Park City 2008

___________________________________________________________________________

<SPIRO trail with a handheld camera!! <interview with Roland at the Top !
VIDEOS MAY TAKE AWHILE TO DOWNLOAD(14MB!!)

Park City, UT

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here we are in Park City, UT. Weather has been perfect and the mountains are for real! Utah and Beer have not always
seen eye-2-eye but things have improved! Local brewery is within 2 miles! Mountains outside the backdoor! Our ride on
Tuesday was awesome... well for some. The climbing was demanding and we started our 18 mile journey with a 4 mile and
1500 vertical feet warn up. Video at top right is my interview with Roland after reaching the top.(chart to follow). Once
reaching the Col de Sensibility, the views were great and the air a little thinner. We hit the Mid Mountain Trail at Park City
Resort! A traverse from south to north for 8 miles. The trail crosses many of the ski runs and you dont realize how steep
they are until biking across them. WOW. The trail crossed through open fields and the many wildflowers and thick
fur/aspen forests. A awesome choice! Then for the downhill! Spiro trail was our choice and a great one. The video at the
top on the left was descending the Spiro using a handle held camera. That was a little tricky! But it was a blast all the way
down! The very bottom had tight switchbacks with pools of dust in every corner. Reminded me of TransRockies Stage 1.

________________________________________________
Right Bike for the Occasion:

Rocky Mountain ETXS 50 (provided by Cole Sports)
my regular bike, Rocky Mountain Element Team, has been left to guard the home front!
The ETXS is a great all mountain bike. With the RP23 rear shock, turning on the ProPedal
allowed this bike to cling to climbs while still feeling relaxed. Something I did not expect
but was glad to discover! Once making it to the traverse, the bikes handling remained
tight even with its 5" of travel. Now for the downhill, turn the ProPedal off and enjoy! Nuf
said! I would say the only downside to the ETXS is the lever for the ProPedal. Down by
the chain rings makes it a little tricky to flip the switch while moving. That's where the
Element has that figured out!

The guys at Cole Sports were cool and gave some great local insight. Thanks guys!
_____________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday was another great day in the mountains. This time I headed over to Deer Valley to try and understand how the other side lives. And I mean how the 'skier only' side live s... Well, they do have something to hide! From the start, I was climbing. Todays climb: 5 mi 1200 vert in 42 minutes. Good warm up! I climbed up to Silver Lake Lodge(Deer Valley)
and connected up with the starting point of the Mid Mountain Trail. I was concerned that they may not allow mountain
bikes since they dont allow snowboarders... just kidding. All these pictures are from the Mid Mountain Trail. The top
right is looking over the climb I did earlier. Todays adventure was only 14 miles with most of the climbing upfront.
I took Mid Mtn Trail to where Roland and I picked in up yesterday in Park City Resort. There, I ventured down and
came upon two locals who were cool enough to show some great trails that are not on the map!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Click Image for Gallery(too many to just paste on here)SNOW VIDEO!!

Thursday was a rest day! Rest from the bike but the hiking was insane. First, we started hiking around the Canyons.
Then the real fun! Snowbird!!! The photos in the Gallery above tell their own story. The hiking took us as high as
10,900ft. We got to trudge through SNOW. Thats right... mid July and there was still snow around at the higher
altitudes! Walk through the Peruvian Tunnel. Another Zip Line.... Needless to say it wasnt a rest day! Tomorrows
plan is to bike a big route. Get the bike(6800ft), bike to the Canyons, take the Mid Mtn Trail 14 miles to Park City, turn
uphill and climb to Guardsman Pass(9500ft), back down to Mid Mtn Trail to Deer Valley and back to Cole Sports!
Should be FUN!
Check out the photos!!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
..................................

The Epic of Rides!

Friday, Day 3 of riding and the plan comes to fruition. 42 miles and 4987ft ascending! The chart stops at 32 because
the GPS battery died. oops! This may sound morbid but if I knew the day I would die I would come out and ride
Mid Moutain Trail the day before. Mid Mountain trail is prefect. Not much big climbing once you get to it. The trail
traverses along mountain sides between 7800 and 8200ft. Today, I started at the Canyons and rode it to Spiro!
9 miles of blish! Then the pain set in.... Turned uphill on Spiro and climbed from 8300ft to 9100ft to Scott Pass.
Along the way, I ran into some friendly locals that helped make sure I knew where I was going. But the funny thing
is this person, who said they had worked on fire crews before but couldnt read a map??, was helpful. Pointed
me in the general direction. From Scotts Pass I bombed down to Guardsmen Pass(rt152??). Nice relief but not
long enough before the climbing began! Up the road we go.... 2mi and 600ft vert and we were at Guardsman Pass.
Here is were I realized there was no brakepad left on the rear brakes! You would think the shop would check those!
Front brake only is the best way to bomb down from 10000 ft! Back to Mid Mtn trail and followed that to Deer
Valley. Sweet Singletrack! Then some extra credit downhill and back up(wrong way). Then to Four Point and
then Deer Crest. Awesome downhill to the bottom and then back to the shop! done! 42miles in 5 hr 52 min.