Zions / Biking St. George

What a great trip! I took off on Wednesday to avoid some of the incoming storms. I didn't like driving for endless hours through rainy, cold weather on my last trip, so skipping it for this one was nice. I headed to Mesquite NV to stay at one of the casino hotels down there -- cheap rooms. Next day I woke up and went outside just after sunrise and it was at least 70° & sunny -- I liked it. It was 30° colder back home and rainy. I went down to Overton to look at some land. It's a cool location, right next to Valley of Fire State Park, and Lake Mead a couple miles away. Though it's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and the entire area is prone to flash floods, so I decided to pass. I headed back through Mesquite to Littlefield to look at some more land. It's equally as warm there as Overton, but the landscape is just bleak mountains to one side, and endless sagebrush on the other. I think I'd rather have less land and more view up around Hurricane than more land but nothing to look at.

I headed up to Zions NP to hike Angel's Landing. Everyone says it's a cool hike, and it is, but a lot of people also say it's scary, and stuff. It's really not. One of the guide books I have says you have to cross a knife's edge with no chains in one section. The knife's edge is like 20 feet wide, you can't even classify that as a butter knife edge. At times you're kind of close to the edge, but if that makes you nervous you have tons of chain anchored to the rock to hold on to. One of the guys I chatted with at the bottom of the Grand Canyon who had climbed Angel's Landing the week before said there was some crazy old guy hanging off the chains for pictures, and how crazy that was. Wuss. It's a great, easy, quick hike that everyone but little kids and those who freak themselves out easily should do sometime in their life. I came to the realization while I was up there that I'm way past this mainstream kind of stuff. Just to convince myself of it I later did the Emerald Pools hike. It was like a symphony of disappointment. We had the endless droves of tourists making the music, infants making a solo debut with their screams echoing off the canyon walls, parents doing the ooey-cooey-gooey baby talk making up the melody, endless footsteps making up the percussion, and this was at nightfall when most everyone's left the park already. I'd hate to see what it's like up there in the middle of July when the tourism is at its peak. i don't know why, but NOBODY went to the middle pool. I guess they thought that tiny trickle of water they hopped over was the middle pool. It was nice to have that all to myself. It's seriously a 25 ft trek down a side trail to get to it. I thought it was funny that the NPS put up signs saying the water was contaminated so people shouldn't play in it. Contaminated with what? Didn't matter, it kept people out of it. They'll ignore the please don't swim in the pool signs, but say it's contaminated and no one goes near it. Good job, NPS! (I'm serious) The water is so much cleaner than most reservoirs.

2nd day I biked part of the Guacamole Trail, just NW of Virgin on a mesa. It's a combination of sandstone and dirt connectors, and a lot of fun. It's fairly new, and still under development. It's marked with cairns on the sandstone stretches, and at times it's just impossible to find. It's kind of narrow with unforgiving brush, so I was dripping blood in a couple spots when I got back to my truck. There was some quarrying going on just off the dirt road you take to get up to the trailhead, and on the way out I was blocked in by a couple large rocks that rolled onto the road. So I had to park my truck & get out to help the guys roll them out of the way. While parked this huge rock started crashing down the cliff headed towards my truck. Luckily it stopped about 20 ft short, otherwise I'd probably be in the market for a new truck. I have conflicted feelings on that. I'd like a new truck, but it's really nice not to have payments. I wasn't in the truck so it's not like I could've moved it.

That night I wanted to get another quick ride in, so I hunted for the Green Valley Trail. I got to where I thought I was supposed to be, but I didn't see any signs or anything, so I checked my GPS for the trailhead waypoint and I was right on it, so I went down a hill and started climbing another one where I saw some other bikers going up. At the top I read the description and it was talking about riding in a sandstone canyon, and there was a little canyon to my left, so I checked it out, and it looked like there was a trail going through it. So I rode down, went into the canyon and figured out that it wasn't a trail at all. I wasn't going to ride back up what I had just ridden down, especially when I could drive it, so I rode back up the other hill to my truck and drove up the way I was first going on my bike. Turns out the real trailhead and parking lot were a little further up the road. So I took off from there for a ways. Only problem was the sun had already set, so I was riding on borrowed light. I went up for 15 minutes and turned around after a geologic feature called the lions paw, it's a series of steep downhills down what would be the fingers of a lion's paw.

3rd day I biked the north rim of gooseberry mesa. That was a ton of fun. It's pretty fast paced with plenty of stuff to ride off, and a couple challenging climbs up slickrock. There are a lot more sections of gooseberry to ride that I'll hit next time I'm down there.

Last day I checked out the Kolob Canyons section of Zions NP on my way home. I wasn't that impressed, but that comes along the same lines of another realization that I had on this trip while driving at a snails pace behind tourists from Florida, Ohio, California, and all the other places tourists come from every day I was down there. I'm thinking it's 35 MPH through the park, come on and do at least 30! But no, 15-20 was the norm among those types. I'm thinking this is a cool place, and just wanting to drive through. The pace cars, they're just totally enthralled with everything. I've seen big ol' sandstone cliffs a gazillion times, I've climbed them, rappelled them, hiked through their narrows, rode over their tops, navigated their labryinths, cooled off in their natural air conditioners, and more. I have a playground, another destination for me to get to, and I want to get there and play. I know the cooler sights are hidden within the walls of these areas, not what's visible from the car window. Maybe a permit trip only policy is in order here, you know, not going to go anywhere or do anything near a national park unless it requires a permit that severely limits the number of people that can go there. It means several things, no "tourists", more like-minded people, but not enough to ruin it, it's gonna be cool enough that a ton of people want to do it, but they can't unless they plan it, and stuff like that.

Anyway, a Grand Canyon raft trip, Cataract Canyon raft trip, Narrows trip, a Grand Teton climb, and Telescope Peak from Death Valley to the summit (4th longest continuous mountain ascent in the US, exceeded only by Rainier, Fairweather, and McKinley) are on the list. I want to do Telescope Peak from the very bottom, probably in a 3 day trip. Day 1 climbing up to a campground around 8,000 where gear for 2 nights would be stashed, Day 2 summiting and returning to base camp, Day 3 returning to the bottom with all the gear to avoid a return trip to the stashed gear. 

