Utah Trip...Day 1 & 2

Standing on Jupiter Peak just above Park City.

I set off early Saturday morning for the annual "Saddledrive", a bike DEMO expo in Utah for Salsa, Foundry, All City, Surly and Cogburn Bicycles.  The DEMO did not start until Sunday evening so arriving in Salt Lake City Saturday morning gave me and my travel partner, Pete Kostis (Athens Bicycles) some time to ride the endless trails in Park City area.   We rented bikes and immediately hit the trails that start from downtown Park City.  The hardest part of the ride was the upper trails to Jupiter Peak, the second hardest part of the ride was deciding on the map which trails to hit.

Trying to make sense of a map at 10,000 ft.

The Park City map shows the endless miles  of trails that leave right from town.  As we were finishing up our 3500 decent we passed 2 riders on the side of the trail, one who yelled my name. What a great surprise to see Jamie Mackie, an ex Harrisonburg patriot who also was visiting Park City.

Running into ex Harrisonburg rider, Jamie Mackie

After the 5 hour tour and a stop for a quick beer in historic Park City we headed to Midway, Utah to visit long time friend and original Harrisonburg mountain bike pioneer, Matt Krop. Matt and Pete are two great freinds of mine who I had the pleasure of doing duo person 24 hours races with, Pete at Big Bear in 2009, and 24 Hours of Moab with Matt in 1999.

Matt Krop in the open meadows.

Sun  filled Aspen fields with friends!

Sunday morning we loaded up the truck and headed to the Unita mountain range to do some back country mountain biking, Utah style. The 2500' climb was relatively gradual with periodic sections of steep loose dirt that tested our lungs above 9000. The good thing about stopping and grasping for air was having the opprotunity to soak in the amazing views of beautiful valleys and tree less mountain tops.  Unlike Saturday's ride in the populated trail system of Park City, Sunday's ride in Uinta Mountains provided us with the back country remote feel that drives me to mountain biking.

Lost in Utah,
Thomas

Log riding with aspens.......................Post ride parking lot time with friends...always the best part of a ride!!