Sundance Has Been Redeemed

To celebrate my independence I went mountain biking at Sundance and was very happy to find it had been liberated from the caterpillars. My downhill skills have improved quite a bit over last year, Jen has even stopped making jokes about me calling her from the ER. I'm going faster than ever and with much more control, especially through the turns. Some of this is probably due to the fact that I've been mountain biking in Provo Canyone several times a week. The Bonneville Shorline Trail (BST) is a beast to ride uphill but you're rewarded greatly on the downhill. A lot of great corners with just enough back tire sliding to keep things interesting. Mucho Funno! I'm going to hit Sundance a couple of times this week to prepare for the Super D race that's coming up. Sundance just needs to figure out if they're having it on the 12th or the 19th, if at all. I may just end up racing at Deer Valley, we'll see.

Later in the evening we celebrated the 4th by doing what Americans do best, we ate a big hamburger dinner(actually it was a bison burger, mmmm) then set a bunch of fireworks on fire on the street. There's nothing that Americans like better than getting fat and blowing stuff up. Here's to beating down the old enemy.

Bummer and a Surprise

I was stoked all last week to do some downhill mountain biking at Sundance. They were scheduled to run the lifts on Saturday. When I got there I found the bike shop closed and the lift standing still. Major Bummer!

Since I didn't want to go back home I drove down the canyon to one of the parks and unloaded my bike. I found the Bonneville Shorline Trailhead for Provo canyon and started up. Since I was planning on doing some downhill riding I just had my platform pedals and no my clipless. It really made the rock uphill riding pretty hard. I was able to make it up most of the hills but between my wheel spinning out and my feet slipping off the pedals I had to hike-a-bike a few times up the hills.

The surprise came on the way back down. It was a lot of up and down, but mostly down, fun corners, kinda loosey goosey type stuff.

Spring Motorcycling

Despite being rather windy, today was a nice day to do a little riding on my motorcycle. I left work and headed up Provo canyon to see about getting my cornering skills back up to speed. I got a little past Sundance and then turned around because of the road construction. It's a little disconcerting cruising around blind corners not knowing if there will be gravel or construction debris in the road.

Memorial Day weekend will soon be upon us and that means one thing: Motorcycle Trip! I usually go with a co-worker or two from work but they're tied up with other obligations this year. My brother Kirk got himself a nice Harley springer softail last year so he'll be joining me on this years trip. It will be a 3 day trip through southern Utah and a little of Arizona. I believe we'll be heading down to Cedar City, up through Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park. Then up over Boulder Mountain, one of my favorite motorcycle roads. We'll wind through Capital Reef then take the ferry at Bullfrog across Glen Canyon. We'll finish off the 2nd day riding through Monument Valley. I think anyone that owns a motorcycle needs to ride through Monument Valley at least once, this will be my first visit. The 3rd day of riding will be a long one as we head over to 4 corners, then up through Blanding and north to Orem. I am really looking forward to hitting the open road, my head needs a little break.

Provo Canyon trail

Since Jen and I have 3 girls under 2 we have to do all of our activities separately, one of us watches the kids while the other recreates, this includes bike rides. Once the youngest is a little older, probably next spring, we may rig up another trailer and haul the kids around on our bike rides. Last Friday Jen and I took turns riding up Provo canyon, one of the prettiest canyons that I know of. There is a nice paved trail up the canyon so I rode my commuter with the slicks to make the best of it. It was a tad cold but not quite as cold as my usual commute. I'm not sure what the actual temperature was but the pond below the falls was frozen and there was a sheet of ice across the trail. I have noticed that the morning temps have been between 25 - 30 so if I'm going to continue to ride my bike to work I'm going to need some warmer clothes. I think I'll start wearing some thermal long johns and a balaclava, which I will buy this evening.