Helloween

Group Shot of the Helloweeners

Helloween. Like is it Hell (oween) or Hello (ween)? You choose.

From Left to Right: (Help me out with what you were trying to be)
Backrow: Logan Football Player (Kanyon Kris), Sheep Man , Cowboy dude?, Kyle, Yellow Man, BrokeBack Cowboy (Kenny Jones)
Middle Row: Duck Rider?, Hot Nurse (Daniel Nelson)?, Blonde Rocker (Aaron Smith), Bernie Madoff (Ricky Maddox), Bikini Man (Brandon Smith), Red jacket (Mike Young), White faced Ghoul?
Next row down: Gorilla (Adam Lisonbee), Gorilla (Keith Payne), Fat Cyclist (Mark Albrecht), Spam man (Brad Wilson), Salem Witch (Serena Warner), Nacho Libre (Mark Warner)
Front Row: Black Clothes Dude?,Prom Date (Rick Sunderlage), Crazy Sheep (Jonathan James), Gas Mask Dude?, Goat Roper?

I don't know if this was the first of such rides or a sequel, but I do know that it was the first one at this location.

Oh location? This was a ride that started at the police shooting range parking lot; above the Orem Cemetery. It was a night ride on the evening before Halloween. So Friday October 30 at about 10PM the ghouls began appearing.

Sheep Man (Jonathon James) getting his picture by Blond Rocker Dude (Aaron Smith)

I didn't do the ride, just took photos. I didn't have any lights that worked. My trail rat bulb burnt out and I didn't get the replacement in time. Plus, I'm a wimp.

Rocker (Aaron Smith) and Snowman?

Nacho Libre (Mark Warner)

Keith and Adam

Bernie (Ricky) trying to hide from the Camera

Cowboy and Ghoul

Another group shot

Someone's prom date (Rick Sunderlage) and Spam Man (Brad Wilson)

The report is that this group went up to the Belt Route and then up the the Altar to have the witch perform several rituals on their souls. The they all cleansed themselves of the evil by riding down dry canyon. No significant wrecks were reported. Although there were sightings of the bicycle ghosts which circle around the belt route a la Blair Witch.

Clarks Trail, Jacobs Ladder and The Ghost After Work

The view from the top of Jacob's Ladder

Riding up Clark's Trail after work on a Friday with good friends. It doesn't get much better as far as mountain biking goes.

This time of year (October 23) the trail can be muddy, but this day it was perfect. Just moist enough to keep the dust down, but not wet enough to sink in or stick to the knobbies.

Tim and Rex on Clark's Trail

Tim and Rex had never been on this trail before but they went up without any problems. I know that some of the fast guys around here can clean Clark's in under 8 minutes, but for us amateurs, we did well.

Rex on Clark's Trail

Although the brilliance of the fall leaves was diminished, the day was crisp and beautiful. The trail was paved with the golden hue of fallen leaves and there weren't any bugs to bite us due to the cold snap of a few days prior.

Tim and I at the top of Jacob's Ladder

At the top of Clark's we rode over to Jacob's Ladder. Jacob's is a lot of fun, I really love the uphill climb and then the downhill snakes all over which is great fun. Disc brakes are suggested just so you can brake at the last minute. I also like to skid my back tire around the sharpest turns to help me around the corners.

Tim at the top of Jacob's Ladder

Tim riding up Jacob's Ladder

Rex and Tim at the top of Jacob's Ladder

Rex and Tim did a great job climbing this. I didn't tell them that the last time I climbed this there was a rattlesnake in the road.

Rex riding Jacob's Ladder

I'm looking forward to another Friday Night Ride. How about you guys?

Wasatch Crest, The Manly Way

View towards the West from the Wasatch Crest

I've been wanting to do the Wasatch Crest for a while now. Finally, my friend Jeff decided to let me tag along with him and Don. This would be Jeff's second time this month doing the Crest so he had a good idea of how to do the trail in epic fashion.

But the one catch: rather than drive up to Guardsman pass and shuttle a car down to Mill Creek Canyon, he thought it would be more manly to just park in Park City (might as well park there, that's its claim to fame) and ride up the service road to the Crescent Mine Trail and then connect to the Mid-Mountain trail, riding that to the Wasatch Crest trail. But here is the kicker, instead of cruising down Mill Creek, we would reconnect with the Mid-Mountain trail and ride that back to Park City where we had parked the car.

