Gooseberry Mesa and Green Valley

Max 28.0 Avs 7.0 Dst 17.4 Tm 2:28:49 Odo 1088.1 Alt^ 1041 T.Tm 361:26 T.Odo 2806.6

Gooseberry mesa is always good for at least one good crash. The section called "God's Skateboard Park" is a maze of tight turns round trees and rocks and short steep climbs and drops. A lot of the trail is on large sections of red sandstone called slickrock. In these sections white dots are painted on the rock to mark the way to go. At one point I turned a corner around a rock, off to the left could be seen tracks in the dirt between a tree and rock on the right were dots headed straight up an eight foot high rock. A split second decision was required. I'm not sure what was the reason for the choice I made, it could have been that I was having a lot of fun challenging myself, or maybe I wanted my cousin, who was right behind me, to see how I could take on the best the trail had to offer. I took the trail to the right. Not knowing before hand what was coming my speed was a bit slow. I was able to get my front wheel just barely over the top edge of the rock when the momentum and traction ended. Grabbing both brakes and putting a foot down I was able to hold my position on the rock for a moment. Knowing this wouldn't last I let out a little yelp, "help"! My cousin rounded the corner just in time to see me loose the momentary gravity defying stance I was holding and fall back bike over body to the rocks below. Our first thoughts were the same only directed at different objects, he wanted to know if I was OK, I wanted to make sure my bike was OK.

Now somehow there was a lesson of life in this. The lesson was quit clear this morning, but now I can't remember what it was.

Cold Wind

Max 38.8 Dst 101 Atm 6:34:24 Odo 2172 Alt^3896

That was the worst bike ride I have ever gone on. It started out OK, cool but not too bad. I figured as the day went on it would get warmer so I didn't want to over dress. I just had two shirts and my biking shorts and long pants.

We headed at a pace in the upper teens. Until we got to Five Mile Pass we seemed to be doing fine with a bit of a cross wind. Once over the pass and out towards Faust the cross wind became quite strong. It was a bit of a pain but bearable. However we knew it was going to be bad after Faust when we would turn North, and sure enough the section from Faust to Rush Valley was terrible. We had a nice steady 20 mph head wind and we were struggling to keep a 13 mph pace.

It was a relief when we finally got to Rush Valley and could again ride with a cross wind. Then we started climbing to the pass towards Dugway. This was the best part of the ride as the canyon blocked most of the wind. After getting to the top we waited for a while for Mike to get to the top. Eventually we figured something must be wrong and started back down. We found Mike 1/4 of the way down fixing a flat. After getting back to Rush Valley we had to again turn into the wind and get to the north most part of the loop.

Finally we got to turn Southeast. I figured this would be the fun easy part, but I was wrong. Now we were closer to the Oquirrh Mountains which killed a lot of the wind. Not only that but now we were going up a nice looooong climb. It was way to early for my legs to be giving out, but they were. We continued slowly up the hill and then had a nice section of down and up hills with a tail wind.

By the time we got back to Five Mile Pass my legs were completely spent, but for some reason I lead the paceline down the hill towards Fairfield. I tried to keep a good pace going down and lead most of the way down the hill. A little before Fairfield I moved to the back of the paceline and then a little further I dropped back. The rest of the ride back home I just didn't have any strength and I was feeling quite cold. It sure was nice to get home, off the bike, and out of the cold wind.

Over at Last

Avg 7.6 Dst 20.92 Tm 2:43:22 Max 29.1 Odo 994.5 T.Tm 350:34 T.Odo 2713.0 Odo2 2041 Alt^ 2758

The long anticipated layoffs at Novell have finally happened. A lot of good people were let go. With all this it was a given that no work was going to get done today, so they told us to take the rest of the day off.

We decided that it would be good to go for a long bike ride and get our minds off of everything. So we started at the mouth of Provo Canyon, went up to Canyon Glen, then up the Great Western trail and down Dry Canyon and back to Canyon Glen. Then we headed back up to Bridal Vail Falls and headed South on the Shoreline trail. It was a lot of fun and ended up being a great way to get over the events of the day.

To those that got blue folders, good luck and I hope you find an even better job.

Exploring

Avg 9.3 Dst 11.19 Tm 1:11:57 Max 38.0 Odo 954.6 T.Tm 345:36 T.Odo 2673.1 Odo2 2002 Alt^ 1334

Did a bit if exploring, going up a side road by the Slate Canyon parking lot. Actually I have tried going up here before, but I think I followed the path a bit longer than in the past. Still haven't found a rideable way down from here.