View photos from this trip

Grand Canyon -- North to South Rim

I was up at 8 despite my best efforts to get more sleep. I was awake. After trying my pack on, I realized it wasn't going to work for this trip, so I moved evrything to my larger pack, and after a couple more delays I was on the road at 10.

The weather was pouring rain for at least 4 hours on the road. Whatever storm was coming through was nasty. My first real problem, howevre was my gas gauge. Normally when it's on E, it still has at least two gallons left, this time, however I got the tell-tell first sign of running out by the brief scent of gas coming through the air system, then a minute later as I was approaching an exit I got an engine stutter & finally when I came to a stop at the end of the exit ramp, it died. Fortune was on my side since there was a gas station a couple hundred feet away. A couple turns of the engine and I was able to get out of the way. Gas can in hand, I waltzed across the street and filled it up & went on my way. I had to eat anyway, so I drove off to a Maverick to get it topped off & a bite to eat from the mall.

Next stop on the trip was Bryce Canyon. It was my first time, and I probably shouldn't have gone in retrospect due to the amount of time it really took to get there & back on my route, but it was a fun, quick little stop. I think I'll try to plan a trip there next May or June to backpack it. It was freezing up there, and it was crowded, so it's not really the kind of place I want to be in. It's probably a lot better once you get off the viewpoints. I only went to the first one, so we'll see when I go there again how it really is elsewhere.

The sun was low in the sky as I entered Fredonia, AZ, and I began climbing into the old forests of Kaibab National Forest. I had an inkling that deer and other animals would be coming out, so I watched for them. Unforutnately that wasn't good enough. Out of nowhere (that's how it always goes) a herd of about 10 small deer appeared just off my side of the road. I braked and one jumped in front of me, so I swerved, but it wasn't enough. The deer was small enough that it didn't seem to do any major damage. The truck drove well, so I just headed for some lights down the road so I could inspect the damage.. Bent hood, cracked grill, dented sides, no right headlight & the spot where the parking light was, is now just a nice crushed looking mess, and the bumper is jacked & the plastic covering the wheel wells now rubs the tire whern I turn or brake & the hood won't close all the way unless I make some special adjustments & the windshield wiper fluid cap is MIA. With one headlight I managed to make it to the lodge and then on to the campsite.

I knew the North Rim would be in a forest up around 8000 ft, but the pines are just awesome. They're very old, thick, tall, and nothing grows on the forest floor below them.

My new Kelty Crestone 1 is nice. I could use a couple more inches of headroom, especially when I'm sitting on my pad, but in he end it's just shelter, and it does that well. I especially like that it's lightweight, and the amount of air circulation it provides is really nice. The Big Agnes 3" inflatable sleeping pad is sweet & comfy beyond expectations.

Day 2: It was freezing, literally. I'm glad I decided to bring some pants, a fleece & a zip-up hoody cause it was really, really cold in the morning. Breakfast was 2 really good cinnamon rolls from the deli & we were on our way. The North Kaibab Trail is awesome. You're either surrounded by trees, or walking in the shade of a cliff. The quadriped poop situation is pretty bad, but better than I thought it would be. There are tons of pics of the trail & the sights, so check those out, it's best left seen. I had a lot of fun taking those.

At about mile 6 you see a waterfall gushing out of the cliff & running down the canyon side. It eventually gets bigger, but remains temptingly out of reach until you get to the Cottonwood Campground which incidentally takes 1.5 more miles to get to than all the signs say. I'll trust my GPS, thank you. That water was flesh numbingly cold, but was totally worth getting completely soaked just to get the trail dirt & sweat off. The campground is pretty nice. Some sites have really good shade, the latrines dont stink, water's on tap, and you have the creek to serenade you to sleep at night.

I planned for a 35 lb max on my bckpack & somehow it's closer to 50. My upper back is feeling the load. Probably because the pack is pulling my back into a more proper alignment.

So dusk falls and out comes this army of fearless mice. No respect for the superiority of mankind. Yelling didn't work, nor stomping. Rocks helped divert their direction of attack, but they still came. It was only after they had inspected our site for food, and waited to see if their presence would be rewarded by handouts that they left, presumably to the next site.

The temps at 4000 ft were perfect that night. No clouds in the sky. The stars out in full show. I was able to watch the rotation of the earth as the sliver of moon moved behind a cliff in less than a minute. 

Day 3: The morning brought an undeniable chill, even though the sun was up, it wouldn't shine on our camp until just before we left.

The trail out of camp was your typical desert terrain, unlike the majority of the previous day's hike where we enjoyed the trees & the shade while hiking atop the cliffs.

We were on our way to Ribbon Falls. I had only seen bad pictures of them on the internet, so I was anxious to see them in person & I was glad that it was only a quick side trip. I had fun with a lot of th ephotos. Again the water was freezing cold, but it felt greeat just the way it was because I knew in another 30 minutes I'd be hiking in the sun again, and sweating like none other. The water temps of the streams & creeks in the canyon are supposed to be around 45 degrees since they're all spring fed this time of year and don't have any rain or snowmelt to supplement the flow. The next couple miles were unremarkable, then we entered a narrow canyon where the sun only occasionally reached the canyon floor. It was very comfortable to hike through all that shade, even though it was moderately warm.

Phantom Ranch awaited us outside the canyon. It was a lot more rustic than I thought it would be. All the activity hovers around the canteen which is where everyone eats and socializes. It only holds 48 diners, so when they say you have to be staying at the ranch, or have a reservation, they mean it.

The night here is really warm. There's a cool breeze coming through, but it's not expected to drop below 61 degrees. Our high was 91. Our campsite is the most secluded of the 21 sites here. I'm using 2 rocks & a string to secure my tent, It's quicker & easier & more adjustable than stakes are. The ground is just too hard to drive them in without bending some of them.