Going up the service road which passes below the alpine roller coaster bridge

We started up the service road which parallels the lower part of the alpine slide until that road intersected with the Crescent Mine Grade trail. Then we climbed up the Crescent Mine Grade trail until it connected with the Mid Mountain trail.

Climbing up to the Mid Mountain Trail from Park City; 1300 feet of Vertical in the first 3 miles.

Climbing up the service road and the Crescent Mine trail was somewhat of a slog, but the Mid Mountain trail was a piece of mountain biker heaven. It weaves through the trees undulating up and down fairly gently, giving the rider sweet transitions between mini climbs and little downhills which connect beautifully.

Jeff riding Mid Mountain

The Mid Mountain trail connected to Powerline Trail, then Powerline connected to Crescent Mine trail which wore us down good just in time for puke. Puke hill that is.

Going from Mid Mountain trail to the Wasatch Crest trail, another 1300 of vertical in 2 miles

Soon we connected to the base of Puke Hill. This is a road, not singletrack like I expected and none of us puked at the top, although it was a pretty arduous climb, all the climbing we had done earlier made puke hill seem less daunting, maybe like spit-up hill.

Don and Steveo triumphant at the top of puke hill

But seriously, the views from the top of Puke Hill are spectacular. But then again almost all the views from the Wasatch Crest fit that description.

Jeff and Don at the top of Puke Hill

After Puke Hill we made great time speeding down the trail with views into Brighton and Solitude to add to the spectacular fall colors. The trail was never the same, transitioning from aspens to open meadows, rough downhills through sharp boulders and then the dreaded spine which Jeff had warned us to be careful on.

The Spine. Looking close you can see Jeff coming down on the right and up a little higher is Don looking down over the Spine of many pains.

After the Spine, we flew down to have lunch at a meadow where a loose dog almost grabbed my PBJ. Then down down down we went flying through the trees like crazy teenagers on a joyride.

Jeff joyriding the Crest

Three bikers. Note the reflection of my photo-taking hand in my sunglass lens

Later we made the decision to stay on Mid Mountain Trail instead of bailing down to The Canyons resort to take a shuttle back to Park City. That was the manly decision. But it was enjoyable and painful. Painful because we were fairly spent at that point and the Mid Mountain trail has to climb quite a bit from that point on. So on rubbery legs (at least mine were, probably Jeff's and Don's were still powerfully able) we trudged on. The trail was a lot of fun and especially as we crested over to the Park City side it became really sweet as it hooked into Spiro. The switchbacks were smooth as butter and just a joy to descend.

Spent biker riding home

We started our ride at 9:35AM and ended at 3:20PM, almost six hours of pure mountain biking.


Driving back to Utah Valley we were three wasted but satisfied mountain bikers.

Complete map of the Epic ride

RAT

Yes, the Ride Around Timp.
Sounds benign, but this is on a mountain bike on as many trails as you can ride, minimal pavement.

Map of our RAT route. Note 7 hours time (includes breaks)

Conrad and I decided to attempt this ride on the 4th of July, because we had the time and it required no money. We invited others, but when time came to ride it, only Conrad and I could find the time.

We left at 6:30 AM and rode up 1600 North in Orem to the road behind the Orem Cemetery, up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST). Then we followed the water tank road all the way to where it drops down to Nunns Park. From there we took the Provo River trail to Vivian Park.

At Vivian park we went out on the Highway to Sundance, then up to Aspen Grove. There were many roadies making the climb up around the Alpine loop. We followed them up to Aspen Grove. Well, I followed them, even passed a couple, but Conrad, I think he passed all that were in site. That can be humiliating to some extent, especially when you're on some $5000 road bike and dudes on mountain bikes pass you. Makes you want to throw something in their spokes.

At Aspen Grove we started up the dirt trail. This is also a great place to eat a few calories and refill the water. That is one great thing about this ride, you have a few places with bathrooms and water; namely Vivian Park, Aspen Grove and the Timpanooke trailhead.

Starting up the dirt trail from Aspen Grove, you pass the shack and you share this trail from those hikers that are hiking Timpanogos, but shortly after passing the shack we turned right onto the Lame Horse trail.

The Lame Horse trail starts out with challenging switchbacks. They are not too steep, but the trail for the first 1/2 mile is covered with loose rock, the most technical aspects are created by the bigger mini boulders that vary from bowling ball size to baby head size. I had to walk portions, but I've seen many riders clean this section.

Soon the trail turns to rain-forest quality. Lots of shade provided by numerous trees and a very rideable trail that gains altitude gently for the most part. Rocks are a rarety on this part of the trail, but roots are common so be prepared to hop over them.

The next stop was the Summit. There is a bathroom there and I think there is water, we didn't need either because we were only about 30 minutes from the Timpanookee trail head, which had both.

The Summit trail head is a circular parking lot with the bathroom and a posted map in the middle. On the opposite side from where we came in is the trail to Salamander Flat. That is the trail we wanted. So we came into the trail head from the East and on the West side is the trail to Salamander flat.

Conrad on the trail To Salamander Flat

Salamander flat is an open area where camping is allowed. This day predictably there were a lot of people camping, being the 4th of July it was pretty crowded. Just on the other side of this is where you catch the rest of the trail. It climbs a small ridge and then meets the Timpanookee trail which turning right takes you to Pine Hollow and left takes you to Timpanookee. We went left to Timpanookee.

Conrad at Salamander Flat

We flew down that trail only to realized that the trail became a muddy creek at some points. Kind of fun, but sketchy; when you hit the mud the traction is negligible. So I hit the mud at good speed only to realize that I couldn't slow down to avoid obstacles once I was in the mud. Somehow we made it over the mud sections without any mishaps.

Arriving at the Timpanookee trail head, I asked the TERT host that was there if the trail to the right of the shack was the way to Julie Andrews meadow. He told me yes. So after filling up water and using the bathroom at the trailhead, we headed off to Julie Andrews meadow.

Me at the Fake Julie Andrews Meadow

The trail to Julie Andrews meadow was very tough. By now my legs were really tired and the ride at this point was push the bike up to the next rideable section, ride a bit, fall. Pick up the bike and my pride. Push the bike up to the next rideable section. Repeat.

At least the trail was clear, no fallen trees blocking our way. But the climbs were steep and covered with debris. Rock, limbs, more rocks, etc.

Some of the trail was awesome, big trees for shade, soft forest floor trail and sweet pine smell.

A good section on the way to Julie Andrews Meadow

The views here were spectacular. There was a meadow before Julie Andrews Meadow which I actually thought was Julie Andrews Meadow, but we still had a lot of climbs before getting there. I call this the fake Julie Andrews Meadow because it faked me out. I thought we were there, but no, lots to go.

Conrad at the Fake Julie Andrews Meadow

Julie Andrews Meadow was actually smaller than the first meadow we stopped at but the views were awesome. We met a forest service man and woman who were toting a chainsaw. They asked us if the trail was clear of fallen trees. We told them it was. Ironically the trail we were about to hit was really badly blocked by numerous fat tree trunks; tree trunks up to 3 feet in diameter.

We flew along this trail only to stop and scale big tree trunks with our bikes on our backs. The footing was a little dangerous because the trunks were not bare. Their limbs formed a picket fence-like barrier that required dexterity to fit you and your bike through. Then stepping on limbs that threaten a twisted ankle, bike and biker descend to the trail on the other side. Carefully we crossed many of these obstacles.

An easier way to get through this is to take a dirt road that parallels the trail. We chose the more challenging trail because it looked fun and we are gluttons for punishment.

After much of this punishment and beauty and lovely stress induced endorphins, we rounded the corner to see Utah Valley below. We were above Grove Creek Canyon and starting into Sagebrush flat.

The trail through Sagebrush flat is awesome if not well worn. It is almost indistiguishable in places, yet more than obvious in others. If you can make it to Sagebrush Flat, you are in for a treat because it is a reprieve for tired legs, a few little blip climbs but you hardly have to pedal at all through this section. There are a few endo opportunities though, where the overgrowth covers boulders, so stay alert and look for those boulders lurking for your front tire.

View from Sagebrush Flat looking down to Grove Creek trail which you can see in the distance.

Soon we hit the crossroads where trail 48 to Grove Creek crosses 151. We debated whether to stay the course and climb Big Baldy or bail out at Grove Creek. It was 12:30, we'd been riding for 6 hours and I was feeling it. Any small exersion was feeling painful. I really wanted to continue on, but I had a picnic at home that was supposed to start at 2:30 and that coupled with my fried legs pushed me to opt for the Grove Creek option.

