Can't Get Enough

     After a rest day to start of our time in Utah, I was on my bike first thing Monday morning in Park City. I wanted to do a long day, so with the Snowbird Ultra Hill Climb coming on Saturday it pretty much forced me to do my long day on Monday if I wanted any chance to recover. The weather was perfect! It was the first time I have ever had an XC bike at Park City. It made the climbing much more fun and most of the descents were just as good. The Epic can be quite plush when you back off the Brain valve. I was quite impressed by how good it was on bigger hits and on jumps.

Fall colors on the drive over at Guardsman Pass

     I started with a ride up Bald Mountain on the Deer Valley trails, one of my favorite places to visit when in Park City. I enjoyed the view at the top, then came down the new Tidal Wave trail. Tidal Wave is a massive downhill trail with big jumps and even bigger berms. There are berms so big that you could hide a semi behind them. I kid you not. All of the jumps are super smooth tabletops that are built perfectly. I wasn't going super fast since I was on a carbon Epic, but I still floated right over most of the jumps and landed oh-so-smoothly on the downside. The trail was closed on the bottom third, but I still had fun up top, then finished with some of the trails I have ridden before like Dog Pound, which has some fun wooden obstacles.

Tidal Wave has some big tabletops and nice views

Looking west from Bald Mountain toward Guardsman Pass

Nice view of Park City from these chairs on top of Bald Mountain

Looking south from Bald Mountain. That thing that looks like a cloud on the left of the picture is smoke from a forest fire.

One of my most-favorite views. Overlooking Jordanelle Reservoir.

Rocky peak on Bald Mountain

     I climbed up Empire Pass next for a fun descent down the classic Corvair trail, then worked my way over to the Park City Mountain Resort trails. I couldn't decide which way I wanted to climb up and which descent I wanted to do, so I just did them all. My goal climb for the day was Pinecone Ridge, which I have not climbed in several years. It was just as tough and just as beautiful as I remember. I rode the ridge on a gravel road for an extra mile or two after the summit just to see the fall colors over at the Brighton area.

Empire Pass

Looking toward Park City from Empire Pass

The colors were very bright on the Mid Mountain trail near Pinecone Ridge

The view of Brighton was nice today

     After sightseeing for a bit, I got back on the trails and climbed Scott's Hill to Guardsman Pass before descending back down past Shadow Lake. I went through my favorite trail in Park City, Webster. Somebody beat my Strava KOM this summer so I tried to take it back, but I was a few seconds slower than my PR. My legs just didn't have it as I was over 4 1/2 hours into the ride at this point.

Shadow Lake

     My body was whipped by the time I got back to the car. I ended the ride after 5:35 and 41.7 miles. I climbed over 6,300 feet during the ride, all of it coming at above 8,000 feet elevation. The elevation for the ride ranged from 8,082 feet to 9,949 feet. It was a heck of a day, one of the most fun days on the bike I have had this year. I really didn't want to stop, but my body said that was enough at this kind of elevation.

    Here is some video footage from my handlebar cam as I rode some really sweet singletrack.

Video: Park City riding from the GoPro handlebar cam

     I took the next day off the bike just to let my body rest. I worked on organizing the hundreds of pictures we have taken on the trip thus far. We have so many great shots from Grand Teton and Yellowstone. You really can't take a bad picture in those parks. I also got caught up on the Vuelta a Espana. I thought it was very exciting, as good as the Tour de France in my opinion. Chris Froome's performance in the Stage 19 time trial was amazing. Dude absolutely threw down and took many chances. I never really cared for him because he was so calculated with his race efforts and pretty conservative when it came to attacks. After his attack at the Tour and now this TT, I'm slowly becoming a Froome fan.