Day 4: This was the rest day, and it was really, really nice not to do any hiking with a pack on. We took a hike on the River Trail which connects the Black Bridge to the Silver Bridge. The river is Mountain Dew green from the amount of algae that can grow in the clearer waters. All the silt from the Colorado in Utah & Colorado settles in Lake powell, so it can't block the light that algae needs to grow.

Day 5: The rest day was just what we needed. The muscles were still a little sore, but nothing like they were on previous mornings. We started hiking at dawn in some warm temperatures, but it was still nice. I was expecting to have a much harder time getting out, but I guess the rest day worked it's magic. Even after laying down at the top for a couple minutes, getting up didn't make my muscles scream. A nice pizza at We Make Pizza & Pasta was really, really good & well deserved.

Back at the North Rim it was raining and hailing as we setup camp in the dark again, but at least showers were available. The breakfast buffet was pretty good.

After camp was packed up I headed to Zions National Park to check it out. I was planning on spending the night at the Lava Point Campground (or whatever it's called) When I got up there, and this is after a long drive into a remote corner of the park, I couldn't get into the campground since there were 3 cars parked in the entrance blocking it. When I got out to talk to the people I realized these weren't ordinary camping/tourist folks. They looked like Amish with technology, at least the women & children. The guys were dressed normally. So, given the Arizona license plates, I'm guessing they were polygamists. The guys were cutting up firewood or something left over from the forest revitalization project going on in the area, and the women & kids were left in the cars the whole time I was there. The wood was piled like it was going to be loaded up & sold in typical logging fashion by the NPS, & those guys up there were just taking advantage of the situation to stockpile some wood for themselves. There were 12 tents, count them, 12 that were exactly the same, and looked like they had been frequently used due to the UV bleaching of the fabric. There was nobody else in the campground, and the occupants of the 3 sites filled with those tents hadn't bothered to sign in to the register The wind was blowing hard, this was up around 8000 ft again, and was cold, and given the really, really weird circumstances up there, I decided just to leave. On my way out I passed more trucks & cars with AZ plates, and guessed that those were the occupants of some of the other tents & that it was one big group of them taking the wood. It makes sense that they would do this on a Sunday to avoid all the real workers up there.

I went back down to the main area of the park, and hopped on the shuttle that goes around the park to do some recconnaissance for future visits. After 90 minutes I was back at the parking lot and on my way home. 6 hours later I was home again.

View photos from this trip

Fall at Snowbasin

Saturday was the last day I could use my season pass at Snowbasin. It's kind of sad that my summer's now officially over. Bad weather's here, and the trails are all muddy as of this morning, thanks to a nice little storm coming through. Tomorrow all the trails I rode this weekend will be covered in 6-12" of snow. So, so sad. There were more people up there than I've ever seen the entire summer. I had to park in the 3rd parking lot section since the others were completely full. While I was getting my bike ready to go I noticed my rear wheel curvier than Cali's 101. While I was working on it, one spoke just turned & turned & wouldn't tighten. I wasn't paying that much attention since the car next to mine had some people getting ready as well. They were putting on more and more crash armor. When I thought they were done, they brought out more. "Hey Julie, I've got some extra leg gear, you want to put it on?", "No, I've got my own.", "Okay, just want to make sure". Now, I know the trails are in bad condition in spots, and others have more rocks on the trail than on the mountain, but come on. I only see guys that bomb mountains in races and total newbs don gear like that. They were of the newb sort. Anyway, back to the spoke, one little tug confirmed it was broken. I would've ridden like that anyway, just have a couple spokes over torqued to compensate for the missing one, but I thought I'd try the rental shop & they had one that fit perfectly -- it's now one black spoke in the midst of an all silver wheel.

The Fall colors peaked earlier this week. By the time I got up there the trees were half bare from the high winds tearing across the mountain. Even with the winds though, it was relatively warm at the top. It was also Oktoberfest at the resort. So they had a German band in liederhosen jamming up the classic beer drinking tunes. There were tons of bikes all around the Needles Lodge, but on the trail, I didn't see another biker -- going down at least. There were a couple coming up. At the top some guy asked me if I had ridden up from the bottom -- I didn't even have a drop of sweat on me, and I was coming from the direction of the gondola, so I don't know what he was thinking. I told him I climbed up from the bottom once and it nearly killed me. I find it hard to understand where some people are coming from. In this case, I think the guy was so in awe that people even rode from the bottom to the top because it's something he would never do in his lifetime unless by some miracle he started by getting himself fit enough to just make it around the block, and worked hard from there to come back from decades of idleness. Something weird though, I passed a couple hikers carrying a pair of skis, one was going down from the top, another coming up from the bottom, what? I should've asked them what they were doing.

So it was enjoyable. I like having more people on the mountain, it makes it a bit livelier. I took my riding way, way easy so I wouldn't crash and jack myself up. I've got a Grand Canyon trip I've been planning for the last 4 months, and I didn't want anything to get in the way of it. It's unfortunate though, because on Porcupine they built a fun little 15 foot path to the side of the trail out of boulders, and I wanted to ride it, but I didn't want to risk a screw up that would've sent me falling of the side. I don't think I'll get a season pass up there again. I might go back up a couple times next summer if they put some new trails in, or just work on my climbing during the week. On my list next year is to scope out the resorts around Park City and see what they've done for their trails. I hear PC has some welll groomed trails. Probably a much greater variety of trails as well.

It's going to be a long winter. Hopefully the trails in the foothills will stay relatively clear of snow.

