Monday, March 07, 2005

Spring is Coming

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.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Adventure

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.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Snow melting

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.

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