So we decended Grove Creek. There are several places to get lost. The decent to the stream crossing is one of them. Make sure you cross at the footbridge. Conrad was ahead of me and I ended up at the stream but unable to cross because the stream was raging down a steep rock face, not a good place to cross, but that is where a false switchback had led me. I called Conrad on my cell phone. He told me to look for the footbridge. I backtracked and found where I had mistakenly taken the wrong switchback and crossed the footbridge to the north side of the stream.

Now the decent was on a precarious narrow slate covered trail which offered no protection from the 300 to 500 foot drop to the creek bed below. After decending that trail for 30 minutes we were finally down to the pavement for a 10 minute ride home.

Grove Creek trail after crossing the footbridge. One slip and you're in big trouble

Conclusion

Although we did ride around timp, we bailed before the final climb up Big Baldy. That would have been fun, but time and my wasted state didn't really allow it. There is always next time. The only part of the trail that I would love to avoid is the section from Timpanookee to Julie Andrews. Aside from that, this was an epic ride not to be missed.

Sled Dogs Pull Mountain Biker

This morning I rode with Conrad, John and Jilene up to the Hope to Hobble road. They shared a trail with me that I hadn't ridden yet, the Indian Trail above Edgemont (Provo).

After all the sweet action of climbing up to Hope campground and hitting the dirt road there that leads to Hobble creek we saw this guy and girl hook sled dogs up to their mountain bikes.

The girl had three dogs harnessed to her bike, the guy had three dogs on his bike. I think they were huskies.

We watched the girl take off at a good clip up the hill. Then the guy was hooking up his dogs and I took this video. His dogs are really anxious to catch up to the girl as you can see their agitation in this video.

I gotta get me some of them doggies.

The Traverse

I finally did The Traverse, a long mountain bike race in the Santa Ana mountains in Orange County. The traverse road follows the ridge of the mountains which demarcates the two counties of Orange and San Bernardino in Southern California. It climbs over 8000 feet, and those climbs are relentless.
This year the fastest time was 3:58; The slowest time was 8:31. My time was 7:30, at least I wasn't the last one! Although my main goal was to finish. My step-brother Darren finished in 6:01. He is a much better rider, especially downhill.

BlackStar road to the first cutoff
The weather started out really cool. Probably 50 degrees, due to cloud cover. Of course at the starting line I had to go to the portapotty for a lengthy stop. Darren is outside telling me to hurry up and I was trying man. What bad timing. I got out just in time to start, didn't even get my sunglasses on; they were in my pack. I wanted to keep up with Darren for the first mile or so and I did manage to do that. But there was climbing and climbing and climbing. Soon Darren pulled away with the faster riders and I wouldn't see him until 8 or so hours later.
As we climbed the hill, we rose above the cloud cover.

I started out pretty strong. I knew that I had to keep my heart rate down and thus stay below my Lactate Threshold in order to prevent bonking. I did keep up with Darren for a while, but my heart rate was climbing too rapidly. It was hovering around 160.
My max heart rate for my age by the common calculation is 220 - 47 = 173. So 160 represents 92% of max for me which is really high. I was tracking my heart rate on a Garmin Edge 305. I noticed that the Garmin Edge 305 was the most common electronic gizmo in the race. A few people had the 705 which is much more expensive, but the most common was the 305.

Look at the graph, the red line is my heart rate, it wasn't synced up correctly for the first hour, but you can see that it was really high during the first half of the race. The second half I was fatigued and couldn't get anything out of my engine to even raise my heart rate enough. Although I didn't bonk, I really had a hard time keeping up with the pack. I met a lot of riders and they were all pretty friendly. One guy, Dennis, told me that we should be ok to pass the first checkpoint. The first checkpoint had to be reached by 11:00AM. I made it at 10:45.

One excuse I have is the fact that my chain broke and it took me at least 20 minutes to fix it. Not only did it break, but it threw an 8 link segment onto the trail. The chain had really only broke in one spot, but the action of the break caused the masterlink to unhook as well. Then I weaved the chain wrong through the derailleur so I had to take it off and re-do it again. So that blew about 20 minutes off my time.

