Winter Riding Is Here

 I returned from Taiwan last weekend and was excited to ride my bike. The only bike available was my Rig single speed. While maybe not the optimal bike, I was still excited. After not riding for a week, I felt really strong. It was a great day to be on my single speed. It made me think maybe I should have done absolutely nothing between Mt. Ogden (100K) and Park City Point to Point. Hmmm....
Then the weather got cold. I had to ride inside and did some cross training--running.
Chris and I have some vacation days we need to burn through so we took Friday off. While we were going to go to Moab, we decided to the stay local for the day. Most of the lower stuff in Provo Canyon was in great condition. Things got wet and muddy above the altar. We ran into some lunch riders and even hooked up with Kenny and Miles for a bit. We also saw Jeff Jarvie and one of his friends. Jeff had a new Superfly 100--pretty sweet.

Chris approaching the Altar

The gully on Area 51

  On Friday evening, we left and met Keith in Moab. The plan was to ride with him on Amasa Back and then while he had an afternoon meeting, we would ride something else. Maybe Porcupine Rim.
We started up Kane Creek Blvd and were met by a road block. Some guy shot a Park Ranger near Poison Spider parking lot the night before. Maybe it was Phast Dan. He is into guns lately, but I don't think he would shoot a park ranger. They were still looking for the guy and due to the proximity--just across the river--they evacuated this area also and no one was allowed to enter.

Kane Creek Blvd Road Block

 Given the situation we decided Keith probably had enough time to fit in Porcupine Rim. So we headed to the school, our usual "trail head" for this ride.The wind was blowing pretty hard. And it felt as if we consistently had a head wind. I am not sure how that happens. We maybe caught a tail wind 10% of the ride even though we rode a loop. There was also snow at the top, but it was not that cold.

SNOW!

Keith heading down the trail

Closing the loop from Porcupine Rim

Potash Rd Road Block

 After parting ways with Keith, Chris and I headed out to Sovereign. We were both pretty spent after Porcupine given the wind. So we wimped out and started at Chuck Wagon as a trail head. We ran into a large group of trials bike riders. Chris was enchanted. He just picked one up and is excited to get it running.

A view from our turn around point on Sovereign

Chris taking some water, again.