Mooses at Mexican Flat

Today we saw 4 moosers in the field to the north of Mexican Flat.

They had smaller racks but they were good sized animals.

Terry, Jeff, Matt, Royce, Bob, Russ and I rode from the summit trail head to the Horse Flat and out the back to the whups then up to Mexican Flats, where we saw the mooses. Then up to the 4 way and down to Mud Springs and then down Tibble.

Great ride! Lots of colorful leaves. No motorcycles, only a couple of other bikers were seen with a boxer-looking dog.

We finished before 8.

The Dirty Rat

Saturday was an epic ride. The Dirty RAT. RAT is an acronym for Ride Around Timp, Mount Timpanogos that is.

I rode most of the RAT last year (See The RAT).

But you have to ride a bit of pavement to ride the RAT correctly. You have to ride the pavement from at least Canyon Glen in Provo Canyon, up to the Lame Horse trail in Aspen Grove.

The Dirty Rat cuts out the pavement nonsense. I mean it's not nonsense if you are on a road bike, but on a mountain bike, come on, you really just want the dirt.

So park at Dry Canyon above Lindon and shuttle to Aspen Grove. Then take the Lame Horse trail up to the Summit and from the Summit head up to sheep camp via the Timpanookee campground and up to Bear canyon, etc.

From sheep camp ride to the top of Grove Creek, pass the turnoff to Grove Creek and follow the trails to the base of Big Baldy.

Make the arduous climb up to the saddle of Big Baldy then drop off the saddle into upper Dry Canyon, but don't miss the turn off to the Great Western Trail which will take you south to the saddle of Little Baldy.

Descend off of Little Baldy on a section of some of the sweetest single track you've ridden and then take a right to Area 51 and follow that to the Dry Canyon twister singletrack down to the good part of Dry Canyon.

Smoke the pipe on the way down if you wish and end your Dirty Rat at the Dry Canyon trail head.

The Pipeline

A successful pipe smoking (Dec.2008, filmed by Paul Hillyard)

The ride starts on the Aspen Grove side.

I Showed Up at the Brian Head Party

I did want to go to Brian Head with Bob, Russ, Matt, Royce, Bill and Brent; but since I had just left my family to go to do the Whole Enchilada, I didn't think I had that much of a chance.

I concocted a "vacation" for my family whereby I would bike with the guys on Friday, and then Saturday I would take my wife to bike the trails that I had explored with the guys.

It worked out pretty good. Except for my fork mistake

You can read about that mistake here.

By the time I finished the forks and got the bike together it was late, we left at around 7PM and got to Brian Head at Midnight.

The next morning I got up at 5:30AM to find the guys. I finally found them at 6AM. They were willing to let me come even though I would make the shuttles extremely tight. We had to fit 7 guys into a six seat truck, well that was Russ' truck. One of the shuttles we did in Bob's truck had 7 guys in a 5 seater.

The first ride of the day was Casto to Red Canyon. We left a shuttle truck at Red Canyon and loaded the 7 guys into the other truck with the 7 bikes and drove to the the Casto Canyon turnout and started the ride. The weather was perfect, it was about 7:30 AM when we started.

The first problem was a dérailleur adjustment that Royce needed.


The trail starts winding through trees and the wash while being surrounded by cool redrock formations that made us want to stop and take a few pictures.



After a while the trail leaves the wash and heads into the timber for a while. In case you didn't know this is a trail, someone put up a sign to remind you...



We exited at Red Canyon and then some of us waited while others went to get the shuttle truck. Then we all shuttled up to do Thunder Mountain.



Royce makes sense of the map with Carey...




Carey contemplates the safety issues with the Thunder Mountain potty.


Thunder Mountain has some very scenic climbs, the trail winds through some beautiful redrock mixed with pines.


After riding Thunder Mountain we needed to refuel.


Our final ride was down Bunker Hill. By then I was getting tired and I'd only been riding with these biking machines for only this one day. Bunker Hill starts way up on Brian Head peak and drops down to the road with some really sweet single track. By the time we finished it was almost dark. We shuttled up the highway to the turnoff up to Brian Head Peak. Where the dirt road heads up to the peak some of us got out to ride our bikes back. I rode on down the highway to the hotel to meet my family. Grateful for three great rides with some really good guides. No major wipeouts for me, but I did see Bill take a really hard endo on Casto. He escaped with a sore wrist, but it looked like it would have been worse because it was on some hard ground.

How To Turn an 80mm Fork into a Rigid

Oh yeah, a few weeks ago I had rebuilt my fork. Well, that means I changed the seals and the oil, but I tore the fork apart and cleaned it to do this.
Well I bought the oil from JensonUSA, the oil that I thought I would use...



Yeah that's right, fox float oil. Ok that was the only oil they had on the website, so that must be the right stuff. I changed the oil in the fork and refilled it with the fox float oil. Cool. The fork didn't leak. But the fork didn't travel either.

