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.