Mountain biking is fun!

Avg 8.7 Dst 8.95 Tm 1:01:21 Max 33.5 Odo 943.3 T.Tm 344:19 T.Odo 2661.8 Odo2 1991 Alt^ 1354

Today's ride was just too much fun. We just went up Slate Canyon to the pipe hill and did some work on the trail but it was so much fun. The weather is just perfect so I decided I'm not going to ride the road bike to work this week so that I can have more fun mountain biking.

To the Top of the Y

Avg 8.4 Dst 12.53 Tm 1:29:05 Max 31.5 Odo 934.4 T.Tm 343:15 T.Odo 2652.9 Alt^ 2036 Other Odo 1982

This morning Brady said he was going to climb Squaw Peak so that he could get ahead of me on elevation gain. Jokingly I countered that we were going to climb to the top of the Y. But then Juan thought it sounded like fun, so we did.Here is a Google Earth image of the trail from Slate Canyon to the Y. Aprox. 40 14' 03.21" N 111 37' 24.54" W

Why wear a helmet?

Max 41.8 Avs 8.5 Dst 9.51 Tm 1:07:08 Odo 921.8 T.Tm 341:44 T.Od 2640.3 Alt^ 1476

Today's picture is of the helmet I cracked up a month or more ago. I was headed down a hill that turns from being steep down to steep up. Unfortunately I was going a bit fast, and my back tire got caught in the washed out rut down the middle and I lost control. I could tell I was going to hit the up side of the hill hard. The first thing that came to my mind as I lay in a pool of blood was "I broke my nose!"

I getting up my helmet was broken into a dozen pieces. I obviously had hit a rock with the front right on my helmet. I gathered up the pieces and walked the rest of the way back to the road. Somewhere along the way I must have dropped a few pieces because they are not all here. Anyway I learned a few lessons from this crash.

1) If Juan suggest we take the safer route down the mountain... listen.
2) Neosporin is a wonder drug. My nose was a big mess, but in an amazingly short amount of time it healed up with only a small scar that is hard to see. I still have a hard time believing how well it worked.
3)I had a third lesson, which was the best one but I forgot what it was. So for my third lesson: The best lessons are soon forgotten.

Alpine loop

Max 38.2 Avs 15.0 Dst 72.09 Atm 4:48:08 Odo 1959 Alt^ 4361

I rode the alpine loop today. This is one of the most popular road bike rides in the area. However, I started from my house in Eagle Mountain which made this a 70+ mile trip. I sure was glad I had a triple, I don't think I could have done this on a double. I only stopped twice, once at the top of the loop, and once at the mouth of Provo canyon. At each place I stopped long enough to eat an apple and candy bar and then continued on.

I had noticed that I was only about 80 miles and 4,000 feet behind Brady for the fall challenge on activebody.org. I planned on also going up Squaw Peak, which I figured would put me ahead. However when I got to the turn off for Squaw Peak I just did feel like climbing it. So, I'm now ahead in feet but not in miles. However when Brady gets back in town I'm sure he'll start riding again and pass me back up.

The ride was about as nice as it can get. Nice fall temperature, and the leaves just past the summit were beautiful. It was almost like a mountain bike trip with the leaves on the ground on both sides of the trail, except this time it was a narrow road. When I got down past Sundance my speeds were approaching 40 mph. With the narrow road and turns I just didn't feel comfortable at those speeds so I was sitting up right as much as possible to catch as much wind as I could and still had to brake a lot to keep the speed below 40.

Blow out

Max 38.3 Avs 18.5 Dst 15.89 Atm 51:33 Odo 1880 Alt^ 373

On the way into work this morning my front tube exploded. Mike thought it was a car back firing. We put in a new tube, thinking it must have been a poor quality tube. Then as Mike pumped up the tire it exploded again spraying us in the face with dirt and debris. Still not understanding what was wrong we put a new tube in and only pumped it up to 90 psi. Then just before we put the wheel back on the bike, Russ caught up with us and noticed that the tube was sticking out a hole in the side wall. Turns out the brake pad was a bit high and was rubbing against the tire every time I used the brakes. Anyway I went back to Mad Dog where I bought the bike and complained that they set it up with the brakes rubbing the tires. They were nice enough to allow me to get a new replacement tire or a credit towards the tire if I wanted to upgrade. So now I am running on new Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase tires. They a bit heavier but are suppose to be puncture resistant. We will see how they work.

