Opening Credits

"Get a bicycle! You will not regret it if you live." - Mark Twain

I've never had a blog before, but I thought it would be a fun way to document whatever I want. So in honor of my good friend at work, "OK heeerree we go!"

The Death Ride is a ride a that is waaay longer and more difficult than you had planned. I participated in one yesterday that was completely and totally self inflicted. The idea was to start at the Spiro Trail near Park City Mountain Resort, ride up to Wasatch Crest, bomb back down to the Mid-Mountain Trail and cruise it on back to the car. Notice the use of the word "cruise", this was not a cruise back to the car, but alas, what is a mountain bike ride without some form of mutiny!? After 3 hours and 50 minutes, 28 miles, 4600 ft. of elevation gain and descent (the descent was freaking awesome!) two flat tires, three wasted C02 cartridges (one used properly), a patch kit, borrowed pump, thank you good sir for saving my ride! and plenty of food and water I finished the most epic ride I have logged to date.

The climb up to the Crest is grueling and is not for the average Joey, but once you make it up the legendary "Puke Hill" that tops out at 9800ft and a 22% grade you are rewarded with one of the most breath taking views the Wasatch has to offer and an amazing single track trail that rolls across the ridge that separates SLC and PC.

Desolation Lake from the Crest

Here is where flat #1 and the wasting of all my CO2 cartridges occurred, just before razor back ridge, I still am racking my brain as to why my CO2 pump would betray when I needed it most! After a few desperate minutes I rode razorback ridge clean for the first time! It waaasss scary. My butt was puckered like it only gets when you have that "Oh shit, why did I get myself in this situation" feeling, like only the great outdoors can do. From there I rode out the remainder of the crest and descended down some unknown trail to the mess of a trail that is the newly re-routed Mid-Mountain trail (thank you very much Canyons Resort) Here is where I severely underestimated my ride, I failed to grasp that I had another 10 miles to the car and over a 1000 ft. of climbing left to do. And then things got even better, I flatted again! Out of tubes and CO2, I was royally fucked. I began to hike the bike and cursing the whole way at my luck. Luckily about 20 minutes later I encountered a group of riders who were kind enough to loan me some air and I was back on my two wheeled buggy again, YES. If not for this fortunate encounter, I would've had to walk over 6 miles, all downhill back to the car and definitely would've left a sour taste in my mouth for years. This is where the ride gets really really fun, ripping downhill on single track through aspens and brush, navigating twists and turns and not really knowing what is around the next bend is what makes this descent exciting. When I arrived back at the car, I had a shit eating grin on my face and all my trials and tribulations of the previous 4 hours were forgotten with this 15 minute descent. I love riding my bike!

Literal "Snake Bite"

I knew this blog thing had a purpose, thank you for reminding me to call tramdock and return that POS tire that I bought a few weeks ago. I've had four flats in the last three mountain bike rides I have done with this f'ing tire! All snake bites! For those that do not know what meaning of this serpentine reference is, it is when your inner tube is pinched between the rim of the tire and a rock or obstacle that you have hit while riding, thus leaving two small tears in your tube that resemble a snake bite. Not cool!