View photos

Ben Lomond Peak via North Skyline Trail

I've hiked up the North Skyline Trail several times about 2 miles to the same point, even biked it once, but I've never made it to Ben Lomond via that route before, mainly because I didn't want to hike 16 miles, but since I have a Grand Canyon backpacking trip coming up I figured it's time to get some long hikes with significant elevation gains in them. The trail is pretty nice except towards the beginning where there are serious problems with erosion, and damage from motorcycles which result in a trail with a V shaped rutt. The trail is shared by hikers, mountain bikers, quadriped pooping machines, and motorcycles. The North Skyline Trail is also part of the Great Western Trail. Looking at the ridgeline going across from the North Ogden Divide to Ben Lomond you would assume that the trail just climbs to the ridge and flattens out until you get to the final ascent of Ben Lomond, but that's not the case, you're steadily climbing almost the entire time as you'll see in the elevation profile included with the images. Sure it's flat for some sections, but there's not a 5 mile section of flat. Being Labor Day there were plenty of hikers up there and fortunately few of the aforementioned quadripeds. There were several mountain bikers, but I didn't see any past the 1500 ft elevation gain and 2.5 mile mark. I decided to wear a Falke performance compression shirt I was given to test out last Spring, and it's probably the first time I've worn it that it actually regulated my temperature better than not wearing it at all. The other times, it either made me overheat, or made me freeze. I wore it under a Nike poly tee. 

So the trail can be broken down into a couple different sections:
Mile 0-2 Climbing the canyon side of the N.O. Divide
Mile 2-4 Climbing the Eastern side of the ridge overlooking the Ogden Valley (Eden/Huntsville)
Mile 4-6.5 Hiking along the Western side of the ridge
Mile 6.5-7.5 Climbing the Eastern side of B.L.

In all it was 15.5 miles and 3,850 ft in elevation climbed

View photos of the trail

Willard Peak

With Willard Peak under my belt, I've now climbed 7 Utah county high points, and have 19 left. I took the dirt road that climbs up to Inspiration Point (it's on Willard Mountain). The road had become much rougher since last year when I last went up there, but it was still very doable in lil' red. There were a ton of ATV'ers up there. It truly is the best way to get around on those roads. It's certainly much faster than having to negotiate all the obstacles. The starting point for the hike is at the spring that flows onto the road in Willard Basin. This trail heads up to an alpine lake right below the peak -- well, about 800 feet below the peak. There are two trails from here, one heading East around the lake onto the ridge, and one heading West onto the ridge. They meet up, so either direction is fine. The trail heading East is nicer to hike on. Once you're close to the ridge, there's a trail that climbs the North side of the ridge, overlooking the lake, and eventually leads you to the bare rocks that make up the peak. From that point, you're on your own. The granite on the peak gives great traction. Close to the top there's a giant crack in the mountain. I'm not sure how deep it is, at one point all you can see is black, and it's so narrow that light only gets down there for a couple minutes a day, but it is long, and it's hard to miss. On top there are 3 potential high points. I think the one in the middle is the actual highest. It consists of a chunk of rock jutting up. The GPS said they were all the same height, so the coolest spot was chosen as the high point. The actual trail to the peak is all fine and dandy, but you can get up there by going down the trail towards Ben Lomond Peak for a ways, and then at your chosen spot just start climbing up the rock. It's a good way to go if you can't find the trail, which was my case. There were some mountain goats that we crossed paths with on the way up. Some motorcyclists on the trail to B.L.P. stopped to check them out as well. From the loud conversation overhead halfway up the peak, the goats we're freakin' sweet. Willard Peak is by far the most geologically interesting peak I've been on. You can see for yourself in the pictures.

In All, it was 1,524 ft climbed over 4 miles.

View photos of the trail

Wheeler Canyon -> Green Pond Trail

I guess after having made it as far up as I could go at SnowBasin, the only logical thing to do next was to start lower and try to get to the top, to do that you start at the Wheeler Canyon trailhead right next to the Pineview Reservoir dam. Wheeler Canyon is a wide trail, and is a lot of fun to come down riding over all the rock outcroppings on the trail. Only problem is horse crap, as usual with forest service trails. Anyway I was feeling like I could climb about 3000 vertical feet or more, but to do that I would've had to start a couple hours earlier. To get to the Needles Lodge from Wheeler Canyon would be 4300 vertical feet, just for reference. I only made it to the top of the Green Pond Loop Trail 20 minutes before the sun set. Around that point in time I pulled the sweetest move -- my front tire found some rodents underground burrow, and since the rain had softened the ground, my tire dropped straight down about 4 inches, which wouldn't have been a big deal except my front tire had a big rock in front of it that I was going to ride over. The sweet part is what happened next, I just endo'd, yup, right over the top. Since I was going up a small hill at the time it was a slow, graceful endo. That's not the best part though; I endo'd right into a nice stretch of mud, and I had an impressive bloody dent in my lower leg! It just doesn't get better than that, being all covered in mud looking like you went to war on your ride, with the wounds to prove it. Since I didn't have much time to get down off the mountain I took the Old Snowbasin Highway back to the Art Nord trailhead (max speed, 39 MPH on the highway), and went from there to the Wheeler Creek trailhead.

All in all, 2,384 ft climbed over 14.3 miles

SnowBasin -- All the way to the top

After weeks & weeks of climbing the mountain I finally climbed all the way to the top. I wasn't planning on going all the way, but once I saw the Needles lodge, I knew I'd be very disappointed if I didn't get there. For this ride I took the Needles Trail from the parking lot at the base. Once I was into the middle section of the mountain I took the Diamond Trail up to the Philpot Trail where I eventually rejoined the Needles trail. I excruciatingly made my way from there up the final ascents to the lodge. I parked my butt at the lodge for about 20 minutes, just chilling before I headed back down. For the trip down I took the Porcupine Trail, effectively covering most of the mountain. It took 3 1/2 hours to do all this, and the sun had set by the time I made it back to the parking lot.

