Timpanookee frozen loop

Thursday morning Jeff and I met and carpooled up to the Pine Hollow parking lot. The gate was closed so we rode the road up to the Timpanookee trail head.

We began riding the frozen trail over to Salamander Flat and across to the Summit trail.
We rode up to the Summit and although the trail had snow on it occasionally, it was very rideable.


From the Summit we continued up the Ridge Trail to the 4 way and down South Fork of the Deer Creek. That trail was primo. I love being able to drop my seat with a flick of a finger. That Gravity Post seatpost has got it together.

We climbed over to Mexican Flat and began climbing back to the summit. About a mile from the summit the trail melted from ice to mud and we could no longer ride so we bushwhacked up to the paved road and rode back to Pine Hollow parking lot.

It really didn't help that the motorcycles had churned the trail into the consistency of chocolate pudding.

I don't have any footage of the really bad mud here. But I have some video of the climbing up to the summit early in the ride. Notice the water running down the trail. There is also a shot of Jeff riding down to the 4 way.

SingleSpeed Friday

After realizing that I am lazy and can do most of the rides around here without stopping, I thought I need to build up some better leg strength. And all these fast guys around here seem to ride single speeds. What is so cool about that?


So I got a Niner SIR frame and started building the single speed in May. Six months later, I finished.

The crank was created from a Shimano XTR M960 Crank. I modified it for single speed use by trimming the four mount points to where they just fit the middle sprocket. This makes for a very strong, proven crank all for only 500 grams.




I built the wheel up using Stans Crest and Chris King.


I rode my new SingleSpeed for the second time on Friday. With Brett DeHart. He can ride the singlespeed much faster, but was gracious enough to wait for me several times.

Parked by the Gate before the road that goes up to Dry Canyon trail head. We rode the Bonneville Shoreline trail up to Franks and then up Franks to the Belt Route to the Altar. Then we rode Buckle over to the top of the Dry Canyon twisty decent and down to where we parked.

We started at 4:10 and ended at 5:40, a little slow, but we were in no hurry, this was a ride to be savoured before the snows come.

On Tuesday I had ridden after work for the first time on the single speed. I took the Meekonector from the Belt Route and I was a little faster, 1:24 vs. 1:30, but then again I was alone and didn't talk as much. Here's a shot of the bike on the trail from Tuesday.

Thursday Mud Fest in Draper

Dude, I hate the Mud.

It sticks like snot to my bike and then dries like cement.

Thursday we met at the shoreline trail off of Mike Weir drive.

We rode up the shoreline trail to what I think is Draper Hollow trail and up over the ridge to the Utah county side. That ride over the ridge is where we loaded up on mud.

Then we rode some more and went through this cool tunnel.


That is Bob riding through the tunnel. Shortly after this we hit the draper downhill. An expert downhill ride with slick muddy conditions. If I wasn't awake yet, this downhill was a real wakeup call. Jumps and drops and steeps and deeps.

Yeah. That works for an early morning ride.