Tomorrow is looking pretty good for a dawn patrol for those who dont
mind getting up at the BC of D for a little powder. I, thinking 5 AM
departure and a 830 return time. Any takers? Email me at
patrickprich@gmail.com

Wade and I had a great tour this Saturday up into bear trap gulch in BCC.  Bear trap is a great little spot because the terrain is mild and safe from wind mostly.  The danger rose told us Northwest was yellow and so we decided mild northwest was the way to go.  The trouble with bear trap is that its deceptively long.

In reality its only maybe 2 miles or so, but it gains relentlessly.

from about 7500 to over 9700 feet.  It basically, it takes you from the bottom of The Canyons resort to the top (literally, the ninety-nine ninety lift is basically at the top)

Its a mild jaunt through the trees to the first clearing

Its about here you think you are half way...its not true.















Here is wade enjoying a little drink "half way" up
Getting to the top involves starting up a major climb that strains the ol' legs...or at least my weak ones.  When we got to the top we noticed wind damage but very mild, we also noted by the frost on the trees that we were on the windward side of the ridge, which was great news for us.  The snow at the very top was more damaged but since it was windward we were too worried about slabs.  We stopped for a little lunch and dropped in.

Its only about a third of a mile drop, and about 600 of drop, but its great terrain, a very mild roll in that goes to about 30 degrees max.  It was nice and soft too, maybe 8% and about 14 inches of the the stuff.  We were thinking about lapping, but my legs were toast, so we went down, which is a lot more fun and less scary with new snow.
Here is a few pics wade took.  The thing on my shoulder is the GoPro Camera.



This is the decent plot just for the fun part, and its a little...uh..special.

Anyway, watch the video above to see it, and I will keep you posted on any new outing we have coming up. 

you bet! Lets get out this saturday for what will likely be a very good
tour day. Times and location TBD subject to weather playing nice. If
you are interested (even remotely) please email me at
Patrickprich@gmail.com so i can know who to plan on.

Wade and I did Patsy Marly This saturday morning. It was a good day to
be out, green lights, warm conditions and pretty decent snow quality all
things considered. Enjoy the movie from above. Sorry i didn't get any
good shots of wade, i was experimenting with the gopro. I need to do a
few alterations to the camera position...but i like the overhead shots.
Anyway....enjoy.

So, Dustin and I wanted to get out on Saturday but the conditions weren't
ideal so it had to be someplace short and sheltered. We settled on Toms
ridge on the way to patsy marley because its fast and because its heavy
treed. After zig zagging up the horrid skin track that i cut we were
getting stoked to descend though some steep tight trees. Dustin and I
were both rocking our GoPro HERO HD cameras on our helmets rigged to
1080p and we hoping for some good footage. Turns out the adhesive in
the kits isn't very good as one of mine fell in the cold during ski free
and the other...well the other probably should have come off. hitting
some the big tree after being thrown by a covered branch (just like
Dustin) my camera flipped off into the void. I knew it was either there
or the upper location where i tweaked it on a branch. Dustin started
looking at the lower site and i re-skinned and went back to the top. I
gave up at the top after it was clearly not there and i started to
descend thinking it had fallen and rolled I ended up back at site 2 and
started down stepping with my skiis and then in my boots. As i was down
stepping i must have churned it up with my boot as it popped right to
the surface. win! I lost the camera for exactly 26:30 and thankfully
didn't have to explain to my wife how i lost my new camera. I think
from now on its getting the epoxy treatment to the helmet...with leash.
Full carnage in video above.

Ski Brain Syndrom has arrived and its affecting me badly. I went to ski
free on Wednesday with joe (see video above) and now i can't get
enough! Who wants to ski today? Hike, ski free, both, whatever! Let
me know!

Roll call:  I need to get an idea of who is on here in the salt lake area, or would be available to play on Saturday's in the mountains.  I just realized that I don't think that I have anyone in the Salt Lake Area to ski with anymore.  If you know of people looking for good back-country riding opportunities, even beginners that would be willing to get up early some days and play on some Saturday's let hear it so we can get a solid crew together.  Leave me a comment or send me an email.  Open enrollment!  This is also for current URC members, who is available?  The mountains are a waiting for us. 