Every ride is a good ride.

Avs 9.4 Dst 7.84 Tm 49:48.1 Max 38.0 Odo 912.3 Alt^ 852

It is nice and warm for this time of the year. Today's ride was just about the perfect weather/temp. The gate at Slate Canyon is still open so again we tried to make it up the hill past the gate without stopping at the gate. Juan and Layne made it, but I failed once again.

Fall in Utah is a beautiful time to be mountain biking. This is a picture Layne took on the Guardsman pass to Mill Canyon trail.

Open Gate

Max 32.4 Avs 7.5 Dst/D 9.12 Dst 21.16 Tm 2:48:27 Odo 904.4 T.TM 339:43 T.Odo 2622.9

Well, it's been a long time since I last blogged a ride. It is not that I haven't been riding, but because my server that hosts my pictures has been down. I was hoping to replace it with new hardware but I'm not sure if that will happen given how long it has been since I requested the hardware.

The gate at the mouth of Slate Canyon has been open the last couple of times. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad. It use to be that I was trying to make it up the hill past the gate after having to stop and go around the gate. Now we have been trying to make it up the whole way from the parking lot. Today I almost made it. After going around the corner past the gate and starting up the worst part of the hill, I started to loose my balance and shoved off a big rock with my left had twice. I made it a few bike lengths further and then finally succumbed to the slope.

I have been biking in to work from American Fork a lot lately. This is nice as it gives me over 30 miles of riding each time, but it is also bad because it cuts into my mountain biking. I did try riding the rode bike into work, then riding the mountain bike for lunch, and the riding back to AF, but doing that much three times a week plus the normal rides was really wearing my legs out, so I had to quit.

Max 35.7 Avs 7.0 Dst 8.12 Atm 1:09:03 Alt^ 1299

A Little Rain

We were going to ride up Hobble Creek Canyon, but I while I was leading I didn't know where to turn and so we ended up doing the chicken run loop.

Layne says, "If you don't know where you are going then don't lead."

AF Canyon and Son

Max 14.5 Avs 5.0 Dst 6.74 Atm 1:20:24 Alt^ 1112

Took Stephan up American Fork Canyon today. We started at the Timpanooke trail head on the Great Western, went up to the Ridge Trail, down Pine Hollow to the Great Western and back to Timpanooke.

Stephan seemed a bit upset about the steep rocky parts, and fell off the trail and had the bike land on top of him. Hopefully though he had enough fun that he will be willing to go with me again someday.

5 Mile Pass

Road Max 30.3 Avs 20.1 Dst 33.23 Atm 1:39:08 Odo 576 Alt^ 985

I figured I needed a good hour steady ride this morning, so I headed out to 5 Mile Pass. I averaged around 21 mph to Fairfield, and figured the ride back would be easier. However it was a bit longer to get to the top of the pass than what I thought, and it wasn't as down hill on the way back as I thought it was.

Anyway my one hour trip ended up closer to two hours. Here is another view of the pipe hill.

Provo Canyon BST South

Max 35.3 Avs 8.6 Dst 9.44 Atm 1:05:48 Alt^ 815

Today we rode up Provo Canyon to the BST and then South. There was a mud slide near the top of the climb. It took out the part of the trail I had the most troubles with, the narrow steep drop off. Now the trail goes over the mud slide and is nice and wide.

It was a bit muddy in places, but overall it was a great ride. Today's picture is again from the pipe hill in Slate Canyon. Last year we would ride up right where my bike is. As you can see this is not possible now.

Short Ride

Max 42.6 Avs 8.8 Dst 7.57 Atm 51:23.5 Alt^ 766

Just did a short ride today over the river and back.

Conference room with a view

Max 26.3 Avs 6.9 Dst 5.55 Atm 48:04 Odo 526 Alt^ 1015

Jared had to participate in conference call during our morning ride today. This has to be the best conference "room".

Today's picture is the picture Jared sent from his cell phone to show the others on the call where he was.

Hot Day

Max 41.4 Avs 8.6 Dst 19.64 Atm 2:16:57 Odo 520 Alt^ 2339

My bike computer has a thermometer in it, but I have felt like it is of little to no value because the readings are so far off. Today it was like it was magically figuring out how hot I felt. Going up the canyon I was dying of heat. At the gate the comp read 111 degrees. When I finally turned around the wind and sweat made it feel like the temp had dropped 20 degrees. After leaving the canyon looking the computer read 92.

Third time

Max 39.8 Avs 8.4 Dst 9.34 Atm 1:05:58 Odo 438.8 Alt^ 1515

Well, today was the third ride up the canyon this week. It was still quite difficult but I didn't feel as bad as the first time.

Also this was the first time I made it past the first hill. However I kind of cheated. I was close to losing balance so I reached my hand to the left of me and pushed off the big rock that is half way up the hill.

Slate and South Fork

Max 28.5 Dst/D 4.37 Avs 6.5 Dst 14.91 Atm 2:15:38 Odo 429.4 Alt^ 2320

Two days ride in today's number. Went up Slate Canyon again, this time I carried the bike up the pipe hill and continued past a couple more hills. However the trail is bad enough and the river crossings bad enough that it wasn't really worth it. But the ride to and from the pipe hill is great.

Almost ran over this rattle snake. By the time I got the camera out it had sneaked off into the weeds so this is the best picture I could get.

Today we rode up South Fork. It was nice to take Stephan up on a nice ride. It was so beautiful and green up there. What a great way to start the day.

Solo Ride

Max 40.3 Avs 7.9 Dst 9.21 Atm 1:09:34 Odo 414.5 T.Tm 275:51 T.Odo 2133.0 Alt^ 1455

The stream coming down Slate Canyon is getting lower and the crossings are now much more passable. I stopped and moved some rocks at a couple of crossings to make it a little better. It is now ridable all the way up to the pipe hill.

However, as this picture shows the pipe hill is no longer ridable. I think a lot of the reason I haven't blogged the recent rides is because I ran out of pictures I wanted to include in the blog. So yesterday I took a bunch of pictures of the pipe hill. Hopefully that will keep me blogging for awhile.

Max 36.5 Avs 9.4 Dst 12.13 Atm 1:17:26 Alt^ 1340 type Mountain

Max 24.8 Avg 9.0 Dst 8.92 Tm 59:15.0 T.Odo 2036.5 T.Tm 264:09

What do you expect?

Max 39.8 Avs 9.8 Dst 12.24 Atm 1:14:29 Odo 297 Alt^ 1343

We rode up to the rise past the Y trailhead today. As we neared the top of the hill I started to see these holes in the trail. Then at the top of the hill Juan crashed in one of the holes that was several feet around and a foot or two deep. There were a lot of holes this big and some a lot bigger. Then we realized that this is where the rock slide occurred that was on the news a couple of days ago.


We'll have to come back with cameras and get some of our own images. However standing on the trail and looking down on the houses I had to ask, "What were these people thinking?" There is a nice trail of large rocks that have come down in the past that runs right into the houses. The house just north of the house that was hit has a nice backyard full of kid toys. I bet Count Olaf lives there, "Hey kid you bug me, go play in the back yard."

Eagle Mountain to Spring City

7 May 2005 Max 28.5 Avs 14.3 Dst 13.01 Atm 54:19 Odo 183 Alt^ 515

13 May 2005 Max 36.2 Avs 17.2 Dst 88.93 Atm 5:09:56 Odo 285 Alt^ 3171

My brother and sister-in-law were sealed in the Manti Temple today. I talked my bishop into riding our bikes down to the temple. He has family in Spring City so we made that the end point of the ride. Anyway it should have come out to a 90 mile ride, but the computer came out with 88.93. I think sometimes it doesn't get a good signal from the wireless sensor. I really think wired computers is the better way to go.

It has been raining and snowing (one day) all week. So our little gulch that is usually dry has been running a steady stream for a week. Fortunately it stopped raining for our Friday ride. The weather was perfect, no wind and just cool enough that when we stopped to refill with Gaterade etc. I got a bit chilled.

It was a fun ride, and I was surprised at how easy the canyon from Nephi to Fountain Green was. I was expecting this to be a lot more of a climb than it was.

Max 38.0 Avs 10.1 Dst 11.96 Atm 1:10:58 Odo 196 Alt^ 1328

Nice fun ride today to the top of the hill past the Y trailhead. We were kind of trying to catch some other riders so we pushed a bit. However we never did find them because they went South.

While today's ride was not an all out effort, it was a nice fast pace. It is amazing to me that people do the 100 Mile Brian Head Epic with average speeds that are quite a bit faster than this.

Recovery Drinks

Max 26.5 Avs 8.6 Dst 9.4 Atm 1:05:02 Alt^ 1601

I have been reading up on recovery drinks to see if maybe I should start using them. About.com has a page that claims chocolate milk works just as good, so today I tried that. We'll see how it works.

