Big Mountain

Sunday afternoon I slapped on my BC skis and skins and headed up the road from Little Dell Reservoir to Big Mountain. I made it to the monument by Affleck Park and turned around there. Seems the snowshoers ran out of energy, or time, and stopped breaking the trail there. I thought I'd push on until I took two steps forward into the virgin powder and said, "enough." The snow was a good 18+ inches deep and any further progress was going to require more effort than I was willing to expend. Guess I'm getting lazy in my senior years. I kept the skins on on the descent to get a better workout and made the round trip in a leisurely 1:20. I kept my HR way down and barely worked up a sweat on my over clothed body. I took a few pictures with my phone but didn't know what I was doing, and it shows. It sure was fun and, a nice break from the trainer :-)

The snowshoe trail looking up canyon before snowmobile.

And after. At first I was a little honked off the pretty trail was flattened by the machine. But, maybe he went to the top of Big Mtn and my next trip up will be farther and I can ski down without the skins.

St. George Weekend

With the weather forecast for the upcoming Camp Lynda weekend looking iffy, I decided to head to Dixie with some of the MadDog Team riders for a weekend of warm, dirty riding. I left SLC at 5:30am Saturday and got back at 8:00pm Sunday. We rode about 7 hours and I couldn't be happier.
Phil, me, Bob Dawson, Joe Moffit, Chris Holley, Dan the Man and Kevin Moffit at the top of Zen Trail. Thanks for taking the picture Keith Payne.

Seems this weekend the theme centered around mechanical issues. Flat tires, broken chains, dropped chains, bent derailuer hangers, and the never ending loose brake rotor. McGuiver Sr. and Jr. put their heads together and found a solution to Chris's rotor that just did not want to stay in place. A rock and heavy hand proved to be the solution.

This is a minute or so after Dawson completed his body part inventory and found all pieces still in their intended position and condition. His rigid fork dug into the sand at the base of a sharp rock and he went ass over tea kettle. Look above his left eye and you can see where he broke his helmet.

McGuiver Jr. had to modify his chain guide in the field in order to keep his chain on. He spent quite a bit of time playing with his chain and crank! The HiFi one.

I wish I could remember everything we rode, but only these trails come to mind: Zen, Barrel Cacti, Bear Claw Poppy, Barrel Roll, the trail between BCP and Barrel Roll, Church Rocks and Prospector. Just like when I rode with Chris and KC 2 weeks ago, I rode strong and close to race-pace for the 1st 2 hours on Saturday and hung on for the remainder of the day. Seems after a short rest my motor dies and getting above zone 3 is impossible. My Sunday effort was more consistent than Saturday but my HR stayed in zone 2 and 3 in spite of a strong effort on my part. Guess I need more fitness. On the positive side, I was able to climb a long, steep uphill section on Sunday that I had to walk 2 weeks ago. Life is getting better.

We sure had fun and I'm looking forward to another adventure in a few weeks. On the bummer side, Camp Lynda V3 has been cancelled due to forecasted heavy rain and snow. Hopefully it will reconstitute in the spring and I'll be able to ride with all those great folks that show up for this most excellent event.