Summit Trail to Mud Springs - Tibble Fork

This morning was a good ride, we met at the split at 5:30, shuttled up to Salamander flats.

Russ, Royce Terry and I were in the first load, others joined later.

We unwittingly parked near some tent campers, and I think we woke them up, so we quietly unloaded the bikes, and turned on our lights and headed up Willow Hollow to the Summit trail.

At the Summit Trail, Lionel and Matt joined us.

Shortly after the turnoff to Snow Gauging, we turned to the right on an overgrown trail that dipped wildly into a fun little ride. Terry might have tried out his helmet once, and we flew down the trail in the dark like secret agents in the night.

I don't know the name of the trail, so if someone wants to comment on that, it would be great to know the name. How about "Nose Break"?

Well that trail met up with Snow Gauging and then we went on to climb over to Mud Springs. We decended Mud Springs to Tibble Fork trail and came out over the Tibble Fork dam.

I think I missed a trail name here or there, but since I'm struggling with the names, I'd love to be corrected.

Here's a video of a piece of Mud Springs Trail.



Later we actually saw a rattlesnake, never mind that it was on the asphalt, by the split, and run over beyond recognition.

Horse Flats and Whoops beats the pavement any day

Saturday we met at 6AM at the split. The temperature was actually cooler than I expected, probably 55 degrees, and it was still dark.

I erroneously thought that I'd need a light, but by the time we shuttled up to the summit the trail was bathed in that soft morning light of American Fork Canyon.

While we drove up to the Summit Parking Lot, we noticed a ton of cars parked on the shoulder from the Timpanookee Campground turnoff to past the trail crossing. Probably due to several factors, the American Fork Canyon was immensely popular this Saturday.

First, the entrance was free, normally it's six bucks; Second, there was the 1000 Warriors bike ride and; Third, it was a Saturday.

We started biking up the Summit Trail and went straight through Horse Flat. At the back of Horse Flat we climbed a challenging piece of trail that some could almost clean, but at the top there are some treacherous roots that bar passage. They seem to say, "None shall pass".

After the climb we descended some fun single track which shall remain nameless until I can find the name. It had a neat little log jump. I don't jump it though, I kind of plop my front wheel down, which as you can see from the following video, is the usual way for most of the riders. I think if you got too much air your speed would preclude control and you might not make the turn that follows.



Down this trail we went for a while then we connected to the Deer Creek South Fork trail and rode the Whoops through Mexican Flats and continuing on the Deer Creek South Fork Trail to Ridge trail 157.

We stopped for a minute or two at the four-way and saw Steve. He was riding in some interesting looking pants and so Russ had to show him that he had the same pants under his pants.

Hanging out at the four-way

The climb from the four way to Chain Break is especially challenging. Today I managed to clean it as did Matt and Russ as you can see from this video...



Chain Break connects to Mill Canyon which is the trail we descended to Tibble Fork Reservoir and down the pavement to our cars.


Here's a gps reference to the ride.

Pine Hollow Iced the Cake

Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too? Thursday morning we built the cake and then iced it and ate it.

Today it was Russ, Matt, Royce and myself. We shuttled up to the Summit parking lot. From there we headed up the Summit trail, made a right on the Snow Gauging trail and then headed over to Timpanookee.

On the Snow Gauging trail or a connector from that to Timpanookee, Russ pulled out his handy saw and with Matt's help he cleaned off some deadfall.

Trail Maintenence

From the Timpanookee shack we rode up a little bit of single track and then hit the dirt road up to Julie Andrews Meadow.

The turn off to Julie Andrews Meadow. I wonder if she knows about this meadow.

The temperature was perfect, probably 60 or 65 degrees, no noticeable wind and best of all, no Motorcycles the whole trip! Not even Horses.

Julie Andrews Meadow

Yeah I know, we have to share the trail, and we do, but the Motorcycles sure are noisy and stinky and seem out of place in some of these areas. I used to ride a motorcycle in the back country. This was before 1979, back when mountain bikes were rare, especially in Utah and there was not a need to evolve. Now that I have evolved I would like to see others evolve too!


Here we are riding the top of Bear after the long climb up to Julie Andrews Meadow .



So after dropping down Bear to Mutual Dell I thought maybe we were finished, but to the joy of my spirit, Russ was suggesting to ride back up to Trail Crossing, single track over to Pine Hollow and ride back down Pine Hollow. I had never ridden that so it was awesome to hit some new trail and add more time on to the ride. Pure sweetness.


For the GPS tracking info on the ride, follow this link: follow this link

Thursday Bart Rode

I took bart on a ride

It was a great ride, we rode the timpanookee loop and rode the road down to my car which was at the split.

Tuesday I launched Matrix Style into a tree

The Dawn Patrol pre launch meeting

Russ, Jeff, Randy, Bill and I met at the Tibble Fork turnout

We started at "Trail Crossing", denoted by a turnout spot on the paved road with a sign that reads "Trail Crossing".