Today's picture was actually taken today. Thought it would be nice to show that spring is here.

Overtrained

5/2/05 Max 36.0 Avs 9.8 Dst 9.22 Atm 56:19.5 Odo 153 Alt^ 1102

5/3/05 Max 27.4 Avs 9.7 Dst 5.51 Atm 46:02.7 Odo Alt^ 823

I think I am suffering from overtraining. Last year my legs were tired all of the time, but then with the less riding in the winter they finally recovered. It was so nice not having that tired feeling all the time. But then with the 100 mile road trip and the normal schedule of mountain biking I think I got back into overtrained mode.

So I have been trying to ease off a bit. I have to go riding because it is just too much fun, but I am trying to take it easier, and avoiding walking up stairs until my legs start to feel good again.

Bishop's loop

Max 37.9 Avs 17.4 Dst 105.5 Tm 6:02:47 Alt^ 3969

My Bishop invited me to go on a bike ride starting from his house going down to Saratoga Springs, down to Elberta, up to Eureka, out to Vernon then Faust, and back to his house. He suggested I could borrow a bike he had given to someone else, but I didn't feel comfortable about asking to borrow the bike, and I have been wanting to get a road bike, so I went out and bought a new bike. While I was at it I got a new bike computer that has altitude gain. So today's numbers are my first numbers with the new computer and my first road bike trip.

I tried to use MapQuest to see how far it says this trip would be, but it wanted to take a round about way to get from Faust to Eagle Mountain. MSN's map took a long route from the highway back to the Bishop's house. Anyway using a combination of MapQuest and MSN I come up with the route being 107.18 miles.

Today's picture didn't turn out too well, but it is a view of Cedar Valley. The ride was basically going around all of the mountains that surround this valley.

Snow Day

Avg 7.4 Dst 10.13 Tm 1:22:24 Max 39.8

I felt like going a little higher up Slate Canyon today. A little ways past the slate hill the trail turned into snow, so I stopped there and turned around.

I realized I didn't have a picture of my new bike on the blog yet, so I snapped this picture where I turned around.

Real Men of Genius

Avg 8.1 Dst 9.43 Tm 1:09:39 Max 30.0

We went up Slate Canyon today. It has been a while since we have been up Slate Canyon, so it was kind of like visiting an old friend. Someone had been up Slate Canyon on their motorcycle and messed the trail up a bit. I ended up getting off track on my first attempt to climb the hill after the gate, and had to retry it. But then I was able to make it all the way above the pipe hill without stopping for the first time. By the time I got to the top of the hill I felt sick from pushing to hard, and had to sit down and recover.

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago. It goes to show how stupid people can be when they have been drinking. The truck looked like if you breathed on it wrong it would roll down the hill. The stupid thing is there was no reason we could see for having gone off the road onto the hill like that except the can of beer that had fallen out of the truck when they opened the door. Also it appears that they got out of the truck on the down hill side, as there were cigarettes, beer and other things that had fallen out when the door opened. They were extremely lucky the truck didn't roll over them on the way out.

Little Jumps

Avg 9.3 Dst 7.67 Tm 49:13.9 Max 34.7 Od 234.1 T.Od 1952.6 T.Tm 254:14

Sometimes it is just nice to take it a bit slower. We didn't really push hard today, but just had a nice fun ride. I'm really liking my new bike. I think I have gotten faster going down hill and I seem to be doing better at taking jumps. My climbing on the other hand is a lot better with the new bike. The one hill I was wondering if I would ever be able to climb is now a rare occasion that I don't make it, like today when the chain came off of the gears. However I turned around and retried the hill with no problem.

Today's picture is Layne hitting a little jump. The jump is a little bit better than the picture makes it look. I have been having a lot of fun jumping off any little drops I can find. Nothing spectacular, just little things, and of course not nearly as well as Layne.

Spring is Coming

Avg 8.5 Dst 9.19 Tm 1:04:18 Max 37.4

It definitely feels like spring, perfect weather for biking. We rode South today. I think it was the first time that I appreciated the single track. Every time before I have been too concerned about the drop off.

There is one really challenging hill on this ride. Today was the first time I felt like I might someday be able to climb it. Today's picture is from Jan, but is a nice reminder of what we are leaving as we head into spring.