The rest of the race...
After that first checkpoint I really started to fade. Amazingly I didn't cramp and I didn't bonk, I just didn't have the energy to go fast. So a putted along like a turtle. At some point an older guy named Doug was passing me on all the climbs, but I was passing him on the downhills. He was riding a Niner Air, the scandium version of my Niner EMD. It is about a half pound lighter. I asked him how old he was, "65" he said. We traded positions for the rest of the race. I was ahead of him coming down Trabuco, but I made a wrong turn on an unmarked fork in the trail. I went left, which led me to a cliff edge. By the time I made it back to the fork, 4 riders had passed by, one of them was Doug. At the bottom of trabuco, I saw Doug getting his flats repaired. If it wasn't for that, he would have finished before me. Hats off to that guy.

Here's some video I shot during the race...


At the finish I hung out with Doug for about an hour trying to figure out where Darren was, I had no idea what time he finished, but I knew it was about 2 hours before I finished, later I found out it was actually an hour and a half. I finally decided that he might have taken the shuttle back to Blackstar, which was the original plan. "Oh no", I thought, " he is probably waiting for me there." So I hopped in the shuttle and went to Blackstar. He wasn't there. So I took a nap in the dirt on the side of the road. Later, a van showed up looking for me. Darren had sent the shuttle back for me, because he had driven back to O'Neil park for the awards.

Some interesting things I noticed about this race.
The Fastest guy, finished 3:58 and the next guy didn't come in until 22 minutes later. That's quite a gap. That first place finish was by a 27 year-old, the next guy to come in was 40 years old. Old guys do well in this race; the biggest age group was 31-45.
There were over 20 riders that did not finish.

What I learned...
Unlike the RAWROD ride two weeks earlier, I didn't dehydrate or cramp. But my time was slow and my body seemed to slow down starting at the 2nd hour. So I think the longer rides really fatigue me. It must be the training. My training rarely goes over two hours, so really how can my body be expected to perform better than it has. But who has time for those long training sessions? I wonder what the least amount of training I would have to do in order to put in a more respectable time of say 6 hours? And would that be worth the time away from my family. There has to be a balance and I sure would like to find out where that balance is.

Rawrod 09

Finally the weekend for Ride Around White Rim trail in One Day arrived! It was very scenic and fun to meet new riders.

This video has a few scenes along the trail.




If you watched the video, you can hear the wind. The wind was relentless for the first 85 miles or so. The last 20 miles the wind let up and we either had no wind or wind at our backs.

I went down with Phil and Glen, who I had just met a few minutes before we left and they were gracious enough to let me ride down with them. Brad drove his truck with his son and Conrad, and Jilene.


We found the campsite late, like 9:30, it was at the top of horse thief. We planned to leave at 7AM and go away from horse thief in the clockwise direction.

The bratwurst at the campsite was delicious. We got there after dark, fortunately there were a few brats left. Most of us slept in tents, except for Phil, he slept under the stars on a cot.

At 5:45, I got up and packed my stuff, opened a can of peaches and ate those for breakfast. That was Erin's idea and it was a great idea, lots of carbs for the ride and they tasted good.


At 7AM we were off, moving away from the white rim trail, out to the road and the clockwise entrance. The road was actually hard to ride because of the wind factor. I hooked on to the tail of a peloton and that helped a lot. I was surprised at the number of singlespeed riders. Hats off to them for having that skill.

I felt pretty good for the first two hours. We arrived at Muscleman arch in pretty good shape, the group was pretty tight, not too spread out. After I left Muscleman, I started noticing that I was fatiguing quite a bit. Later I would realize that I had dehydrated.




A rider taking a picture between Muscleman Arch and Shafer trail
By the time I hit the Shafer trail I was dehydrated. How did I know?

I really didn't until a couple of hours later. The Shafer trail is downhill and the trail is pretty flat for a while after that.






The Shafer Trail Decends

So I didn't really notice that I had too much of a problem, except that my heart rate was about 90% of max on a relatively flat trail.





after the Shafer, the trail is fairly flat for a while



Later when more intense climbing and wind fighting became challenging I started to cramp, bad cramps. So bad that when I tried to walk or just stand it was very painful while my legs tried to implode from the muscle contractions.






This is one climb where my legs cramped up really bad, Kanyon Kris was able to clean this one.