Earlier in the day I was at the Outdoor Retailer Show's Open Air Demo Day at Willard Bay. While there I came upon a glove manufacturer who let me borrow a pair of biking gloves to test out on a ride. I don't know if they realized that I meant a real ride, but dangit, that's what it was. So these gloves showed a lot of promise, but seriously fell short. The first thing I noticed was a massive seam between the thumb and the forefinger that dug into flesh whenever I gripped the handlebars. Everything else was good for a couple miles, and then my pinkies started to complain from the seams around those fingers. I kept going & then I started feeling my skin being rubbed raw from excess material bunching at the base of my fingers. Near the top I noticed one of the design elements on the glove had started peeling away. When I looked at the gloves on the top I noticed that the padding which was prominently raised on the palm was almost as flat as the rest of the glove. Between the seams, the bunching fabric & lack of padding my hands were complaining the whole way down. When I took the gloves off my palms were on the verge of being all pruney from lack of ventilation for the palms. One last thing, the terry wipe pad on the glove was teeny tiny for a guy whose sweat glands act like sprinklers. I was wishing I had my regular pair of gloves in my bag. They're a 10 year old pair of Specialized gloves, mostly leather, no padding at all which are still as functional as the day I bought them. Thanks Specialized.

All in all it was 2600 ft of elevation climbed and 12.5 miles.

SnowBasin -- Green Pond/Last Chance Loops

Snowbasin is becoming a welcome retreat this summer with the heat that the valley's have been having. The increased electric bill for keeping my place cool is proof enough of that. It's totally worth the 30 minute drive up there (40 minutes if someone drives the canyon at 25 mph). I've been going up 3-4 times a week, though I certainly don't post about every time. The Porcupine Trail is by far my favorite trail up there, downhill at least. It has some sweet jumps and some good amounts of trail that aren't encumbered with switchbacks. Towards the top there's a large rock that's right next to the trail that you can ride up on and jump off a 2 foot drop back onto the trail. It's an open invitation for some tacos -- with my bike at least.

As of Saturday I've ridden every foot of trail on the mountain. My top 3 trails are Porcupine -- downhill, Green Pond Loop -- clockwise, and Last Chance Loop -- counter-clockwise. You can come up with some pretty creative combinations with all the trails up there, and that can give you some good opportunities for some more uphill in your ride if that's what you're after. I'm still not a fan of the development of the switchbacks. Like I've said before, the majority of them are really tight, and you come up on them without warning. They're also covered with a deep layer of fine dirt that resembles talcum powder. This hides some rocks, deep cuts, and other obstacles in the way, and makes tight turns at any level of speed an uneasy prospect. Compounding this, a lot of the switchbacks have downward slopes on the exit portions instead of banks, so the natural course of a bike, is right off the trail. Before I slowed down to a crawl on these switchbacks, I made out with a couple endos because of that design. Which brings up a question -- were the switchbacks planned this way to force bikers to slow down, or is it a result of a lack of planning & foresight on the trail designers part?

Back to the subject at hand, I decided to make one big loop out of the Green Pond & Last Chance Loops. This was a good combination resulting in 8.4 miles of trail climbing around 1500 ft. This route took me my preferred way up the Green Pond Loop, and gave me the chance to do the Last Chance Loop the opposite way of what I've done before. I didn't like it that much to be honest. I think next time up there I'm going to try these loops in a figure 8 pattern. It will cover more mileage and be a little more climbing, but It'll be a better ride. Overall, though, it was a great ride. It doesn't even feel like you've climbed 1500 ft throughout the whole ride, maybe just half.

Powder Mountain Race Loop

This was my 2nd attempt to ride the race loop. The first time I forgot my GPS & the coordinates for the turnoffs from the double track to single track. I don't know if they still use this trail for racing, but if they do, it doesn't look like it's been raced on lately. You can get directions there & the coordinates from utahmountainbiking.com. Some of the singletrack sections are a lot of fun to ride. Others look like they haven't seen a bike in more than a year (probably because riders couldn't find the trails). On portions of this trail you'll get really close to nature as the trail gets swallowed up by overhanging trees & plants. It's at those times that all you see is your line through the plants and you hope there isn't a large rock in the way that you can't see. Other parts of the singletrack are plagued with the after effects of burrowing rodents. At other times you'll stop & wonder where the trail goes. In the end though, it's a fun ride, and now that I know where all the turnoffs are I can have a little more fun & ride through it faster. Only the first turnoff onto singletrack is marked with a cairn. The singletrack is also marked with small pink flags (welll, they used to be pink at one time), so if you haven't run over one in a while, you're probably off the trail. The directions on utahm..b...com are fairly accurate, only things I'd clarify are that at 4.2, the DT does not become ST, you have to turn off on a singletrack trail. If you see a ski sign for Combome Canyon, you went too far. I went about 3/4 of a mile past the ski sign before turning back and added another 400 ft of climbing to my ride. 2nd clarification, at mile 4.9 at the lift house, go around it to the north & down the hill (this isn't on my map, I went to the south of the lift house, but managed to get back on a little down the road) It'll look like you're just going to drop all the way down to the nether regions of the resort, but there's a road off to the left that you hop on that will take you back up to the lodge. 3rd clarification -- that single track you have to find off the parking lot is really an old entrance to the parking lot. If you want to do this ride, I suggest finding someone that knows the route. The first time up we didn't see a single piece of singletrack, mainly because we didn't know where we specifically needed to look at each invisible intersection. The singletrack intersections look even fainter than game trails.

Not including my jaunt way off the beaten path, the actual trail is something like 5.75 miles & 850 ft elevation climbed throughout.

Ogden Peak

With a season pass in hand, getting to the top of Ogden Peak was never easier. Without a ride to the top, you'd need to go through an exhausting climb from the base of Snowbasin to the top, or for the ultrafit, you could climb it from the Ogden side all the way from the valley floor up one of the many canyon trails that lead to the top. You really won't see any signs pointing to any of the trails going up to Ogden Peak. Some of them are pretty new, and even while I was up there, the Snowbasin crew was working on portions of the trail that lead up to the ridgeline. From the ridge to the halfway point to the peak the trail seems to be nothing more than a game trail. A real trail comes into view as you cross the ridge coming up from Strong's Peak. This trail is marked with massive cairns -- impossible to miss. This trail leads to the service road that climbs Ogden Peak to the towers. You can really go any way you want until you hit this road -- walk the ridgeline, bushwhack, whatever. Getting up the service road is the steepest section of the climb. Sharing the summit are several radio towers, and a helicopter landing pad -- a mighty small landing pad -- really close to the towers. Storm clouds were brewing in the morning, but by the end of the hike blue skies were back out & more people decided to come up onto the ridge.

