The more time I spend here the better it gets

The weather has finally turned, things are drying out and the views are getting better.  Saturdays are for climbing so up I went.  Back up Francis Peak, as I did a couple of weeks ago.

Elevator goooooing up!

This time the top wasn’t enshrouded in clouds and I could see for a quite a ways.  The view looking south.

The view looking west on the string of towns running north of Salt Lake along the Wasatch.  I think this would be Farmington - where I started.  Ogden would be further to the right of the photo.

Near the top on the way back down.

Then it’s aaaalll downhill

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Oooh…these trails are fun

The forecast was threatening thunderstorms and the wind was definitely trying to blow somthing in, but this was a killer ride and the trails around the Snowbasin Ski Area are killer.  Every time I’ve planned to ride up there, it’s been super rainy.  And this network of trails is in the canyon so the weather just sits over them.  A couple weeks ago I even drove out there, was all ready to ride and tough it out in the wet weather when I saw a sign that explicity said, “Do Not Ride These Trails When Wet.”  I couldn’t willfully destroy the trails after seeing that so I packed it all up again and left with my tail between my legs.  But finally - I got to check them out.  And they did not disappoint.

I climbed on fireroad and singletrack up to the ski area base.  I must note here - the trails have dried and I didn’t see any deep tire tracks; clearly all the MTBers had followed the rules and not ridden when the trails were wet.  The equestrians, however, obviously hadn’t.  There were deep hoof prints all over the place.  I mean all over. 

Kind of a bummer.  Just sayin’.  Still, sick singletrack friggin’ everywhere.

I ran into the Guest Services manager of the resort who was stoked to tell me all about the trails.  Lift access will open in another month or so - I need a big bike

From the ski area, I rode singletrack all the way back down. Killer descent - over five miles and super fun corners, pitches, through meadows and trees. 

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Things weren’t looking too sweet to start the day on Sunday - Heather warned that the weather in Park City was not going to be mountain-bike-permitting.  But once I got home and we reorganized, the sun started to shine.  Even though the forecast was calling for thunder storms, it was beautiful when we headed out.

We rode over North Ogden Canyon, which I had been warned was ‘one of the hardest climbs in the state’.  I had pretty much dismissed that warning but we were both wrecked at the top and marveling at how hard it had actually been.  Killer

I fully expected that the weather would be sitting on the other side of the canyon.  We had both stuffed our jersey pockets with layers of clothing but it was warm and sunny.  And beautiful.  One of the best rides I’ve had here so far - and it was an effing road ride!  Go figure.

We filled up with Coke in Huntsville and rode over to Mountain Green, then headed back to Ogden.

I had carried my camera the whole way without taking any pictures (pretty much my M.O. at this point) so we stopped for a - sort of - photo opportunity.

At this point we had to hop on the interstate for an exit to get back.  Turned out there was construction and cars were cut to one lane (and one side of the divided highway).  We got a whole side of the interstate with brand new pavement.  UNTIL…it ended and we got rerouted onto a dirt side road.  Which turned out to be way cool and ran along a river.  The rivers are running super high right now from all the rain and snow melt.  Here is Heather next to the rapids.

Fun ride - on the road

Training | No Comments »

The Utah State Downhill Series rolled through Ogden this weekend and I couldn’t help hit it up for the Super D

(In fact, it’s still going on - the DHers are battling it out right now on what I can only imagine is a very slick, very muddy, very wet course!)

Last weekend I wussed out of the Deer Valley XC race because of the rain (which turned out to not be an issue.  Go figure).  But I was determined not to let that happen again.  Saturday training was supposed to a be big fireroad climbing and the Super D race wasn’t until noon so I headed up to the venue and did a couple fireroad climbs nearby in the morning.  I planned to have plenty of time to get back and preride a couple times, finishing the hill climbing with a couple laps up to the top of the course.  Unforseen circumstances, however, resulted in my getting lost wandering around the nearby towns and cutting it super close to even get registered.  When in doubt, alway remember, I am an idiot.  I booked it made it in just in time.  But that meant taking the lift up the mountain for the preride instead.  I wasn’t totally bummed

