Folks,
This is the official invitation. I have after only 3 weeks found enough awesome mountain biking that I think it's worth a flight out. Southwest often has cheap tickets, or it's only a 12 hour drive. I don't have enough space for you to stay, and I don't know all the trails yet, but considering what I've found in just 3 weeks, without even checking out the more gnarly, built up trails in Park City, I think this spring will be awesome. So far I've been exploring American Fork Canyon which is about "Skeggs distance" away. This canyon has awesome
rock climbing,
backpacking, and now,
mountain biking. This trail I would say is about on par with Demo. It's a rough high-elevation climb to the top. You can do about half of the climb on the road, or add on an earlier section of single-track uphill that will kick your ass. I can not pedal up it. Maybe with a granny-gear, but I doubt it. So, skip that stick to the road all the way to Timpooneke Campground, which is the same place that my hiking trip started from. From here you climb up on single track alongside a little stream, then up through alpine meadows with aspen and views of
Mt. Timpanogos. The climb is a bitch, but the views are pretty awesome, you’re right at tree-line for a while. Then the fun begins. You go downhill non-stop for about 5 miles. I would describe it as a really narrow version of the Tractor trail at Demo. Lots of tight turns. The trail has been carved out by both mountain and dirt bikers to form a nicely rounded chute about a foot wide at the bottom and 3-4 feet wide at the top. The chute twists and turns down through the woods. You just carve back and forth from one side of the chute to the other, bombing down these trails which are like 70% perfect dirt (as good as anything in California) and 30% rocks and rock gardens. The rocks have good shapes and spacing to them. Not too sharp, and not that prone to roll around on you.
The one thing Demo wins on though is fun jumps and stunts. There are basically none on this trail. There are a few little root-drops and some sections that you can float over rocks, but nothing man-made. Shouldn’t be too hard to change that. There are lots of downed trees and dirt around that could be sculpted. The awesome thing about the trail is that because of the chute-like nature every turn is perfectly banked. There’s very little off-camber riding, and you can really rail the turns.
So, it’s really hard to take pictures while biking. I brought the new camera out yesterday and took a few photos. They don’t really capture the nature of the trail very well, but I think they do a really good job of capturing the scenery. Combine this trail with several other epic rides in that area, several more epic rides much closer to home, and three lift served mountains within a 45 minute drive, and you’ve got a pretty good place for a mountain bike destination. I’m thinking late spring would be perfect. By then I’ll have a decent shuttle vehicle and hopefully a place for people to stay. So, if you’re interested, drop me a line. Let’s start planning it out.
-Ben
Went to Moab this weekend with some friends. Brian Feldman was in town from New York City so we went to Moab for the occasion. Brian, James, a future housemate, Cheryl, Mike, Khola and I all went down. We went rode the Porcupine Rim Trail on Saturday and then on Sunday we went to Mill Creek for some climbing. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun. Brian and I were on H-croo together and haven't really seen each other since then. Porcupine Rim had some absolutely amazing views, the trail itself was good and fun, but I still think Demo down near Santa Cruz is the best place I've ever ridden, aside from Whistler. Mill Creek is pretty amazing. It's a long sandstone canyon in the La Sal mountains. Seems to have an almost limitless supply of rock. I can't wait to go back there. Great weekend biking and climbing with friends. You can check out the pictures here:
