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.