The rain hit on the second ride up the mountain and just in time for us all staging up top.  Freezing.  I did a very halfhearted warmup with a few efforts up the first climb.  It was a time trial start (about a million times better than a mass start for a Super D).   And luckily I had a pretty early seed so I didn’t freeze too badly.  I took off and tried to turn my legs over.  The course was really fun - a little chattery and bumpy on the hardtail - with lots of short, punchy climbs and big swoopy corners.  It was definitely a pedally course though, and favored XC racers over gravity ones.  My legs were tired from the climbing already in them but I pushed hard and slipped and slided my way down the slick course.  I was off my bike once through a stream crossing.  I was certain I could clean it - it was deep and the challenge was just to carry enough speed through to get up the pitchy climb on the other side.  I managed to screw it up though as I utterly miscalculated the line through though the water and hit the stream in the deepest section through the fastest flowing water and losing all my speed.  Definitely not cleaning the climb on the other side, I hopped off and ran up the hill.  At the top, my nonexistent cross skills made an appearance and I pulled off a running mount back on.

More slipping and sliding down the mountain in the second half and I managed to snag the win in the enormous two-woman field.

I realize this doesn’t look especially muddy.  But it was after two wipe-downs already and was only the last half-hour’s accumulation of mud.

Nice view right up my nose.  Note to self:  When taking pictures of yourself - hold the camera OUT not DOWN.

I did a couple more wet laps up the mountain to finish out the hill climbing and peeled  the layers of mud off before heading home.

Today Heather Holmes and I planned to do a dirt ride in Park City but the weather in Park City was not only looking ominous but downright dangerous so we are changing gears (and gear) and getting ready for a road ride here in Ogden, where hopefully the weather will be a little kinder.

Events | 2 Comments »

It’s been a rough couple of weeks without it.  Quite pathetically rough, actually

Aside from the brutal shock of living in a desert climate and encountering, um, a lot of rain here, it’s great.

The weather has cleared (a few times at least) and I managed to catch some photos on a few rides.

These trails are a 15 minute pedal from my door!

Saturday was a climbing day so I found a big fireroad climb a couple of towns away.  It was warm and sunny at the bottom - 12 miles and 4,500ft later, it was gloomy, windy, cold and wet.

There is some kind of crazy weather station/science experiment at the top.

Those are clouds, not smoke!

Pretty epic!  And kind of a far cry from Hesperia, CA!

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That’s what I’ve gotten in Ogden.  I think it has rained every day since I’ve been here.  Coming from the desert, I’m not handling the adjustment very well.  ‘Nuf said.  I’m bitter.  It’s been a while since I rode soaking wet.  (I suppose that should make it a novelty and it should be fun, for a bit at least).  Not so much.  I don’t think Ogden likes me.  But I like it

Given the rain, I haven’t been able to carry my camera with me on any rides.  So no pictures yet.  Everyone assures me that this is unusual.  Fingers crossed.  Looking forward to some dry exploring soon

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I’ve used that title so many times now it’s completely worn out.

New job.  New location.  New everything.

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This race went well for the first 45 minutes or so.  The initial climb was tough.  Joy took the hole shot and pushed the pace right from the gun.  We were strung out but mostly together until the traverse on the top where Joy turned it on even harder.  By then it was just Joy, Allison and I but neither Allison nor I could cover Joy’s pace along the traverse.  We rolled along like that all the way over to Wet Dream.  Joy was in first and Allison and I were behind her; all three of us not separated by more than 30 seconds.  There was a lot of traffic from mens’ categories and I lost a little time stuck in it once we hit the first section of singletrack.  But I could still see Allison once we hit fireroad again and I was closing the gap a bit on the first climb.  Over the top and we hit a fast downhill section.  Right in the middle of a corner, a guy had just gone down at very high speed and was not in a good way.

Two other guys also stopped to help but they didn’t seem to know what to do (not that I did either) so I knew I had to stop.  I don’t know first aid and I was kind of too scared to even talk to the guy but it was obvious he was in a horrible location - right around a corner of a super high-speed section.  So I started doing traffic control; waving everyone to the side and around him.  I don’t know how long I was there for.  15 minutes?  It didn’t matter so much as the other women in my category were long gone.  I waited until a paramedic arrived and determined that the guy had probably dislocated his shoulder.