It was 3.33 miles to the top & back & around 1300 ft gained.

View photos from this trail

Snowbasin -- Green Pond Loop / Needles

Well, I broke down and bought a summer season pass to Snowbasin. Not bad at $110. The gondola is only open Fri-Sun + different occasions, however, so you're kind of limited to what you can do up there depending on the day.

Green Pond Loop Trail: On my latest excursion I did the entire Green Pond Loop Trail, this time without deviating. I went counter-clockwise this time instead of clockwise, and after that, I can easily recommend doing it clockwise. Reason being, the climbing feels more gradual, and is almost entirely shaded, and the other way around is exposed & hot for most of the serious climbing. Either way, the loop is 5.3 miles and you climb almost 1,000 ft. This trail is worth riding for some sweet, free flowing singletrack, and a quick ride. I think it took about an hour, maybe a little more to do this.

Needles: This is trail #1 on the Snowbasin map. You descend 2,553 feet & climb 167 ft (not including the gondola ride). The trail is 7.4 miles long & it feels like an eternity to get down the mountain. The upper section is plagued with the same problems of the lower section: the wretchedly designed switchbacks. They're pretty much designed for novices who ride trails at 3 MPH. The middle section is a blast to ride. The trail flows very well, meaning you don't need to slam on your brakes every 20 feet to make a sharp turn. There are a few places you can get a little air, but I'm still craving more. As you enter into the lower section you have a wide open path with very few obstacles, so you can fly down at top speed. In the end, it's a worthwhile ride. I would've liked to see a little more climbing throughout -- not a lot, but enough to give you more of a workout than downhilling gives you, though combining a couple trails together can easily achieve that.

Once I've ridden all the trails up there, I'll rate which ones I like, best to worst.

Mountain Biking Snowbasin

Snowbasin has been open in the summer to mountain biking for what I believe is the 2nd year. My first time biking in the area involved a ride up Wheeler Canyon, and continuing on up a trail which leads to the lower parking lot at Snowbasin. From there we took the Old Snowbasin Highway back down to a trailhead above Wheeler Canyon & completed the ride back through the canyon to the trailhead. It was a good ride, on good trails. One trail I noted that branched off of the trails we were on was the Green Pond Trail. It's partially on the Forest Service trail system & partially on Snowbasin's trail system.

The parking area for the Green Pond Trail is on the new Snowbasin Highway and is quite obvious. The trail is in great condition, and aside from the tiny insects that seem to hover in large groups & one down tree offered a really good ride. The signage on the trails is good at times, and sketchy at others. One of the problems is that whenever two trail intersect, like the Green Pond Loop & the Last Chance Loop, only one of the trails is listed, in this case, the Last Chance Trail prevailed over the Green Pond Trail, so without a map of the trail system, I headed down a service road in hopes of finding a turn off back onto the Green Pond Trail. After half a mile and seeing nothing I turned back to ride on the Last Chance Trail. If I would've continued further I would've intersected the returning portion of the Green Pond Loop, but that would've cut my ride in half. Back on the trail I met a couple of other bikers, and I rode with one a bit. He was wanting to attempt a climb all the way up to the top of the mountain. I went with him for a couple miles & left him when my asthma started kicking in. From there I rode back down a ways until I was on the Needles Trail which heads back to the main lodges. I wasn't a fan of that trail. It was mainly comprised of 40 feet of straight trail & then a tight switchback, over and over and over, so it was all brake & swerve & no fun. At one point you reach one of the snowboarding pipes where there's no real trail, you just have to haul yourself & your bike up & over it. Not cool. When I was close to the lodge I hopped onto the Maples Trail. This leads you over a fast flowing creek towards the lower parking lot & the Forest Service trail system. I took this trail back down to the turn off towards the Green Pond trail & the parking area. This section of trail was a blast to ride. It's mostly singletrack, except for the first section, and you can just haul. There are few real obstacles. If you count horse piles, then there were a ton of obstacles -- it was bad. Horses are banned from Snowbasin trails ; ) that makes me smile, they're welcome on Forest Service land unfortunately. So this stretch of trail was great. Aside from one tight turn where I almost went over the edge or head long into a rock, but narrowly escaped incident. At one point Wheeler Canyon was coming up quick & I still hadn't found my turn off to get back to the Green Pond Trailhead & I started to get worried. Fortunately after another 5 minutes of riding I found it & headed up. From there I crossed the Old Snowbasin Highway, and continued up towards the lot. The final stretch is through a small canyon. It was quite pleasant in there, and would be a fun downhill.

Next time I go up there I might hitch a ride on the gondola to the top, but as much as I love the downhill, I also like to get a workout in, and downhill works your body about as much as one of those vibration belts from the early 1900's. If I had a full day to bike I'd do it. With the temps in the valley looming around 100, it was nice to be up in the mountains. It was still warm, but not quite as much, and in the different nooks & crannies of the mountain you can get some much cooler air.

All in all it was over 2,000 ft of climbing & 11 miles.

View photos

Riverside/Crimson Trail - Logan Canyon

This trail starts in the Guinava Campground, and follows the Logan River West towards the Mill Hollow area, and reservoir, the upper one I believe. Then it climbs steeply up onto the mountainside until you're hiking above the cliffs, where you're almost at the same elevation as the Wind Caves directly across the canyon from where you're at. It's a moderate hike at 4.89 miles, and 2,000 ft elevation gain. The descent back to the campground is quite steep in some sections. It took about 3 hours and was a nice trip.

