A day of beauty

Missed my morning ride opportunity so I was set on trying to get out during daylight and since the kidods naps are pretty scattered these days luckily he provided and went to sleep and off I went for a warm cozy ride. The temperature around here has been pleasant, averaging 45+ degrees and I am loving it. I was pretty excited to be riding in the daylight, the night rides have been good enough to get the job dine but daylight was in my desire and I was glad to see my mountains around me. As I climbed rattler the sun popped out and with that it really felt good and brought a smile to my face. There were a few quite a few people out there this day and I caught some people climbing the fire road up the canyon and gave me the idea to ride on up there for the first time. The road gets plenty of sun and would give me a chance to try something new. The road was not very interesting but I did manage to climb to the top of the trail system and then headed down the road and made my way down a slick Canyon Hollow. So happy to be out there riding, hope to snag a few more rides this week, the weather looks pretty good for the forecast so far so lets keep riding!

Weds night

Schedule called for a night ride, with this stretch of great weather I am back trying to get a 3 days a week riding out on the trails. We went into a cold snap which is good and bad, good cause trails are frozen solid and are fast. Bad cause it's tough getting ambition to go ride when it's 25F out. But like a true bike whore I went out and pedaled into a lonely dark cold night. I was searching for other users but it looked like it was just me and the deer tonight. I passed so many on the first lap and then even more on the second, then I spotted a trail runner, was kind of comforted to know someone else was out there. Was on my way out to the shoreline trail with the remaining time to pull of a 90 minute ride. Saw even more deer on the shoreline, I counted 51 deer! I also spotted a low lying critter and turned out it was a coyote thank goodness, I am terrified of Mountain Lions. It was a beautiful night and had a great ride, the weather is looking good for awhile so rides shall continue!

Monday is shred day!

     Living the dream, bike rides in northern Utah in january! Yeah the resorts are taking a hit with the lack of storms but to me its no big deal cause sooner than later the snow will fly and riding will shut down. I can't remember being able to ride thru winter like this, I must say I was never so desperate to ride as I have been in the last 5 years so maybe I could of rode more back then I just don't know. So long as there are dry trails to ride this guy won't quit until the weather shuts me down.
     So as planned I went out Monday morning before the family was up and had a pretty pleasant 34F ride that started in the dark and then the skies began to brighten just 20 minutes into the ride and off went the light and on went the ride. I am narrowed down to three trails to ride now, luckily location allows the sun to hit 3 good trails and I continue to use them for my fix. I made the mistake of taking Canyon Hollow on Monday and it was an icefest that I won't ride again. After two laps on rattler I rode out the shoreline trail to see how good it was. It was good about 90% of the way out and minimal ice. Got home and the whole family was still asleep, glad I can get this fix without troubling my busy wife.

Saturdays Rippa

Got my good friend Brent to come out on this one, armed with lights and off into the dark at 6:30am we hit the frozen dirt. It was Brent's real first night ride with a real bike light anyway, he enjoyed it a lot more than I thought he would. Climbing was a bit of a bear for the first few minutes, my leg were real tight with the shock to the system on Wednesday and then a good days snowboarding the day before this ride. Nothing was going to shit these thunder thighs down though. Shed a layer 30 minutes in and found it pretty nice out in minimal clothing, was 28f and light began to slowly show. I stopped and snatched a pic and was really enjoying a magnificent winter morning. I was so glad that I had company, it's nice to have a little extra motivation to wake up at 6am to ride in a winters dark. But we were loving every minute of it, Brent especially enjoyed the ride down Canyon Hollow. We then were short on time and went out on the shoreline trail as far as we could since he had a time he needed to get home. While on the shoreline trail the skies went pink in a beautiful wave of what reminded me of the aurora borealis but in sunrise version. We soon made it to the car and off we went and I was looking for more trail time but had to get home to help out with my family as well.

SO MONEY$$$$$$

Wow the weather has been in favor big time, the storms have rolled in and out we got a big break now with lots of nice sunny days and cold nights. Looking at Corner Canyon I had no idea what conditions might be, but knowing warm days during the day and cold nights meant frozen but not icy necessarily. I scheduled myself to to explore Wednesday night after hearing the fat bikes were doing just fine it was even more assurance that I might make it halfway up the trail. Armed with my new bike light which is a mighty fine Serfas TSL 1800, finally got a light that was long overdue and was so excited to go try it out on the trail, I will review that sucker later. There I was off to the trail at 7:30 after putting my son to sleep, Dad was going to see what I could ride. Starting off I was on dirt which I can't complain about that, the ground was semi frozen and the snow was packed solid and it was looking good. The light was crazy bright 3x brighter than my old lamp to be exact, what an improvement. Climbing higher I was still nervous but was so stoked on what I have already accomplished 20 minutes in. making it to Rattler I knew it would only get better or stay the same, was happy to report it got better. Plenty of packed grippy snow and plenty of dirt was well, probably a healthy 50/50 mix. Once I crossed the Ghost Falls I decided to see how high I could get, turns out I made it 5 more minutes up the hill before I was sinking and finding it not worth the extra effort so I turned round and had a hoot of a ride down. I took the probably less ridden and less smart option of riding down Rush and had a few close calls but luckily only one over the bar into the forgiving snow. Then it was back up to rattler for another loop. Felt real good to be out in the hills again, I was beyond excited to be able to steal a ride in january and looks like there will be more in the next week to come. For the next run I took it all the way down Canyon Hollow and then a grin filled stroll to the car, what a night!

Ho Ho Hoooo

   Merry Christmas everyone, it has been slow around here lately as you might imagine, with winter in full swing I have been off the bike for 2 weeks now and hurting a little but embracing not having to beg for rides all the time. Also I have been spending alot of time gettin another blog up and running that is known now as triumphagainstautism.com.
   The truth is I should have bought a fat bike and could be blogging about rides on it right now, but I have already budgeted to repair my snapped belltown frame and have a backup SS rigid rig to have ready for the spring so I will have two in my fleet. Sadly due to finances I will push back a fat bike until next winter since I have made my choice on the bike that I want before spring and I will soon get you up to date on that.
   So onwards with the big day, it was our first Christmas where Landon was pretty with it and could open present and join in more in the festivities and it was truly great! My wife got me some great gifts that were all MTB related, how did she know right! Really sweet gear that definitely makes me look like I stepped my game up, pretty enduro and up to date colors which are screaming look at me but I will get use to them and you will too when you see me riding duuurrrttaaayyy. The helmet was spot on, such a piece of beauty, I put this thing on and did not want to take it off! It won plus x best product of the year in 2014! It fits so nice and deep and honestly fits better than any other helmet I have worn and looks damn cool. I am so stoked on it, never though a helmet would hit me so amped up but definitely cannot wait to get out on the trails with it this spring. Look at that masterpiece!