Adventure

Avg 5.9 Dst 14.06 Tm 2:22:43 Max 26.8

I left my house not knowing exactly where I was going to go, just that I had as much time as I wanted to ride. So after I got going I figured I would try and see if I could make it to the top of Lake Mountain. There is a nice dirt road the goes south into the hills. I followed that to a nice climb up the hill towards the power lines. I think last time I rode this it was more of a climb than I could do, but today I climbed to the top past the powerlines and just kept going. Then the trail follows the ridge line looking over Utah Valley.

It is quite the view (this pictures actually from my house looking over the same direction). After following the ridge line with some nice climbs and some nice downhill, the trail turns up the hill and starts to climb towards Lake Mountain. However a little way before getting to a pass the road turned back down hill. I decided maybe I could hike-a-bike over the pass and find a road that goes to the top. This didn't work though. Looking at maps I now see that the road to the top comes from the South so I would never meet up with it. Anyway I descended down the other side of the pass towards the Eagle Mountain town center and finally hooked back up with a dirt road.

I then decided to try and go up that road and see where it would go. Not long after I started though there was a cow on the road that looked extremely upset that I was there. After staring it down for a bit I decided I better turn around. I headed down that road until again I found a road that headed up the hill. Turning east I climbed that hill until it came to an end. Again I could see a pass that I thought might have a trail on the other side. So I headed up and of course there was no trail, but I could see another pass that would take me back to Hidden Valley and back to the dirt road system I started on.

While headed over this pass I came upon a BLM survey benchmark that had recently been placed, it was dated 2004. I continued pass the benchmark up over the pass and could see the road down in Hidden Valley. I connected back to the road and then went back to the ridge line above Utah Valley and headed home.

It turned out that I was gone for more that 3 hours but only had 2:22 of ride time. When I was all done my legs were more tired then they have been in a long time, so I guess it was a good strength building ride.

Snow melting

Avg 8.0 Dst 9.08 Tm 1:08:08 Max 32.0

The snow has melted of the trail up Slate Canyon, but now it is getting mushy. Even though the trail is so rocky that it never really gets mud that sticks to the bike it get so soft that it makes it real hard to pedal. Also today a huge rock fell onto the trail. I'll have to remember to bring the camera and get a picture of it.

This image is from a few weeks ago. This snow is now gone.

Gooseberry Mesa

Avg 6.4 Dst 16.53 Tm 2:32:46 Max 20.9 Odo 69.3 T.Tm 233:01 T.Odo 1787.8

We did a day trip to Gooseberry Mesa today. The plan was to meet at the gas station in Hurricane at 10:30 and then drive out. However as we were headed down the freeway the front right tire blew out. We pulled to the side and the tire was smoking and shredded. So we were late getting to the gas station. Then we headed out on the dirt road towards Gooseberry and just a little distance in the road turned into a muddy mess and we got one truck stuck up to the axles. Luckily some crazy people in a Honda came by. They thought they would try and get through with their car, but then looked at the mess and came to their senses. Anyway they had some straps and so we pulled the truck out. They showed us the a way to get closer to Gooseberry, but in the end we had to park the trucks and ride a few miles on the dirt road before we could get there.

Anyway the ride was a lot of fun even though it got cut short due to time. A video of the trip is provided in the links on the left.

New Bike

Avg 8.3 Dst 11.51 Tm 1:22:52 Max 36.3 Od 11.5 TOd 1730.0

I bought a new Specialized Enduro on the 21st. I have had it out a couple of times but this is the first ride since I got the computer moved from the old bike. It is amazing how much easier the climb right after the gate is with the new bike. I guess I no longer have an excuse for not making it up that hill every time now.

I need to start bringing the camera in again. I am so anxious for spring/summer so I thought this was a nice picture to remind me what I am looking forward to.

Winter rides

1/19/05 Avg 8.4 Dst 9.49 Tm 1:07:44 Max 37.3 Ttm 221:17 OD 1698.1

1/20/05 Avg 8.6 Dst 8.99 Tm 1:02:31 Max 30.8

The winter has really cut into the amount of riding we can do. I did go out a couple of times in Dec. but didn't blog the rides.

I have been riding the exercise bikes in the gym, setting them on max and pushing for 45 min. I thought this was a good workout, then yesterday and today I actually got back out climbing slate canyon and realized how much harder that is then anything you can do in the gym.

Found this picture on the Brian Head Epic website. I'm pretty sure that is me in the blue shirt next to my Bishop in the yellow and red and my former Bishop in the white shirt.