First Ride to The Altar (Rock Pile?)

Some call it the Rockpile, others call it the Altar. I like to call it the Altar because it is the biggest rock pile I've seen around the Timpanogos trails and I always feel like giving a prayer of thanks once I've made it there.

The Altar Rockpile on March 21,2009, 12:15PM

Spin Classes Helped
I start the ride to the Altar from my house, about two miles of asphalt and I am on singletrack. Usually the climb to the dirt takes me 16-18 minutes, but today I was elated to make it in 13 minutes. I have to give credit to Audra and Kristin's early morning spin classes that I went to during the winter at the Orem Fitness Center. That has really helped me to keep in shape during this winter.

Up to the Altar
I took Oly's shortcut up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and then over to the watertank road and then Rollercoaster to Betty's to the Altar. The trail network was clear of snow and mostly in good shape. There are more loose rocks than I remember on the first ascent up rollercoaster but that is not unusual for early spring. Horses sure can take a toll on the trails but I didn't see too much damage on this section.

That first ascent up rollercoaster is a real challenge. I hardly thought it was possible to clean until Steve Anderson rode with me one weekend and to borrow from climbing vernacular, he on-sighted it. That means he climbed it first time without dabbing. Ever since then I've been able to climb it most of the time without dabbing.

Me, just after the first rollercoaster summit

I saw Chris Cockrell at the Altar he was on a single speed 29er this time. Last time I rode with him he was on a Gary Fisher geared 29er. He is responsible for getting me interested in 29ers. I'm really happy with my Niner EMD, I don't think I'll ever be able to handle a single speed bike, but I respect those that graduate to that level.

Chris climbing up past the altar


Since Lament was still snowed over, I backtracked down the way I came. On the BST I ran into Jilene and Bry with a group of bikers. Those two are great mountain bikers, some day they may actually invite me on one of their epic rides.

Riding To Work

Riding Traverse to Wasatch
I work downtown, Salt Lake City. I live in Orem, so that makes for a pretty big commute on the bike. But I thought it would be great training for the RAWROD and maybe next year's Leadville 100.
There are two principle ways to get downtown. One is going around the point of the mountain on the frontage road. To do that, you need to go north on State Street to Pleasant Grove, then head up to the Alpine Highway. From there you can find the frontage road. It is the turn to the north right before the Freeway. Then you eventually go to State Street in SLC and follow that to the Downtown area. That has the least amount of climbing.

I thought I wanted to do some climbing so I went for the other route. The other route takes you over Traverse Ridge and then along Wasatch Blvd. That is really cool because you can follow Wasatch all the way to some new pedestrian/cycle bridges over I80. Two bridges are involved to get you to Foothill Blvd.

The image above is a map that came from my Garmin 305, complete with heart rates.


Not That Easy
In practice, this route was not that easy. I thought I could do the 50 miles in 2 or 3 hours max. Boy was I wrong. Just about a week ago I rode West Mountain in 2 hours. That was 45 miles or so.

But this had a lot of climbing, a total of 3550 ft. of climbing. That is because not only is Traverse a pretty long climb, but Wasatch Boulevard undulates quite a bit adding even more to the climbing aspect. So yeah it took me 4 hours. Although the Garmin total is 3:33, because it pauses when I stop and I missed quite a few turns and stopped a lot to look at the map and figure out where I was.

Climbing Traverse Mountain
Traverse Mountain was a great climb, long, persistent and steady. I wish I had another gear or two that would let me spin a little more, but it is what it is. I saw a herd of deer, and the weather was just great, about 50 degrees. There was just a little traffic, and the bike lane was sufficient.

Finding Turns
I missed too many turns. I missed quite a few turns trying to find Highland Drive in Highland, which is the road on the south side of Traverse Mountain. Then I missed a critical turn on Wasatch Boulevard which took me down to 6200 S. where I-215 crosses. Wasatch actually makes a full turn at a Stoplight. You can't follow the gradual turn to stay on it, you have to make the right turn. That was a bit of a climb to get back up to Wasatch.

Watch for Falling Water Bottles
So I was screaming down the north side of Traverse Mountain and my Water Bottle flew off. I heard it and so I started to brake, and the stupid water bottle passed me. I stopped and gathered the pieces. It was still Ok, it had just disassembled on its way down.


Still A Great Ride
It was a great training ride. No wrecks or flats, and lots of time in the saddle. According to Chris Carmichael (Lance's coach) you should measure your rides by the time you spend in the saddle, not the distance. So this ride is almost twice the training ride as the one I did around West Mountain. That makes me feel better.