Tom and I went out this Saturday to get a lay of the land, getting ready for this shoot.  For some people it works better Friday, some Saturday, Let me know what works best for you if you are coming and haven't told me already.  This short video should give you a taste of what the trail is like, and the lighting.  Its going to be very cool.  Also, tom and I had a great ride exploring the area more than we usually do, including a tour of the mystery building at the top of the trail.

  So check out the new video in the player above, or on YouTube in 1080p

This is bike related, but only partly.  I am looking for people to help me with a personal project of mine, a short bike film. 

Here is the plan.  I want to film the "secret south" part of the upper Temple Quarry trail, for various reasons including; proximity to the road, low volume of traffic, very technical...but mail for this.

Its an amazingly place to be


With lots of really cool features


So I've been doing my homework and I have come up with a list of things I need, A few shots I want and how to get them, but I need your help.  Coby/Dustin, I need as many GoPro's as you can muster, Especially the Hero 2.  Beyond that I should have equipment very well covered but not enough man power to pull it off. 

I have talked to Dustin about being the star of the show and Im hoping that he will be able to, he is also helping where he can on some technical rigging gear. 

Wade, Tom L. (or Tom S.) or anyone else who would like, I could use some help with camera's, Rigging, and Audio. 

I have 4-5 positions:

DP - Director of Photography, that will be me.  Responsible for camera 1 and 2
B-unit Camera - Responsible for the second unit camera (3) and associated gear.
Audio/Cam3 - responsible for running camera 4 and capturing the audio, this would include boom mic holding and carting the gear around
Rigging - This person is responsible for helping move gear and rig really cool camera rigs that Dustin and I are working on.
Stage Manager - This person would help move gear and be responsible for helping make sure we aren't going to have safety issues with hikers or other riders, Also for using the radios to keep in touch.

As you could guess, Some of these positions could be merged or expanded as needed so the more help the better!

All Told, I should have something on the order of:

4 main cameras
4 GoPro's
audio gear
slider
line rig
ladder
2-3 tripods
Lenses
Misc rigging/Gaff gear

And as you can guess its way more work than I can manage on my own, but it should look amazing and be lots of fun!

I was thinking about Next Friday or Saturday evenings (21st or 22nd) from 500-900, that should give us enough time.

If it works for Dustin, I would like to go this Saturday evening as well to get the POV shots so they wont show in the wide shots. 

PLEASE email me if you would like to be involved, I think it will be a ton of fun.  Thanks.

So I didn't get an pictures, or not even a MyTracks, but Wade and I had a really great ride this last Saturday. 

Every time I ride the Quary trail I am reminded why I like it so much; I've never been the fastest climber, or the gustiest downhiller, but the ride I am today was molded on this trail and that is, technical.  I love technical riding!  Technical riding is the reason that slickrock, despite having ridden it 20 billion times, is still fun.  And its why this short little drop of a trail is so great.  It has at least 4-5 sections that are genuine technical hurdles, and not just for beginners or intermediates, there is some tough climbing AND descending on this trail.  Wade summed it up when he said that everything you need to learn about riding can be found on this trail. 

Its a mild uphill with a few strong pulls, it has technical uphills, tight descents with variable surface conditions and if you really want to get crazy, a little technical offshoot that has the slow speed curved and rock sections for some really great technical riding.  Add that in with the scenery, with the river and the granite boulders along the way and the fact that its close and short and...well it just has all the riding you need to get good and enjoy yourself doing it.

I think I am going to head out there again sometime this week or weekend, but armed with cameras and really capture, for the first time, the secret offshoot with technical sections.  If anyone is interesting in helping me out with a little film project and getting some good ridding in, please let me know. 

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