So far, here is what I know about this Saturdays crest ride.  It looks like the only people who have responded are:

Coby
Wade H.
Dustin
and myself

That's a great crew, but if you were planning on going you need to tell me soon so I can make sure to coordinate the shuttle. 

I was planning to leave the valley ~900 am and get back for lunch at the latest (figure 3 1/2 hours max) 

Other things to remember:

1.  two tube rule, even if you are running tubeless, please have 2 spare tubes handy.
2. It turns out its a pretty good idea to bring basic medical supplies (pain killers, med tape, etc) in case, I don't know, one of us tried to swim through the mountain
3. We start at the Scott's bypass via shuttle and descend into millcreek, but we may ride all the way to the bottom of the canyon to catch the shuttle, so plan for that. 

Again, let me know if you want to go, because I am finalizing the shuttle tomorrow.

Time for a Crest ride folks.  I'm still trying to work out the details on shuttle and time, but please email me @ utahriders@googlegroups.com if you are interesting in going so I can work it out.  and be sure to sign up for the group if you haven't already.

Yesterday Tom, Rich, Coby and I rode the Mapple Hollow DH trail in the corner canyon area for the first time.  Let me sum up how the day went, I got a little turned around and starting climbing the wrong trail,  rode sections of trail that must have been closed, had an AMAZING climb through beautiful trees and foliage, got a little turned around, nearly crapped my pants, got a little turned around.  there was much turning around.

Now for the slightly longer version.  First let me say what a treat it was to be riding that trail yesterday, golden light, perfect temps, beautiful scenery.  It really was pretty amazing.

Granted, I was shooting into the sun on one the less pretty (but still amazing) parts of the trail.

So about me getting turned around.  We parked at a new parking lot and judging by the map, it wasn't going to be a big deal to find the trail that led to potato hill...it was.  The trails weren't marked for the BST and the reason being, as we later found out, because it isn't complete.  So we went up the red rock rail which is, as far as I can work out, just an overlook until we decided that it felt too like a hike trail and we decided to turn around.  When we got to the downed trees designed to block our path we knew we were on the right trail.  When we got to the top of that hill we started our climb up Ann's trail.  I have done the northern part of Ann's trail a few times and liked it, but this part....was even better.  Smooth trail, gentle climbs, AMAZING views.  We would see from valley to valley, Orem to Downtown Salt Lake and all the way out to the Oaker mountains.  Just ask Tom, He'll show you.


Here is the map for those who want to know and to see my navigational blundery (yeah, i was off that day)


View Oak Hallow in a larger map

It was a little over 5 miles and a fair amount of climbing.  And what to do with all that climbing?  well decent super rapidly down a drainage of course!  The point of this ride was to try out the DH only Mapple Hollow trail midway on Ann's trail.  Turns out its a doozy, if rush is a Black diamond run (debatable) than Maple Hollow is a Double.  It has a lot of fun features and surprises, and some not so fun surprises and frankly it makes me wonder who is in charge of planning and cutting these trails, because neither rush nor this trail felt intuitive or natural.  In fact, me getting turned around on the trail was a consequence of the trail splitting frequently and, at first glace, wildly.  It was only later down the trail that I figured out that these off shoots are just a different way down the same path and that they are they to bypass some of the more advanced features like bridges, ramps and doubles.  Had I known that up front I would have had a better time.  And I should have know, there were markers in several places denoting left for blue square and right for black diamond, etc.  The trouble was they were missing on the least obvious splits and present on the most obvious ones.  I.e. if it was clear that you should go slightly left to avoid a jump, there was a post, but if the trail split right and left and you couldn't see at first glance they were the same trail...no sign.  That having been said, I will do it again and really try and enjoy myself.

I will have a video up soon of the decent, and a link to the full video for those who want to pre-run the trail a little.  FULL VIDEO HERE

Joe Tom and I rode the newest section of the Rush trail this past saturday (June 9th) and this is our report.

Rush trail is a downhill only section of the Corner Canyon trail network.  It starts from the parking lot at the top of clarks and goes (now) right down to the gravel road (check out the trail map in the links on the right column of this page.)

The rush trail was a 3 part project, when I started riding this trail the top section was complete but you had to ride down a gravel road section that linked you back to ghost falls (bi-directional) then last year the mid section was complete which cut out the gravel road section for an exposed section along the opposite side of the ridge but dropped you back to the same point on Ghost falls.  With the completion of this final section you still follow the trail down to where you would normally have connected to Ghost falls, but instead of joining that trail you bank hard left and go into the new section.  Check out these images from MyTrack documenting the completion (there is a tiny spur on the first map before the strait section, it was a phantom trail we were exploring and is no longer there.)


This was the first section, June 2011


August 2011


June 2012


For the complete maps:

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3

Here is the most current map as well


View New Rush in a larger map

Trail conditions: Clarks to Rush 

Smoothness: Clarks B+, Top of rush B+ middle rush B+ Lower rush C-
Mantained: Clarks A- Top of Rush B+ Middle rush B Lower rush (new trail) C-
Traffic (10:00 am saturday): A- (amazingly light!)

If you are interested in checking out the rush trail from top to bottom in video, click HERE 
or HERE in HD.  

Or click here for a more abstract 30 second version HERE or in the player above. 

Enjoy.   

I need a ride, anyone interested in a short or medium ride tomorrow?  I was thinking corner canyon in the morning or park city in the early afternoon.  Email me.

Wade was down in town today so we decided to capitolize on decent conditions and head out for a short lunch time ride.

Here is the map.



View North Shore in a larger map

As you can see, we didn't make it to the top, A turn around time, high heat and massive climbing (600 feet/mile) as well as a breakfast that just wasn't sitting right conspired against us (well, me) and I had to call it quits just short of the summit.  It was a pretty good ride, but the conditions on this part of the trail are far from ideal.

TRAIL CONDITIONS: Bonneville shoreline to ensign peak

 I'm going to be posting this section each time  I ride so anyone who wants to know will have a reference.  

The trail conditions were a mix of extremely dry and rocky with patches of moist.  This trail isn't in terrible shape, in fact its pretty great but it could use a cleanup crew just to smooth out the edges

Smoothness: C
Maintained: B (some overgrowth on the lower parts of the trail, but not overbearing)
Traffic: A- (pretty light)

It wasn't me favorite ride, but it was a good workout. 

And the views are great.