Due to the inclimate weather, chris and I sought refuge in southern utah. we had a single speed weekend and it was good. we rode the st. george race course twice and then bear claw poppy seed. prior to this I though bear claw was a really smooth trail. umm...it is not so smooth on a full rigid bike. this amount of riding alone rocked my hands. they were so sore. I took off my rings hoping that would help.
we then headed out to church rocks. this was really fun. I have not ridden this trail for a long time without being totally spent. it was better being somewhat fresh. we did the trail in both directions starting off counter (anti-)clockwise and then clockwise. clockwise seemed like there was more climbing, but that really doesn't make any sense. the rings were not the problem. it could have been the gloves. I was wearing my full fingered gloves and they have very little padding. it was hard to brake because of the way they hurt.
we finished off with gooseberry mesa wearing my short fingered better padded gloves. I really struggled at the start falling off my bike twice within the first ten minutes. it slowly got better. we did the south rim to hidden canyon. then we rode the yellow trail. we rode the south rim again in the opposite direction from the look out point. after checking in on Tex and eating a bit, we rode the north rim to bowels and ledges and then the practice loop. I was surprised at how strong my legs still felt at the end of my ride.
This is a picture of our ride up and down the provo side of the alpine loop on wednesday before the additional rain and snow at the latter end of the week. I wonder what the damage is now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!