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Mountain Biking the Wasatch Crest Trail.
July 21, 2010
Today I completed another element of my "post cycling accident 2005" list. Celebrating five years post accident I rode the trail that absolutely sank the hook in me many years ago. The Wasatch Crest trail starts at the top of route 224 and 152 (Guardsman Pass) above Brighton, Utah. My introduction to this trail started something like, "You're going to puke your brains out on the first climb and then be treated to some of the best single track in Utah after that." Well the name Puke hill has been adequately adorned to the first ascent of the Wasatch Crest trail for good reason. Dig deep and you'll be rewarded by great views and unparalleled single track!
After cresting the first climb, it's on to the Park City ridge line, fast stretches on beautiful single track through lush and beautiful wildflower foliage lace this section of this trail to The Canyons resort. After one last mellow climb between these section you end up at the top of 9990 chairlift at The Canyons resort. This vista bears incredible views of Park City valley, Big Cottonwood Canyon and even a glimpse into Millcreek. The spine is a challenging outcrop of sandstone, buckled blades of rock jutting out of the ridge-line. There are two routes over the spine, one medium difficulty and one extremely technical.
After playing on the spine for a couple minutes we hung a left at Desolation Lake to catch the Mill D drop back into Big Cottonwood Canyon, opposed to staying right and heading into Millcreek Canyon which is my preferred ride on days when I have extra time to ride. After bombing down the fast, steep, switchback section down to the Lake I ran across some back luck and blew out my rear tire. I limped along on the small amount of air I was able to keep in the tube and gently rode the last mile at creakingly slow speeds, never-the-less arriving at the cars safe.
Now it's your turn to get out and ride. I'd love to hear about your favorite rides too!
Now it's your turn to get out and ride. I'd love to hear about your favorite rides too!
The beautiful red single track on the backside of The Canyons resort.
Trevor dropping down from the lookout.
The Spine above The Canyons! The flowers are beautiful right now.
Desolation Lake.
Conquering the Spine.
Sad day for the rear tire. :(
Ouch!
2 comments:
Sweet man! Love the Crest, now if only there was a such thing as guaranteed flat-proof tires that only weighed 300 grams
Seriously! That's what I'm talking about. I love and hate tubeless tires. In this circumstance, I didn't like them so much.
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