This post is a little more meat than the typical URC post because its the first time we have had a guys trip.  This was mostly Wade's doing and I blame him mostly for the good times.  5 of us met up at my place at 5 on Thursday after work and packed up two cars.  Wade's friend Steve drove the trusty outback and Wade's brother in law Mike drove down in his car because he was leaving early Saturday.  So, Me, Tom, Wade, Steve and Mike.

We got down to Moab around 1030 (we stopped to eat dinner before leaving town to let the traffic die down) and immediately sought camping advice from the philips 66.  She was very helpful in telling us to go to the campground that we were told was closed via the internet.  She assured us it wasn't closed.  When we got to the closed campground we decided to keep going up the street to check see if there was any other spots further up.  There is another campground by the same name (but very different).  If you follow the link you can see in the very bottom left picture "site 10"which is about 12x12 feet and smashed between the camp host's trailer and the cliff wall.  What is the cost of this excellent spot?  $17.50 a night.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, i forgot to tell you about the camp host.  She greeted us right away and strait away told us "give me the money and ill tell you where you can camp".  We thought this was a bit odd so we thought we would pry a little.  After a little talking, the campsites choices were:
1. site 10
2. a dry riverbed that doubles as a jeep trail.
3. "two caves somewhere up on the hill"
4. "anywhere you can find"

She told us how it works.  We pay her money, she "turns her back" and we camp "wherever we like".
We came to the conclusion that, much like shopping for cheese or falling down, we could do this without third party assistance.  So we went back down the road to the closed campground where we were able to find the spot that cars can get through (thanks for the beta strange camp host lady) and threw down the groundcloth and went to sleep....eventually. 

here is Wade.  Here I am, "washing" my hair.

It was neat and really really refreshing, but what we really wanted...was food.  Wade had planned on rib eye steaks and dutch oven potatoes.  They were great, despite taking 3 hours to make.   Thanks again for the grub Wade.  We had a fire with the wood that the previous campers had generously left in our site and promptly went to sleep.




The Next morning we lazily got up, had bacon and eggs for breakfast...cause seriously, what is camping without bacon and eggs?  Then let it sit for a few hours while we formulated a plan.  It was pretty clear to us that yesterdays ride really cleaned out the energy stores and that today we should shoot for something a little easier.  Since we still had two cars we decided to do Gemini Bridges.  Mike was hurt from yesterdays crash so he volunteered to shuttle us to the top, Thanks Mike!  Gemini Bridges is 13.7 miles 1400 feet drop and 300 feet climb.  Its basically a cat 2-3 jeep trail.  from the top to the bridges could easily be done in a regular car.  from the bridges on could be done by any competent crossover that didn't mind a scratch or two.  It wasn't a tough ride, but it was fun.

After that we went into town, got some bev and went to the site to kick it for a bit.  After about an hour we got back on the saddle to hit up the practice loop for fun.  This is where I took some pictures finally. 

Here is Tom, he is going down the fun part I skipped.
Here is the score:


You can tell people you landed it, from my perspective, you did.  Though you still get the win/fail award.


After that we went into town and had dinner at Familia Mexicana, a restaurant that serves ethnic food of some kind.  It was actually pretty good, but only one refill for 2 bucks?  come on!  Overall i give the place a 4 of 5 though.  Back to camp to finish off the wood and get to bed.  We had planned on riding bartlett wash in the morning but it didn't look like great weather so we canned it.  No worries, I think we were all pretty well knackered.  Oh, and here is a long exposure shot of the tent, in case you thought i forgot.

Here is the wrap up on the crest ride we did yesterday the 2nd of October.

It took us 3:39 total, broken down as such
Time from BCC to Milcreek 2:26
Total ride time to bottom of millcreek:
2:06 of moving time
12.4 MPH average moving speed
1:23 of stationary time (waiting or cool-down)

Total Ascent gain 991 feet.
Total Decent 5164 feet
Two flats (three is you count wades before the ride flat.
Number of flats by person:
Wade 1 pre-ride flat
Pat: 2 in ride flats.
6 very happy bikers.

here is the plot for funsies.  There is a jump in the elevation because I reset the numbers before reaching the top of Gardsmens pass.

here is our google earth track




If you want to explore it, let me know and i can give you the .kmz file for google earth.  More on this later.