I did some research and I learned that the float oil was only to lube the top foam rings when you do an overhaul, but a lighter weight oil went in the fork. I had put 75wt. oil in where I needed 7wt.



That is what the bottle for the right oil looks like. This is 10wt. and I actually used 7wt.

Thursday up Mill down Tibble

For a September morning in American Fork Canyon it felt pretty warm, probably about 50 degrees.

I met Terry at the split at 5:30AM. The rest of the riders were on the Brian Head trip, probably riding Dark Hollow.

Terry and I parked at Tibble Fork Reservoir and began riding up to Mill Canyon. That's a pretty steep uphill and since it was still dark, it was especially challenging. Although when you can't see the obstacles, they are less scary.

I've descended Mill Canyon, but never climbed that route, but because we wanted to get some climbing in, we were willing to take the pain.

The uphill was very taxing to my cardio. There were rocks and gnarled trees and hidden gnomes grabbing my tire. After a while we made it to the part that has been groomed/rerouted. That smooth trailis great for an uphill ride. Lots of challenging switchbacks, but the trail was as smooth as a banker asking for bailout money.

We hooked up to the Ridge Trail (157) and rode over the the four way and decended down Tibble fork.Coming down I realized that my fork was not working. I have a Fox F29. Since the previous two rides I have ridden rental bikes, a Niner RIP and a Niner Jet, it became obvious that the forks on those bikes were absorbing shock much better than the ride I was now taking.

We stopped and adjusted pressure on the fork, and it seemed to help, but the fork really wasn't compressing.

As I rode down it became more evident that I had done something wrong in my oil change.

We came to a spot where the trail forked. The left fork was covered with logs to stop traffic. We decided to drop down that left fork and we ended up in the cabins. We saw Larry King's cabin.

We finished on the winding pavement through the cabins and crossed the dam to our vehicles.

Back at home, I researched the fork oil on my Fox. It turns out that I used the Fox Float oil to fill my fork. That is about 70Wt and only used on the soft float pads at the top of the fork. I should have used 7wt oil. So I had oil that was 10 times the viscosity of the oil that I should have used. No wonder my fork didn't move.

I took apart the fork and drained all the oil out. I wiped it and even took out the spacer to convert my fork from 80mm travel to 100mm.

I picked up some oil from Blayne's Cyclery on State Street in Orem. The owner, Blayne, just let me take his 7wt Fox fork oil and return it later without any ID or anything. The trust was kinda cool.
I spent Thursday night changing my fork oil, which for me was a two hour process. Then I packed and my family and I drove to Brian Head for a 3 day weekend of biking, hiking and recreating.

Mechanical Monday

Monday we were joined by Matt's Friend Austin from Arizona.

Royce, Russ, Matt, Austin and I started at Trail Crossing and headed to the four way and up to Chain Break.

I had rented a Niner Jet9 from the Bike Fix in Bountiful, so I was eager to try it's climbing abilities. I was reminded that "it's not about the bike" as I climbed the Triple Bypass up to Chainbreak.

Yeah, we've never heard it called that, in fact I think Matt was saying that it was called The Three Sisters by some other bikers, but Austin while riding it thought it should be called the Triple Bypass. That name seems more fitting.

The Triple Bypass is that piece of trail from the Four-Way up to the top of chain break.

The first mechanical was actually on the climb up from the Trail Crossing just before the turn off to Salamander Flat. That was Russ' hammerschmidt shifter cable losing a zip tie. The weather was a little cool so Russ' repairs weren't working because his emergency zip ties were cracking and breaking upon bending them. I think Austin had a spare that worked so we were off again.

Soon the next minor mechanical was with Royce's pedals. He had clipless pedals that wouldn't release. So if he had to dab, his foot stayed locked in and he would topple like a bowling pin. He got that adjusted by the turnoff to Deer Creek South Fork.

Next it was me at the bottom of the fork to Mud Springs. I had a flat on the dang rental bike. I had to change the tightest tire that I've ever changed. Took me about 20 minutes and then I discovered that my CO2 inflater that I have been carrying for two years, didn't work. So I could have been left stranded by that piece of junk, but luckily Russ had a pump.

Finally Austin had his mechanical. He flatted. While changing his flat I discovered that I was out of time since I had to meet the mechanic from Bike Fix in Bountiful at the 1600 N. exit on the Freeway at 9AM. That would save me a drive to Bountiful.

So I left to finish the ride down Mill Canyon. That was where I had my second mechanical. I crashed into a little tree on the short steep switchbacks that cross the creek before climbing where we moved a long big fallen tree that had been blocking the trail all year.

The tree that had my number

That crash broke my Planet Bike light and my Garmin Edge. My Edge actually opened up and spilled its electronic guts, but nothing really broke so I picked it all up and managed to put it together later at home. The light still works with a little duct tape.

Yeah. Mechanical Monday. Although Matt seemed to make it through without any mishaps.