Brandon The Bike Pedaling Ginger

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Flying Dog

Absolutely incredible ride today! We arrived late last night into Salt Lake and by the time we got our bags and headed out to be picked up it was 12:45........To add to the matter there was traffic we had to avoid on the way south in the middle of the night? Due to the delay we got to my inlaws at about 2am and asleep at a sucky 3am which was 6am for you east coast folks. Buzzer went off a long time later at 6am, yes that was a whole 3 hours of sleep, LuAnn had a 8:00 hair appointment in Bountiful so I scheduled to be dropped off at my good friend Brent's house. We arrived about 7:30 and checked out my rental bike which was actually surprisingly good and was a GT sensor 4.0. Yes it was a GT and I was looking it over and seemed like it would do the trick. Little did I know how well it would perform. We got locked and loaded and were off on our drive up to Park City to ride Flying Dog trail. This is a trail I have ridden a few times and decided it would be a great first ride.....I made an excellent choice. We arrived to the trailhead which must have been a cool 50 something degrees that felt amazing. We hit the trail and got to pedaling on some very fond memories I have made on the Glenwild trail. The mission today was to ride the loop counter clockwise which has never been done by me or Brent. So up the switchbacks we went as the sun rose slowly into my face, the switchbacks were a welcome warmup, switching back and forth at a comfortable climb rate, the lungs and legs were feeling great! Crested the top of the hill and shot down into fields of grass lining the tight knit single track, it was absolute heaven, I had a smile on my face that didn't leave for probably ten minutes. I mean this stuff was good, just good old smooth twisty single track winding through the meadow at a fast rate. It did last for awhile as we casually made our way to the cobblestone junction were we made our right and began to actually have to pedal up a slight incline again. The trail was so smooth I could not get over it, it made racking up the miles a breeze and I could not help but bang my head against the handlebars in disbelief that I no longer get to experience these great trails like I use to. But the show must go on and we slowly climbed out of cobblestone and onto flying dog which began to ascend the hill in front of us. Switching back and forth enough times to make you dizzy but it did so to allow for a very comfortable climbing rate that was not affecting my east coaster lungs. I was ripping uphill with ease, wether it was the 3 hour sleep or just pure adrenaline I didn't care, I was cranking away and no end in sight. After awhile up climbing the alpine forests and plant began to show they're faces letting me know the summit was coming soon. Which it did after about 30 minutes of straight climbing without a hint of break or downhill. I rested at the top and waited for Brent to make his way up and I took in the sights. Looked my bike over and was very pleased in it's performance. It was light, had good tube angle, suspension felt great, climbed great, braked good, was very very very happy dude. Waited at the top for something I have been waiting to do for the last year, RIP downhill! You can do this in CT for a very short time but it is nowhere near the same! I dropped into a 1700FT drop and enjoyed every second of it. Blasting through the alpines catching air on roller, riding wheelies on the smooth steep sections, slapping corners with my sidewalls it was incredible and was long overdue! Down down down and down we went, eventually after 20 minutes it leveled off and I had to make a very easy small effort to pedal uphill for a short while before I was level riding the hillside and then dropping into jeremy ranch to enjoy yet another downhill. To the car and I was on cloud 9. Words cannot explain how much I had missed that sensation and while I am sad that I no longer experience that on a daily basis I am incredibly thankful I had the opportunity to ride this morning. We then headed down mountain in hopes to set off on another ride but I decided it was more important to keep my wife happy and spend the rest of the day with her. Now for tomorrow morning ride where will it take me, I am on limited time unfortunately but I will still be on trail :)

Flying dog

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Utah

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Soggy Huntington Evening

So I have been trying for almost a year to get my homie craig out to go ride, due to our schedules and living 1.5 hours away from one another it just never worked out. Craig has mountain biked in his past and went a few times last year, but had not been this year and now that we work in the same building we finally got to ride. My brother joined us as well, not really having any experience with mountain biking other than being able to ride a bike well he never did anything off trail so this was going to be new to him. I chose huntington being that I really like riding there and thought some smooth trails as I recall would be friendly towards all of us. The ride time was supose to start at 6:00 but they were running late due to traffic. I on the other hand had a quick escape from the office and got tires down before 6:00 so I went into the park exploring some things and trying to stay close to the car. I was having fun exploring and not being worried about any time crunch and found some old trails I once been and found some new stuff I have not. The weather was wet and raining lightly and I was pretty unhappy about the weather since I had been waiting a long time to ride with these guys. Visibility was lacking being in the thick woods and some rocks were slippery and some were not but there was no mud to be found anywhere and some dirt was even bone dry. I made it down one of the techiest spots in the park even with some slick rocks and that was a pat on the back for me and made me smile. I then got lost as it was time to get to the car to meetup with Craig and Adam but I eventually found my way and got to the car as they were gearing up. We sped quickly into the woods and shortly coming upon quite a few obstacles than I remember which wreaked havic on my poor brother who beat himself up for having to put his foot down more than he would like. One after another it was way more than I can remember, I gues when I am riding solo I am just unaware of what the trail really consists of but rather only how much I like it! It was a bit slow moving through that stretch of trail system and then we got pretty far north where the trail got smooth and buff. Then Adam proceeded to shoot off like a rocket with Laney following right on his tail cruising through the woods. He shined his downhill talent and let off for sure some of his frustration he built up while on all that tricky tech stuff. By now we were at the bottom of the hill and began to climb back into the park. Slowly and surely we closed the loop with some great singletrack by the what I want to call the playground since there are alot of natural features in a concetrated area. By the time we got to the car it was dark and I was excited to get into the dry car and get home. Heck of a good ride and look forward to getting out for the next one with them which will be who knows when.......Utah ride on saturday cannot fricken wait!