So Dustin wants to slay this crest (weather permitting) this Saturday.  This is an invite to anyone with the TF* to slay and the spare tubes to make it happen.

 The F is for "fortitude"...

Wade Tom and I did the Mid Mountain trail today.  It was...um...AWESOME!  Fall colors, 72 degrees, sunny, no wind.  Yeah.  So, here are the deets.

We start at deer valley at 8600 feet, its a lot like the crest in the sense that you start high, end low and shuttle back.  They are similar because Mid mountain is essentially the lower version of the crest on the other side of the mountain.  So anyway, start at deer valley underneath the bridge and start climbing slowly.  here's Tom showin' us how its done.

There really isn't much to say other than the view rocked, the soil rocked (it rained last week) and it was super sweet.









Also, here is the google maps version and the profile.  Good ride. 

Today I went on a ride with two of my co-workers (Glenn and Mitch) and my Father in law Joe.  I had never been on the trails, they are a lot fun!  here is the start of clarks trail.  I love to see the temple.  Anyway.  Here are some more picutes

This is joe.  He's lovin it. 

Here is the picture of Mitch i said i would photoshop so his wife wouldn't kill him for going without a helmet.  Looking right at the camera during a ride is the safest way to know there isn't a mountain lion chasing you.  (cause if he stops taking picutes...woah!)

Here is some decent action down ghost falls.


Here is ghost falls...pretty.

All in all, a good time.  The trails are very well maintained, very well marked, very fast and popular.   I hope to do them again in the soon time.  Thanks for the Invite Glenn!

On saturday, Wade, Tom my Dad and I rode the Mormon flats trail from
Jeremy ranch to big mountain. Wade and I tried this in the spring and a
beaver damn and washed out trail were our reward. Not this time! The
trail had actually been repair quite well and we had a pretty enjoyable
ride. we started around 240 and got to the top about 410 and back down
by 440 including about 10 minutes of wades pinch flat repair. Besides
wades tube, there was another casualty of the ride. Dad was about 2.5
miles in crossing a riverbed rock garden when his wheel refused him
forward travel, so his body instead obliged physics and continued his
forward journey in spite of his bike. He landed on a large smooth river
boulders with his elbow and right thigh. No busted bones...on this ride
anyway. (if you want to see a broken clavicle happen, check out "break
clav poppy above") When i say on this ride...i don't mean to say no
injuries occurred. Dustin learned that a premonition about riding is
both a) excellently true b) applicable to all rides in a day. He had
bad jibes of injury hanging looming in his mind about this ride, which I
respect, so he went and did another ride later after the jibes
dispelled....and tore is AC...in three places. We all morn the loss of
dustin for the next 6 weeks on the trail. AND hope that his body armor
gets in.

Anyone interested in a short cruzer type ride on the pipeline today, i
am heading out with my dad and a co-worker today after work. Biking is
biking and it should be a good time.

First, Special thanks to Anna for Driving the "worse than a bus" suburban for us to facilitate our ride, you are awesome!  Also, props to bobby for getting it working and here.

So, the crest...what can be said?  The crest is a 12.2 mile ride from the top of guardsmen pass between Big Cottonwood canyon and park city, it follows the great western trail for the majority of the ride and it has many variations.  The preferred route is to to go from guardsmen to mill-creek canyon but you can also drop off into Mill D back to big at desolation lake, or go down sprio trail in park city to meet up with the end of the mid mountain ride (another classic ride).  The ride consists of two big climbs of about 600 feet in .5 mile the most notorious of which is puke hill.  The ride doesn't gain more than 1000 total feet but includes a 2000 foot descent into Millcreek over the space of about 3 miles.  Along the way you straddle the ridge between Willow Creek Fork, Bear trap Fork and Mill D fork to the south in Big, and The canyons and park city ski resorts to the north passing willow lake, desolation lake and the infamous "sharks fin" just above desolation.  The only catch to the ride we took (into millcreek) is that you are only allowed into millcreek on bikes on even number days, so you have to time it right.  Also, in the summer this trail CAN get crowded...but not really.