We went North across the road and climbed the summit trail. Then we forked right to climb the Horse Flat trail, then the Snow Gauging trail to Timpanookee --down to the river crossing and the Timpanookee trail head and then up the dirt road to the Great Western and then Bear.

On one of the downhill sections of the Great Western I launched myself into a tree. Just for fun.

The morning ride with a sort of Blaire Witch effect

The sun was in my eyes for a second or so; I couldn't see the trail. An older pine tree, dead and white like driftwood, was laying parallel on the right side of the trail with the crown barely in the edge of the trail. I couldn't see clearly because of the sun in my eyes and the dust on the trail. My right toe caught that tree and that pulled me to the right, forcing a right turn off balance which threw me to the left into a sapling with a 2" bole which I completely folded with my left shoulder.

That was my worst wreck this year. I even have a black toe to show for it.

Little Baldy Saddle

It seems that every year I manage to make it to the saddle of Little Baldy. This year I went with a couple of other riders and we even ventured a fair distance towards Big Baldy.

You might not know it, but in Orem we have a challenging trail up to a couple of saddles formed between a couple of small mountains and Mount Timpanogos. One of those mountains is really more of a ridge, but it does have a saddle, although it is hard to distinguish. That is the mountain that we call Little Baldy. If Big Baldy is the bald head, then Little Baldy is kind of like a sideburn or something.

On the morning of June 19, Terry, Jeff and I headed up to the trails. I rode up from my house to the Dry Canyon trail head and met Jeff and Terry there. We took the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, special Orem edition around to the Provo section and climbed up Franks trail to the Altar.

We rested at the Altar for a couple of minutes, enjoying the quiet while we rehydrated. I had biked with Terry on one occasion before but at this time I couldn't remember him.

We headed up the Great Western Trail to the saddle of Little Baldy. The temperature was around 58 degrees, no wind, the sun was still not fully up; we were shaded still by the mountain at 8AM. The trail was its usual rocky self. At one point I launched a rock from my rear wheel that somehow knocked Terry off balance and he had to restart his climb. Whoops. Sorry man.

This trail is a relentless climb that forces me to reach inside and summon my late Stepdad to yell at me. Then I have to pedal harder to leave him behind. I finally left him behind near some stinky horse stuff.

Right before the saddle there is a sweet downhill of shame. You must make it down without taking your feet off the pedal or you feel the shame. Then one more climb and you are at the saddle.

On the way up I felt like I was some kind of awesomeness because I was staying ahead of Terry. Later it turned out that he had gone off the edge and slashed his shin with some kind of mountain rubble. So that was my little hollow victory.


Jeff and Terry. Note the gash on Terry's shin. You can't buy stuff that cool.

On the way down I tried to keep up with Terry but he was too fast. I tried to take one of the sketchy ledge/rock hazards after he did and I landed it funny. That was my endo adventure where my right knee landed between two mean looking mini boulders. I was grateful for the knee protection. My bike came crashing down on my back but again I was lucky, no big owies.

I saw Chris Cockrell on his way up to the saddle. Not sure how far he made it, but that was the only other biker we saw riding up the Great Western Trail that morning. It's amazing that so few riders would be up there on a Saturday morning.

Coming down Dry Canyon we took the stair avoidance trail which is now washed out. You now cross the wash on foot because it is nothing but a steep sided wash which actually undercuts the trail. Terry found out about the undercut when the trail gave way underneath him.

Oh at the parking lot of Dry Canyon, it dawned on me. I had ridden with Terry at Lambert Park in Alpine last winter, but that was a bigger Terry. Since then he has lost 35 pounds and so I didn't recognize him.

I can't wait 'till we actually take on Big Baldy.

I've been looking for a workout that would help me get some better climbing ability on the bike. Especially mountain biking.

Since I finished the RAWROD this year I've been thinking a lot about how I cramped up a lot on the ride. I hydrated fairly well, although not as well as I should have. I should have drank a liter before I took off.

So hydration and training I think were my biggest issues.

Reading this book by Chris Carmichael, I figured that I was always too anerobic during the first part of the ride, so I depleted the anerobic part of my ability and all I had left was some aerobic endurance that was hampered by the lactic acid that my depleted anerobic capacity had flooded into my muscles.


So what I need to do for next year is build up my aerobic capacity and only dip into the anerobic for brief climbs.

So what to do...

Probably more time on the bike for longer periods, i.e. 3 and four hour rides. The killer for this is the weather in Utah. It snows. The only way to get long mountain bike rides is to go south to Vegas or something. Not always a great option.

That leaves me with the option of spin class. I don't really like it. It's boring, and I feel less free than being out on the bike.

Another thing I could do is build up leg muscles with workouts like this one that Lance does.


Just watching this workout makes me feel stronger.

At 48, I hate feeling my body get weaker, so this kind of training is a must.