Lewis Peak Take II

One of my friends wanted to do Lewis Peak, so I went again. All the snow was off the trails, and the wildflowers were starting to grow out of the ground where the snow once was. It was nice and windy, though not so strong that it was uncomfortable. I was feeling remarkably well on the way up, and just the opposite on the way back. My mountain biking & hiking seem to compete for the well being of my knees. If i just mountain bike all summer, then my knees are fine, and same if I just hike all summer, but when I switch between the two I guess ligaments & other fun stuff change position in my knees depending on what I'm doing, and when that happens, it's quite unpleasant., so I had that to deal with on the trip back.

I think this is my last time up this trail. The horse usage is just too much for me. If you read my other post about Lewis Peak, you'll know what I'm talking about. With warmer weather & higher usage, parts of the trial were even nastier.

On the way up the steep section a wild turkey flew out of the brush and started attacking us, then started walking up the trail ahead of us, I guess it was trying to lead us away from it's nest. Near the top I wanted to go out into a section of rock to relax & found a rattlesnake on the way there, just chilling in the sun. As with all my experiences with rattle snakes, this one just winded it's way into the bushes & out of sight. More wild flowers were blooming on this trip making for some very pleasant fragrances on parts of the trail.

While we were on the peak we noticed a storm coming in across the Great Salt Lake. We were fortunate that the stretch we experienced on the way back was all talk & no action except for some faster wind gusts. By the time we reached the end of the ridgeline and dropped back into the canyon, there was lightning and thunder on top where we were 30 minutes before.

The pics taken on this trip are from my new camera, the Canon A95. They're significantly better than my old camera, and consequently the large sized images are significantly larger, but for the good pics, I think it's worth the wait.

View photos from this trail

Lewis Peak

Who could pass up a beautiful Saturday of hiking? Not I. I ditched my current project of rebuilding my master closet, and headed for Lewis Peak. It sits just South of where I live, so it was a whole 5 minute commute to the trailhead. This was my first time on the trail, and I was impressed with the nice steep angle of the trail, it's quality, and the quick variations in the surroundings. Only downside -- horse poop. I googled trail horse poop to see what other communities were doing about horse poop on trails and got a nice mix of opinion. The pro-equestrians think anyone who has a problem with horse poop on trails can go take a hike...somewhere else. They seem to think that bipeds & bicyclists don't know that horse poop really isn't poop at all, it's just a neat pile of water & grass that tells them how healthy their horse is! They also say that it biodegrades very quickly, and that unlike dog or human excrement, horse poop really isn't offensive at all. Well, I don't know what planet they're from, but IMO poop is poop, and horse poop reeks, and remains on trails for over 3 years before it is no longer a pile of something & even then it's still easily recognizable as formerly being a huge mound of poop. It attracts tons of insects, & undesirable wildlife to the trails, and for the unattentive who step in, or ride through a nice pile of the stuff, they get to keep a constant smelly reminder of their mistake for the rest of their trip, or until they can find someplace to wash it off -- wait, who wants horse poop being washed off into a water supply? Aside from their askew thoughts on horse poop, I have no problem with equestrians using the same trails that I do. I think they have equal rights to get out into nature just like everyone else, but just because horses are considered noble animals, doesn't mean their waste should be held in any different light than a humans, a dogs, or any other animal that a human has control over. So what can be done? It would be risky for an equestrian to dismount to clean it up and put the poop out to pasture, horse diapers are an option, but even I think that's a little low for horses, there could be planned trail cleanups by the same equestrians who use the trails to rid the trails of their horses poop, or even just regular patrols by concerned equestrians who would want to keep trails open to horseback riding. The nastiest thing I encountered on the trail though, was a 20 foot long spread of vile horse diarrhea that covered the entire width of the trail. That kind of thing just can't be cleaned up well. So what's the answer? I don't think there is a single answer that will make everyone happy. However, horse owners need to take responsibility for what their animals do, and show some respect for other trail users otherwise the right to use those trails can be taken away. 

Anyway, enough of that rant. After a mile on the trail and 1000 ft elevation gained you come out of the forest with views of the Huntsville area, including the Pineview Reservoir, which is filled to the brim with all the spring runoff. From there you climb another 1000 feet to the highest point in the Lewis Peak section of mountain. Now my GPS said this point was higher than Lewis Peak, by about 120 feet, and it doesn't tend to lie. Irregardless, my goal was Lewis Peak, or the furthest I could get before I hit a stretch of snow miserable enough to make me turn back. The trail meandes around some hills, and through large patches of wildflowers, through several stretches of snow, and doesn't really gain much, nor lose much elevation from here till the end. There was only one section of snow that I couldn't just go through, it would've been a nasty slide & broken bones if anything happened while trying to get up it, so I went all the way up and around it. Lewis Peak has a nice view of Ben Lomond & Willard Peak to the North as well as Ogden Peak to the South, and the Weber valley. 

All in all it was 5.3 miles, 2516 ft elevation gained, 762 lost with 3.8 miles of the hike uphill, and 1.5 downhill -- all numbers are for a one way trip. So round trip, it's 10.6 miles and 3278 ft climbed. 

View photos from this trail

Bonneville Shoreline Trail Ogden 9th N -> 12th St

This is a nice little stretch of trail that follows the Ogden-Brigham Canal for the most part. There's a 250 ft elevation gain on the initial 1/2 mile climb on singletrack and then nice long stretches of flat road from there on out with occasional dips and climbs amounting to approximately 543 ft elevation climbed throughout the 6.7 mile out & back ride. There are a couple portions of the canal that are covered with a cement cap which make some pretty sweet jumps when they end. There's a nice view of the valley throughout. The ride ends at the mouth of Ogden Canyon where the pipeline is suspended above the highway. If you climb the concrete stairs up & over you can get a nice view of the overflow waterfall, and even walk a portion of the covered canal as it makes it's way through the rugged side of the canyon. From the opposite side of the canyon on Indian Trail it looks almost like there are tunnels big enough to walk through where the canal has been cut through cliffs, but after seeing the first tunnel (which looks like a spider infested crawl space) I abandoned that idea. It would be cool however if the route the canal takes was passable all the way from Pineview Reservoir through the canyon. This would give hikers & bikers access to the Ogden Valley (the valley Huntsville is in, not the one Ogden is in) without having to ride through the canyon which requires a death wish if you're riding up -- it's not so bad going down, so I hear. I don't want to find that out anytime soon though. So on the way back when you get back to the singletrack, it's a really sweet ride back down. The sagebrush & grasses conceal the trail at every turn, so while it may be really tempting to brake since you won't know what's around the corner, it's even better to just roll through and take what comes at ya'. The upper section of the singletrack has some larger rocks on the trail, but the mid & lower section are pretty much rock free. The ride finishes with some tight switchbacks & then you're back at the parking lot. It takes an hour to get out & back riding at a moderate pace. There's a trail that breaks off of the BST about 1 mile in and does some actual climbing if you want more of a workout. It ends around the BL that's been created with painted white rocks on the mountain side.

