| Name: | Six Wasatch resorts epic | 
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| Description: | The long planned peak season ride. The plan was to ride on parts of the six ski resorts, Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, Brighton, Park City and Canyons. I intended to make the ride fairly flexible based on how I felt during it, but wanted to make sure I'll touch at least piece of the top of each of the six resorts. Started fairly early at 7am, and was happy that I was more-less in the shade all the way to the mouth of Little Cottonwood, where I was a bit after 8am. The air there was getting smoky from some wildfires, and, it stayed that way all the way up the road. Fortunately, the smoke cleared out by the time I started climbing on Snowbird lift roads. These were fairly loose from truck use and lack of rain, I had to push several steepest parts. I got to Hidden Peak at 10.45 and stayed there for a bit to eat 2 Powerbars. I also at this point realized that I forgot my sandwich at home, which meant I had to buy one on the way. My knees were also not that great, and hanging out made them ache more, so, I tried to limit my stop times.Then I dropped down a bit to Mineral Basin and up to Sugarloaf Pass. The road up was again churned up, this time by ATVs, so, I had to push on few spots as well. Overall, the Snowbird lift roads were in the worst shape I've ever seen them. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed by that. Then dropped down to Alta, realizing that the sandwich trailer is not operational. I was saved at the post office, the lady let me into the bathroom of the Alta library upstairs, where I refilled my water. Then I climbed up Grizzly Gulch to Twin Lakes Pass. Also this trail was pretty messed up, now mainly from the hikers, but, in any case, pretty much every steeper part was covered with rocks so I was pushing a lot. By the time I got to Twin Lakes Pass, I was getting pretty tired, not that much muscle-wise, as getting spacy. I missed the right trail going down from the pass so I had to hike some more on the slope. Then rode down to Solitude boundary, and a little bit on the Solitude lift road to the trail that goes down to Twin Lakes and to Brighton. I just followed the lift roads to Brighton, and headed straight to Brighton Store. Here I put ice into my water, got a sandwich and gatorade and got refueled. The food helped with my focus, I felt pretty well climbing up to Scotts Pass, so, I decided to take Midmountain trails instead of the Crest. Dropped down on Shadow Lake trail and then more down to the Midmountain. This trail was not that much fun since I got some cramps in my gut and the roughness of the trail made it fairly painful. Midmountain is not for hardtails. Surprisingly, the gut was really the only problem, my legs felt fine and the knees settled in as well. By the time I got back to the Crest, the gut felt better as well, so, I had a great time dropping down Millcreek. The smooth trail felt great especially after being rattled on Midmountain. With some gas left, I hopped on the Pipeline and had great time there too, although it was getting pretty hot in the lower parts. Same thing on the road ride home, though, I had some tail wind which made the wrapup pretty fast. Bottom line, good part of the ride sucked, but, some payback made it worth it. I am for sure contemplating the worthiness of riding up Snowbird this late in the summer, and worthiness of riding up Mineral Basin and Grizzly Gulch at all. Really, the only fun parts were the real mountain bike trails (except for the Midmountain rattle). | |
| URL: | TopoFusion Home Page | |
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| Total Distance: | 76.33 miles (122.84 km) |
| Total Trip Time: | 10:07:14 (9:09:37 moving time) |
| Total Climbing: | 11908 feet (3629 m) |
| Total Descending: | 11904 feet (3628 m) |
| Average Speed: | 8.33 mph (13.41 kph) |
