Check out the great smokey mountains...or at least the smoke choked Wasatch, a pretty and sad start to our crest trip.


I really needed a ride this Saturday, what with the Blur being so hot lately, and it turns out so did Dustin and wade.  We met at Einsteins bagels (more on that later) by milcreek and Bri would drive us up to gaurdsmans in Siddoways nice new truck.  This picture illistrates Dustin's vision (though he is looking the wrong way)

Speaking of Dustin, He and Wade have both been going on about this great new variation to the classic crest ride, where instead of heading down in the milcreek, you go down into the canyons resort.  Well, I figured if it was as good as they have been saying than they wouldn't mind doing it again so I could partake.  We got off from the parking lot around 1030, about an hour after we had planned because people were getting breakfast and because I forgot my shoes and helmet at the house and had to go back and get them.

We got on the trail around 1120 and immediately ran into a little bit of trouble.  It was literally like the 5th or 6th turn that, because of moon dust conditions and overconfidence, I hooked a tree on a side sloped left/right and speared off into the curve, and promptly hit a tree head on.  I heard a loud crack but wasn't too worried that I had pulled a Wade since it was a very low speed crash, in fact had the tree not been there i would have take another step or two and just stopped.  But all the same it was my helmet that made the crack and so I'm getting a new helmet.


Frankly, I'm a little glad I crashed.  I haven't had a significant crash in...honestly I can't remember, probably 10 years or more and I was beginning to worry that I was building up some type of "supercrash" that would land me in the hospital.  I don't know why I don't crash often, I just don't and its not a secret.  Bri asked Wade the other day i guess, why I never crash.  In fact, I have never crashed since I have known Wade.  Or Dustin for that matter.  But now, since I have i can rest a little easy knowing that I have vented some crash off and staved off a supercrash...or something like that.

Dusting off the crash I got right back on the horse and went full speed the rest of the ride, or as full speed as I could go, you see Dustin and I made a bit of an error in our breakfast choices.  Dustin ordered something called a Tuscan and I ordered a plain baggle.  Dustin described his bad choice as, "an explosion of cream cheese"  while I simply called mine a "boat anchor".  Turns out its hard to digest a huge wad of baggle and ride with a stomach full of cream cheese and Dustin and I both suffered greatly for it, Me for a general lack of energy, and Dustin with the "I just want to puke"s.  But we soldiered on.  If you look at the MyTracks, you can see we rested a lot.


View Crest To Robs in a larger map

Fortunatly, we made it to the the top of puke hill sans puke.  Dustin even rode the whole thing...well played old bean.



I walked some of it, because of the baggle bomb, add to that my brakes aren't working very well and that I had to use more fingers to brake and fewer to hold onto the bar, causing hand cramps and I was pretty well spent by the time we reached the spine.  I was planning on riding it, but given the situation (helmet, gut bombs, hand cramps) I elected to walk.  Dustin Nailed it though.



 And Wade hit most of it, having to stop and restart once.


When we reached the top of the trail, before heading down to park city, Dustin had a good forced puke and I was just starting to feel better, though my hands were getting to be toast.

I don't have any pictures of the decent in the canyons, but its beautiful.  We rode down and met up with robs trail and rode that to the bottom.  It wasn't as nice and smooth as Milcreek (more exposed sections) but it had its moments.

After we got down we rode from there to the strip mall near kimbal junction


View Road To Food in a larger map

IT was a fun downhill and if you check the stats, we got going pretty quick.

There we met up with bri and had a nice late lunch pizza



It was pretty good, but not as filling as the price and wait would have made me hope.

at the end of every crest ride I always forget how long the whole thing takes, from door to door it was 930-400.  of course, knock off about 2 hours without lunch or delays, that still makes it a full half day adventure.  Worth it, but maybe a little more worth it when we get a little rain.

Just a quick post to remind myself in a year, that riding is awesome.  I finished building my new wheels, and am now [finally] fully tubeless. 

The combination of the new fork with more travel and rake, and the higher volume, lower pressure tires conspire to make the blur the bike I always wanted it to be; plenty fast on the uphill, and what I would call "XC loose" or "trail tight" on the decent.  The original setup was just too twitchy on the decent for me and, frankly, wasn't a big enough difference between the S-works and the Blur to be able to ever choose between the two on a ride.  The S-works was like a track car on street legal tires, and the blur was like a sports car on racing tread, and I could never decide what was right for a given trail, the line was...blurred (sorry).  Now the blur has a nice "sports sedan" feel.  smooth, flowing, but forgiving and progressive.  in short...I'm loving it and choosing between the two is no longer a battle.  Fast and smooth (dog lake, slickrock, gooseberry mesa etc) S-works, flowing, variable or aggressive (the crest, rush, bobsled, etc) the blur.  Finally


I got to try it out on a morning ride with Wade, Petro and Coby at corner canyon yesterday (the 15th), heading up potato hill, up anns trail and down rush.  Going fast on the decent is about three things:  confidence in skill, bike/rider communication, circumstance (trail conditions, components, etc) and yesterday it was all clicking...well, with the exception that my brakes need to be bled BADLY.  I felt like at 8/10th I was going faster and easier than my normal 9 or 10/10th.  It was great, and it was fast.

So, although I don't have pictures or video of the ride (how many times do you need to see rush in video anyway) I want to remember this if I look back on this blog a year from now or in the winter and remember how awesome riding is.  I love it when a plan comes together.


View Anns To Rush 81512 in a larger map

Just checking to to report on the condition of the Rush and Clarks trails.  Both are in good, by dry condition.  I came closer to eating it this morning than I have previously on other trips, but all in all.  It was nice. 

Here are the stats.


View Clarks To Rush in a larger map

Last Saturday Anna and I went on a short easy ride in park city, recommended to us by our local hero Bobby P., called "Rambler".  Its over on the far side of town on a little hit and was part of a network of short, easy trails in the area.  Getting most girls, and specifically, our wives to go on a ride with us is a bit of a catch 22: its great to do what we love to do with them, but it can backfire in a big way if your not careful...with ANY beginners for that matter.  So with that in mind it is of critical importance to choose rides that are easy enough to not discourage and frustrate both technically and physically, but are also engaging enough to peak interest.

Im please to report that this area is mostly that.

Here is the area we rode


And our map


View Rambler in a larger map




The loop we did started at the Ice rink parking lot and went out north along 40, up a slight slope with some very mild rocky sections and switchbacks.  From there you turn west and head up hill to the top of the knoll.




Here we decided to turn off rambler and head down Elk Nowhere to Elk Somewhere.  Both of which are relatively mild downhills with the occasional steep sections.  BE AWARE:  this trail is littered with crizzards and other bugs with eyes the size of Wisconsin, or so says Anna.  Crizzards, by the way, are some type of cricket lizard hybrid that can melt your face.  They look and act a lot like grasshoppers but don't be fool, if a crizzard got the chance it would melt you and everyone you care about!

Despite the deadly deadly bug problem, it was a very nice ride, with some great views.  Just check this out, where else can you see 3 different ski resort in one glance?


More info on the trails can be found here or on the trail map link on the sidebar.

Its a great place to go riding singletrack that wont ruin your marriage or friendship, what more could you ask for?

anyone looking for a good 4 bike rack for 1 1/4 or 2 inch receiver should check out steepandcheap.com from now (930 am) to 950.  or if you missed it 40% off, don't worry, its only $20 more on backcountry

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