I wasn't thirsty. I didn't feel dehydrated. But I realized I was dehydrated. Mostly because I hadn't peed in over four hours and I didn't feel like I needed to at all. So I pushed on painfully and when I reached the top of Murphys Hogsback I set a new goal: To Pee!

Yes my new goal was to drink so much water that I would have to go to the bathroom. So I started downing as much as I could. Man, it made me nausious and that is part of my problem. I don't really like to drink water when I work out. I will drink about 16 ounces an hour in most 1 -2 hour rides, that works in the short term, but long term I need at least twice that amount.







Hanging out at an overlook




The fact that it was so windy didn't help. I didn't feel thirsty, but the wind sucks the moisture out of your body leaving it like a withered plant in the desert.

After I drank water nonstop for two hours I felt the hydration coming on. I really had to force the water down, making a concious effort to drink as much as I could. I soon was hydrated and had to make a stop. Then I was able to finish the last 6 hours without cramping. That was awesome.

The climb up horsethief was painful, but at least I didn't cramp up, having drank a total of 150 ounces on the last part of the ride. I finally arrived at the campsite at 7:30, Twelve and a half hours after I had started.

Was it worth it. Yes. I loved the scenery, the camaraderie and the challenge. I also hope to do it again next year and hope to not dehydrate this time.

I thought I would never cramp because I was using an old trick that John Robinson taught me. He once gave me 3 magnesium pills and 3 potassium pills before a half marathon. The magnesium pills were 250mg. and the potassium were 125mg. I think the potassium is less important because you get potassium from a lot of foods. But the magnesium is harder to get from a normal diet and can really help in cramp prevention.

Finally, here is a video from fat cyclist I show up for two seconds in the video at 7:05 with a green Sobe jersey on my black frame Niner bike with the white Fox fork. Yeah. 2 seconds of fame as everyone passes me going up horse thief :)

Tooth Brake or Braking with your Tooth

Author after using his “tooth brake”

Tuesday I finally had some time to ride, so I thought I would try area 51. I rode up Dry Canyon Drive (paved) to access the BST southbound.
For a great map look here
From the BST I went to the WaterTankRoad And then up Roller Coaster, up Betty to the GWT and Area 51.

I like the first ascent up Roller Coaster from the water tank Road.

Riding up RollerCoaster

The Roller Coaster trail was looking really Sweeeet! All the way from the start on up to the Rock Pile. Last fall after the deer hunt, horse traffic had really chewed up the trail and there were tons of loose rock and big piles of manure. So it was chewed up and stinky. So it was great to see what condition it was in this day.


I arrived at the Rock Pile and hadn't encountered any snow. The trail looked like it was in pretty good shape. That mean't I should go on up to Area 51, my favorite way to get over to Dry Canyon.
Me at the Rockpile (photo by Rockpile, i.e. self timer with camera perched on the Rockpile


Area 51 was completely snowbound, but I didn't know for how far so I trudged and I trudged and I trudged. Each time I went over a ridge, hoping that the snow ended, my hopes were met with disappointment.
Area 51 Snowbound

The whole trail was snowbound until it comes out at Lament. That added about a half hour to my ride, making me late for my son's Doctor's appointment. So the quickest way down is of course Dry Canyon, which I love. So down I went. The trail was in great shape, a little moist which means great traction and great speed along with no dust.

The Pipeline

A successful pipeline ride (Dec.2008, filmed by Paul Hillyard)


When I got down to the pipeline I of course rode it.


You shave off at least two minutes riding that tightrope. I made it down the pipe fine, but I had too much speed because as soon as I got off the ledge my back tire began fish tailing. I did brake, but only enough to prepare me for the oncoming trail which is straight but then gets rocky and I needed to be sub-rocket speed.
Well, the fishtailing began to aim me off the left side, a steep embankment. So I corrected, well, I overcorrected and slammed my rear wheel into the side of the mountain and I went down on my face and tried skidding on that part of my body.

My face is no good at that. It really sucks. Maybe if I had a big beard that could get some grip on the dirt and rocks but my smooth face just wasn't providing enough friction.

My front tooth decided to dig in and brake my speed. Thank you tooth, but that was really dumb. You are not that strong my white friend and that is why you broke. I now had only half a front tooth, but I did stop so all was not lost.