Now to our experience.   We chose to go to the top of guardsmen and use the "Scotts Bypass" which helps you gain a little more elevation and cuts off some forest service road.  The traditional start is about a mile down the road at Scotts pass.  The Bypass though is the way to go, it offers killer views.  It also has some really fun switchbacks and a spicy section through the trees with tight clearance and off chamber drops down hill.  After you drop down from Scott's bypass you meet up with the people who would have taken the other trail and start climbing puke hill.  Aptly named, especially for Eric as i think he really was about to puke, we all chanted "puke, puke, puke..." but it never happened, aren't friends fun?  When we got to the top we hung out there for a second while bishop awesome and super hippie came ripping up the hill that nearly claimed our lunches.  yeah, Im out of shape...deal with it.  The next little bit of riding was fun, fast and uneventful.  Speaking of which, for this ride i firmly require anyone riding it with me to carry two tubes and basic tools including a pump...this trail can be a killer on gear.  we were lucky and the only two flats occurred as slow leaks that didn't really affect us because they happened at the end (to wade and I).

This is us at the start of the second major climb (about 400 feet gain in .75 miles) its also where we hid from a hail/thunderstorm last year.  As you get on top of this climb you get your first few of lake desolation.  Which is beautiful this time of year.
And here is the crew. Bob, Wade, Tom, Dustin, Eric and [me]
After that we had a little climb and we were to the sharks fin. 
This guy isn't in our group, but he flashed it...the rest of us (besides Furious D) walked at least sections of it.  Its super rocky, off chamber and a LOT more intimidating than it looks in the pictures.  Dustin's First attempt (while clipped in) will be available as a video up top soon).  Once you get past the sharks fin you can head down (instinctively) to desolation, but that will take you to Mill d and Big cottonwood.  Instead you want to hang a right uphill again, this takes you to the backside of park city resort.  Its here that the fun begins.  Its all downhill from here and i reached speeds over 26 MPH according to my GPS.  Needless to say, i didn't stop to take pictures.  To sum up this part of the ride; last year when we did this ride it hailed on us, we hid out from lighting and it got to about 50 degrees.  We were soaked, tired and cold and we had just repaired our 4th tire but this decent left us all grinning from ear to ear at the bottom.  The first part is a FAST semi rocky decent with some fun rock garden sections.  After that it levels for a tiny bit and drops into millcreek itself, with smooth fast wide open pumice single track.  Pumice trails for those who haven't ridden it, is gods own private select stash of dirt.  its amazing tacky, smooth and fast.  Be careful on this decent when you get to a intersection to stay left.  right will take you to PC.  Generally stay left, the only exception is at the end when you come to a 4 way intersection with a sign.  UP goes to dog lake, STRAIT goes to the lower dog lake trail head, this is a smoother slower decent that is 1.6 miles.  DOWN is the fun route, fast and moderately technical and is only .6 miles.  If you go down stay left when it levels out at the bottom...also be aware of hikers and wildlife, i have seen moose on this trail almost everytime.  BACK...well that takes you back to where you came from.

Report:

It took us 2:24 total, broken down as such
1:31 minutes of moving time
7.9 MPH average moving speed
53 minutes of stationary time (waiting or cooldown)
Total Ascent gain 991 feet.
Total Decent 3371 feet
Three flats (two tube rule....seriously!)
6 very happy bikers.

To all interested, there will be a crest ride this Friday post work
hours (5 ish) from Guardsman pass to Dog lake. Let me know if you are
interested

Wade and I went on a ride on Monday and instead of going up to the north shoreline trail (due to traffic and time) we went and did little cottonwood/temple quarry.  to be met with a big surprise. 

This is the first bridge you come to...as you can see it wasn't...um accessible. 

Water had piled up behind a logjam and went around the bridge and washed it clean away.  The trail heading up to this had a 4 foot deep by 3 foot wide tear in it for about 50 feet.
as you can see.


There is quite a bit of water flowing right now from the sudden thaw/rain. 

Looks like this trail (as we currently know it) will be out of commission for a while.

check out the video link on top