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