures. They were standing in the road with the view of the mountains and valley behind them. It was an awesome backdrop for engagement photos. I reached the top of the paved road at 7,786 ft. of elevation in a time of 38:49, shattering last year's PR by 6:38! That ranked me as 8th overall on Strava! I never dreamed that I could climb with the locals, but I guess I can on a good day. I stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view. The sun was setting and casting both sunlight and shadows across the valley below. I made sure to leave in between pictures so I would not photobomb the engaged couple again.
View from the top of Butterfield Canyon
The descent down was an interesting one. There was less gravel in the road than last year so I was able to hang the upper corners a bit more. The bottom section is fast and scary. There were plenty of mule deer grazing near the road in the evening light. I had a hard time seeing them with their dark coats. They ran across in front of me at least four times in the last three miles . It was a relief just to make it to the bottom without a new fur coat.
The next day it was back to the mountain bike in Park City, taking my parents out for another ride on some different trails than we hit last week. Shannon also came along for this ride. This time we started halfway down the mountain and rode the rolling Mid Mountain trail out to the Park City Mountain Resort trails. We did one long climb up the mountain on Tommy's Two Steps. It's about the easiest climb you can find here, taking the way long route up a steep slope to keep the grade minimal. The altitude was still killing my Mom and she needed a few rest breaks before the top.
Once up the climb, we descended the fun Mojave trail that was built last season. I was ripping the downhill, jumping everything I could and railing the big berms. I was just feeling in the groove today. But I made a slight error in one of the rocky sectionss and pushed the bike down a bit too hard to prepare for an upcoming jump. I felt the rims hit a rock and within seconds both tires were flat. It was my first-ever double pinch-flat. I am going through tubes like crazy on this trip. I flatted twice at Curt Gowdy, once on my road ride last week, and now twice in Park City.
Our loop was shorter today, but nobody wanted to do any more. I went back out for another climb so I could run the downhill trail Payroll. It was my fastest ever run down that trail and by far the smoothest. I am finally getting the hang of these bigger jumps and blind drops. I was hoping for more riding, but my Dad was pressing me to leave. He has still been in a rather grumpy mood. I don't think he is enjoying the trip very much. He has let the little things get him upset every day. This morning he would not eat breakfast with us in the house and then wanted to stop somewhere to eat on the way to ride. The first stop was at Wendy's and nobody ever came to take his order at the drive-thru. That pissed him off. Then we went to Burger King and he just ordered a chicken biscuit without even looking at their menu. Burger King does not have chicken biscuits. He was mad because he believes every place should have the same breakfast menu. Yep. Dad has also tried to keep us on a schedule and wants to be back to the house every day by two o'clock so we don't miss dinner or get stuck in the dark. It drives me crazy! We are on vacation! No schedule is needed! Besides, dinner is usually between 5 and 6 and it does not get dark until 7:30. Anyway, he pushed me to end my ride so I did. Once we got back, we went out to eat at Golden Corral as my parents wanted to take Gma and Gpa out for hosting them this week. Gpa loves Golden Corral so it was the perfect choice. Gpa can really put away some of their coconut macaroons! He was eating them while walking back to the table. He just had a hand full of sticks everyt ime he came back. The food was gone.
On Wednesday, my parents left to explore American Fork Canyon on their way to southern Utah to see Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park in Moab. I was free to do whatever I wanted! I chose to go back to Butterfield Canyon. I thought I could climb it faster. My legs were a bit stiff on Monday after taking a day off the bike completely on Sunday when it rained all day. Tuesday's ride at Park City was a perfect recovery ride and should have primed my legs for another hard effort. The plan was to warm up thoroughly, then give my all up to the end of the pavement. I wanted to see if I could be top 5 overall on Strava. Shannon was going to bring Gma and Gpa up the climb in the car and meet me at the top, where we were going to then take the gravel road all the way to the top. We had heard that there was an overlook of the Kennecott Copper Mine at the top. Gpa worked there when he was younger, laying railroad track, so we thought it would be cool for him to see it from above.
My climb went good. I had a slight headwind in the first three miles, but I was able to hold my heart rate in the 170-172 range all the way to the steep section. I got there 12 seconds faster than on Monday. The steep part hurt me more today. I guess I came into it a little too hard. I held my heart rate over 170, but I was wheezing hard. Again, the lungs and heart were my limiter. I felt like I backed off too much at the top on Monday, so I pushed extra hard there this time. The last 1.5 miles I buried myself. I sprinted the final minute and was about to pass out when I hit the top. I clocked a time of 37:57, knocking another 52 seconds off of Monday's PR. That was good enough to bump me up to 5th overall on Strava! And that time is just 1:33 off the KOM. I could totally see myself being able to pick up that much more if I work at it.
I sat at the top for a few minutes to catch my breath, then started up the gravel section. Shannon was further behind than I expected, so my new plan became to beat them up the gravel to the top. I was thinking I had read somewhere that it was 1.5 miles to the overlook. The climb was steep and the gravel was deep in places. My skinny road tires were having a hard time in the deeper sections, but I managed to get up without having to push. It turned out to be 2.5 miles to the top. I was exhausted after trudging through the gravels, but it was more than worth it when I saw the overlook. Yes indeed, you could see the mine. It was a better view than you get from the mine's Visitor's Center. I beat Shannon up there by about a minute. I only beat them because Gma had to take a nature break on the way up. The bouncy gravel road was a bit more than she could take. I was proud of her for, as she put it, "going in the wilderness" for the first time in her life.
Going up the gravel road to the Copper Pit Overlook
View from the Copper Pit Overlook. You can see the entire Kennecott Copper Mine from here. The mine was founded in 1903 and is the second-largest copper producer in the US. It provides about 25% of the country's copper use each year and has produced more copper ore than any other mine in the world. They also mine gold, silver, molybdenum and sulphuric acid here. Between the mine itself and the business units for the Rio Tinto company located at the bottom of the mountain, the mine provides 17,200 jobs to Utah.
My time turned out to be quite fast on the gravels. I took the KOM for the full climb, including the paved portion and the gravel, even though I had a five minute rest break at the end of the pavement. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could get a KOM on a big mountain such as this. This climb is 9.1 miles long and goes up to 9,007 ft!
Just as Shannon pulled up in the car, steam started pouring out from under the hood. Gma's PT Cruiser was overheating. It had barely made it up the climb. We raised the hood and let it cool down while we enjoyed the view. We met an older man at the top that told us a lot of history about the mine. I had no idea that there were several small towns that had been torn down over the years as the mine expanded.
Gpa could not have been less interested. He just wanted too sit in the car and eat his sandwich. We did manage to get him out of the car long enough to get a quick picture of the four of us in front of the mine. Then it was time to see if the car was going to make it down. The radiator was low and we did not have much water. I had to pour the water from my bottle into the radiator. It was enough to get the car to the bottom where my car was parked. I had more water in the trunk that we added to the radiator and it made it home with no problems.
Gma, Gpa, Shannon and me at the overlook
Going down the gravel road back toward Butterfield Canyon
My descent was crazy. The gravels were tough on a road bike. I had to be intensely focused to pick a good line through the gravel. My arms were exhausted by the time I hit the pavement. I have never appreciated pavement so much in my life! There were no deer out today, but I popped around one corner to find four cows standing in the road. You really never know what you are going to see up here!
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