My race was over but I figured it was still salvageable for a workout.  Although it turned out to be a significantly slower one.  Why is it so impossible to go race pace without someone to race?  I don’t have the will-power to make myself suffer like that alone.  *Sigh*  Knock wood, hopefully someone never has to do that for me.  But if they do, I guess at least now I accumulated some karma to cash in if the time comes.

Race Reports | 2 Comments »

Not much to report.  No racing last weekend.  Just lots of fun riding in Big Bear

On Saturday I rode on the Snow Summit trails and Sunday I rode more Snow Summit trails to preride the course for this weekend.  I’ve never raced at Big Bear.  It feels like the course will be alternatively really fun and really, um, not fun.  Par example…The fireroad slog to start the race, not fun.  The trail Wet Dream, when you finally touch singletrack, fun.  The fireroad climb to Cabin 89, not fun.  Cabin 89, definitely fun.  The climb up 1E01, brutal but at least it’s singletrack - it’s a draw.  The 2N51Y climb with tired legs, definitely not fun.  Pirates to Mad Dog, fun.  Riding off-camber fireroad down to Fern Trail, not fun.  Fern Trail, fun

But this may be my last SoCal race so I better enjoy it!

Yes, I’m being deliberately (read: annoyingly) cryptic

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First, before I write anything, I need to make the disclaimer that although I brought my camera and although I had vowed only weeks before to take and post more pictures, I took zero pictures on this trip.  Four days, one race, three rides, four states, one birthday…zero pictures.  Sue me.

Carolyn and I planned a long weekend road trip to Utah for my birthday, do some riding and to race an Intermountain Cup as an excuse.  We loaded up the truck Thursday afternoon and drove to Boulder City, NV where we crashed in Jeff’s RV for the night.

Friday we drove all day and made it to Heber City, where the race was taking place on Saturday.  We prerode the course, which at first glance looked a little bland (on a golf course, lots of zig-zagging singletrack up and down, back and forth) but actually turned out to be pretty challenging and fun.  We camped at Wasatch Mountain State Park, which was friggin’ gorgeous and a little cold.  We cooked dinner in the dark, threw up the tent and crashed out ’til the race the next morning.  We both woke up feeling geriatric, complaining about our back pain from sleeping on the ground.  Off to the venue!

I suffered badly in my warmup and knew the race was going to be a small disaster.  It’s the end of a big training block and my legs were pretty useless.  I was also gasping for breath in the thin air of the mountains.  Oh well, I guess.  We hit the starting line and took off.  I was the rookie who couldn’t get clipped in at the start so I was off the back right away.  (Hey, what else is new?)  I managed to get by one lady and I got by KC Holley in the first half a lap.  That lasted all of about 30 seconds until she passed me back and immediately began gapping me.  I had nothing so I just waited and hoped my legs might come around later in the race.  For the first two laps, KC would put lots of time into me on the climbs in the first half of the lap and I would catch back on on the long descent.  On the bottom of the second lap, I found myself charging up a short pavement climb about to catch KC and realizing that I could jump in front of her onto a section of singletrack.  I did and I found a little motivation for the last lap.  I managed to hold KC off and hang onto third place.

Perhaps not the race of my dreams for my birthday but I was happy with how it went, given how I felt.  Happy birthday to me.  Carolyn and I celebrated by getting as wasted as possible in Utah.  Which is not very wasted.

The next day we met up with Heather Holmes, Kathy Sherwin and some of their crew for a ride in Park City.  It was awesome!  I don’t even remember the name of the loop.  Something about a lost dog, perhaps?  It hurt because our legs were smoked and there was little to no oxygen but the trails were killer and it was a super fun ride. 

After the ride, we loaded the truck up again and got down to another epic drive back to Boulder City where we crashed again in Jeff’s RV.  The next morning we rode Bootleg, which was phenomenal as always but was boiling hot.  Good grief.  When we finished our ride at 9am, it was 93 degrees.  Ouch.  We hit all the good stuff, though…  West Leg, Skyline, Boyscout, Inner Circle, Girl Scout, POW…good times. 

Finally, we limped home that evening.  Epic weekend, killer riding.  Happy Birthday to me.

Travel, Race Reports, Cool Trails | 2 Comments »