Bike Peddler » saturday http://bikepeddlerutah.com American Fork's favorite bike shop Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:23:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Mountain Bikers Are Better Than Roadies http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/mountain-bikers-are-better-than-roadies/ http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/mountain-bikers-are-better-than-roadies/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:38:00 +0000 Joshua tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846558422594797389.post-1165107465030748801
Mountain Bikers are much more social.
I have ridden the road with big groups of guys, and usually, when you get back to your car, or where you started, they can't get the Felt loaded back into the Audi fast enough. I presume so they can go home and fill out their training log. "Dear Diary, Dropped everybody on Suncrest today,.....it was a great Saturday."
Mountain Bikers, on the other hand, tend stand around more. Shoot the breeze. Discuss the ride. Talk trash.
Today for example. Myself and three others who had met at the shop actually pulled into the Glenwild on time. Only to find that Larry(Oilcan if your nasty) Had run back to his house because he forgot his geared bike,.......I mean shoes. No problem as people were trickling in anyhow. Somehow today's ride turned into reunion for the Thursday morning rides from UMB. It felt like some kind of dork convention as we all tried to figure out who was who by screen names on the forum.
We did however figure Oilcan(cause I'm nasty) could catch up, and started up toward Flying Dog counterclockwise. It's a good climb, ten miles of steady grade. But not horrible. Eventually however, we realized we had lost Adam. We waited. Then we waited. Then Steve went back. Then Steve came back, with Oilcan. Oilcan hadn't passed anybody since the parking lot. ????? I called Adam, but his phone was in my truck at the bottom. We figured the Skinwalkers had gotten him or something. And so we pressed on. He had had a flat in the parking lot and I figured he may be having more trouble. Lost rider #1.

After we decided to roll on, we got into a pretty good groove.

It continued on like this, until we realized, we had lost Justin. I was worried, but honestly, figured if nothing else he could turn around and go back. Lost Rider #2. I am ashamed to say, we never saw him again. Perhaps the Jackalopes got him. Call me if you survived man. I am sorry.

Putting our painful losses behind us, we finally topped out of Flying Dog. Another extended BS session and soon we were sailing down the west/north slope of Flying Dog. Wow. Super smooth, super fast, minimal, though present oncoming traffic. It was cool to be in the middle of the pack and just trust the wheel of the guys in front who know the trail really well. In and out of the Aspens. It was, as one foul-mouthed Texan put it, "Re-donk-u-lous". It was definitely a heavy flow day,.......in a good way. Once back down to Glenwild, we took one of Bob's XC, oops, I mean DH options. Imagine the Ruin trail up at Lambert but with sharp turns immediately after all the jumps. Meh.

Luckily we did reconnect with Adam coming the other way, and rode the last part with him. He missed a turn, and figured he would find us on Glenwild. My fault, that's what the email I sent out said. I think final count was eleven(then ten) so a good turnout for a Saturday.

Afterwards, and to prove my original point........we all headed over to Maxwells for some damn good pizza, and a little more BS'ing. I had a great Saturday,....did you?

]]> http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/mountain-bikers-are-better-than-roadies/feed/ 0 This Used To Be Easier http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/this-used-to-be-easier/ http://bikepeddlerutah.com/2009/08/this-used-to-be-easier/#comments Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:43:00 +0000 Joshua tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1846558422594797389.post-3124031563377390279 ATX 870. Fully rigid, aluminum frame. 21 speed STX drivetrain and brakes. Clips and straps on the pedals. I picked a lycra seat cover that came free with my purchase at Gorilla Bikes in Orem. Then I bolted on some HUGE ski-bend wrist-breaker bar ends. I was set. As I looked for places to ride my new, and first real mountain bike, I found a book titled Mountain Biking Utah's Wasatch and Uinta Mountains by Gregg Bromka. He described many routes through AF Canyon and I zeroed in on anything that was an out-and-back or a loop. Because I had even less riding buddies than I had trail knowledge. And loops meant I didn't have to have another vehicle to shuttle.
One such trail was the Forest Lake loop, way up above Tibble Fork Reservoir starting from Dutchman's Flat. You bounce up the road to Mineral Basin which is an adventure in and of itself. The road is very rough and has about a one mile section which is bench cut on a steep slope, and only one vehicle wide. Meaning that passing on it usually requires someone to back up until they can get over. At the time I drove a '85 Bronco and I'd throw my big purple (Clinton was president it was a crazy time)monster size bike in the back so I didn't have to worry about it bouncing off the roof rack on the way up. And I would drive up this road fast enough that I usually skipped the back end around the corners. I could get up there in 30 minutes from the mouth of the canyon. I used to ride the nine-mile loop in about 45 minutes.
You climb the road from Dutchman's up to Pole Line Pass where you intersect Ridge Trail. From there you ride over in the direction of Mill Canyon, but before you get there, you fork right and drop down to Forest Lake via a steep, technical trail that spits you out right on the shore of Forest Lake which is really more of a salamander pond than a lake. Then skirt around the north end of the lake and down the gnarly jeep road back to Dutchman's. The road is not horribly steep, but it is rough and rocky. You might not make it down without crashing. Think Amasa Back with more loose rocks. Cross the river at the bottom and your back at the beginning.
As my bikes got more expensive, and my knowledge of other trails grew, that drive became more of a hassle than it was worth . And consequently I hadn't been up there in many years.
So today I ventured forth again to see how it compared with my memories. Without a computer I would estimate the climb on the road to be about 4 miles. Hairpin County and Switchback city. You just settle in and climb. You are constantly buffeted by dust and exhaust by ATV's blasting up and down the road. In fact last time I rode it, I was struck from behind and knocked off my bike by a four-wheeler.
But somehow, with a much fancier bike and 14 more years of experience the climb got harder. Maybe it has something to do with the giant gut that I'm packing now. We took several rests on the climb and I could have used a couple more.
Here Chad discovers why this section of Ridge Trail is called Sandy Baker Pass. Because it's sandy. Once you top out of Sandy Baker, you level off and if you look back you can see the top of the tram at Snowbird. You can't see it here, but you can also see the tunnel they just cut through the mountain.You rise and fall several times, and after coming out of the trees, you can see Forest Lake down below. The problem with Jeep roads,.....are all the damn Jeeps(or Ford Explorers). Once again Sally earns points in this season's "Most Improved" category. She blasted into the water and cleaned the crossing first try. Then I put my camera away and promptly put a foot down right in the middle. That's her, relatively dry on the other side.The singletrack was actually in great shape. And the roads were just as I remembered them only longer and steeper. It's a fun ride to do once a year or so.
Sorry to Chad who caught a case of the angry wife from me, by being home later than planned on his anniversary. Good Luck Buddy.
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