Indian Trail (22nd St to the shelter)

I did this over a week ago, but had the GPS elevation profile & map route to put up, so I wanted to post this before I completely forgot about it. The trail is well maintained, and well shaded for the last 2/3 of the trail. There's nothing really remarkable about this trail. You hike from the Ogden benches where you hike among the brush oak, and climb up into the South side of Ogden Canyon where you're surrounded by pine. At a little over 4.5 miles & with 1,746 ft gained, the steepness of the trail is moderate. The views are good, especially in a couple spots along the trail which are perfect for resting. The trail supposedly follows the old route the native americans used to take during their seasonal migrations. It ends at a shelter. Waiting at the end were an innumerable quantity of flies just right in that area. It was quite unbearable, so I took off back down the trail without really taking a break at the shelter. One of the reasons I like hiking to the tops of peaks so much is that the number of insects you encounter drops dramatically the higher you go.

Moab 2005

I biked Slickrock again this year. It was the typical experience -- not too many people, the perfect weather, and still a good challenge to get through. I tried some homemade energy goop this year, a bottle of honey with some strawberry flavoring mixed in to thin it out a little and to make it taste better. It worked out really well. I took my GPS along for the ride this year so I could find out just how much elevation gain & loss there is on this trail. In total, there is 1,950 feet in elevation gain & loss. The number could actually be much higher if the GPS didn't track precisely at the bottom and top of each hill, but it's a rough estimate & good enough for me.

The next day I explored the Onion Creek area. Although the road is marked 4WD I decided to take lil' red for a drive up it. The road is in awesome shape and would be a blast to ride on a mountain bike with all the stream crossings and the roller coaster like ascents & descents between the stream crossings. The geology in that canyon is incredible & will definitely be ridden later on this year when I go down again. If the stream was flowing at a much higher rate I could see some problems taking lil' red up it, but there weren't any problems that day.

The rest of the day was spent in Arches National Park in the Fiery Furnace. It's one of my favorite places ot hike in the area for a couple reasons. First is the fact that not too many people can go in due to permit restrictions, and the permit eliminates the majority of people from even being remotely interested in going in there, and then there's the need for a guide if someone in your group doesn't know the route through the furnace -- which is basically a labryinth. The temperature in the furnace is usually 10-20 degrees cooler (at least) than anywhere else in the park due to all the shade created by the tightly spaced fins. Some of the slot canyons created by the fins will have a cool downdraft much cooler than the rest of the furnace making it really nice to relax in one of those. That, plus all the cool formations, and the mild canyoneering experience you have and the ability to explore any number of areas within the furnace make this a really fun place to go.

My actual birthday was spent on a bike ride through Canyonlands National Park. Starting out on the Shafer road near the entrance to the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands I descended the road and all it's switchbacks, stopping on occasion to take a look over the edge of the road to see where I was heading next & to give my body a rest from all the downhill. I soon hit the bottom & took a break in the shade. On this route, trees are scarce that I stopped under them whenever I had the chance. From here the route I was on follows the famous White Rim Trail. Following this trail exposed me to another side of Canyonlands NP that I'd never seen before. You're basically in the middle of all the layers that make up the area so you have good views of all the cliffs above you and you could also see beyond into the canyons below you and actually see the Colorado River on it's course through the area, whereas you only see a smidgeon of everything from the main roads in Island in the Sky. As you had South-East on this road (at least on this section) you're heading slightly uphill and when you go around a corner to go North-West you're going downhill. While the road isn't technical in this section requiring 4WD vehicles or anything, there's still enough obstacles on the road to make riding it fun. There are small ledges & other rocks to jump off of, sand to surf through and other fun things to do. You can overlook the Gooseneck bend in the Colorado & go up to Musselman Arch which is more of a natural bridge technically, and is quite impressive. After Musselman Arch the rest of the trail is fairly boring, taking you further away from the canyon rim. And then there was Lathrop Canyon. My shuttle service suggested walking the first sections of this canyon -- whatever. This canyon was a lot of fun. It was a long fast descent with lots of obstacles to have fun with, and was definitely the best part of the ride, much better than the descent down Shafer road. That is until you hit the last mile and a half of deep sand. It's totally unrideable unless of course you're a glutton for punishment, really, really bad punishment. The route ended on the Colorado River. The tamarisk like everywhere else on the major rivers out West has grown so thick that it totally blocks the view of the river except for the dirt boat ramp leading into the river. I was early for my boat pick up, by about 2 hours, so I had a while to nap & relax. There was a couple moving down to NM that had a full mattress set strapped to the top of their truck. I assumed at first that one of the two would only go on a trip like this if they had the comforts of home right there, but I found out they were moving later on. This 40 foot barge like boat pulled up with some canoeists returning from a 7 day trip down the Green River -- one of the ladies had broken her fibia on day 4 and managed to finish the trip and still be in good spirits by the time I met them. Fortunately they had duct tape to to bind the splint, and enough drift wood on the route for a fine selection of canes. The boat ride lasted for about an hour & then there was a slow drive back to town. All in all this was 1112 feet of climbing, and 3094 feet of descent, over 20.9 miles.

All in all this was yet another awesome trip to Moab. It might be my last annual trip down there for my birthday, but certainly not the last one.

View photos from this trip