Description: | Third Saturday in July was even date which means the Wasatch Crest is open to bikes. So, I figured I'll give it a try. The plan is to ride the Crest and see how the back holds, and, either drop to Millcreek or to Mid Mountain to Parley's summit.
It was promising to be a hot day as it was 75 F at 8am. The ride up Big Cottonwood was surprisingly not all that hot, although I was appaled by the number of vehicles with bikes going up, especially the big trucks and SUVs. I was wondering how bad the Crest will be. Fortunately, looks like all the machos were heading to Solitude for some kind of a race. All the race hoopla was at the lower Solitude, upper Solitude where I refilled water was quiet - even too much - the store there does not open till 11am. By 11 am, I was on the top of the Puke hill which was had a crowd of about 15 of the usual kind, some hardcore riders, some weekend warriors. I did not hang out there too much and set out ahead of the crowd. This turned out to be an excellent decision, I only met a handful of riders for the rest of the Crest part. To my surprise, the Red Spine looked better than what I remember it from a few years back and I managed to ride it all without too much difficulty - there is a new line that bypasses a bit the worst part. The Mid Mountain trail to Pinebrook was as usual quite solitary, I only met a few riders going in the other direction. The grass and shrubs are quite overgrown though which was a bit unpleasant. At Pinebrook I chose to find the shortcut through Toll Canyon and thus preserved my altitude towards Parley's Summit, there are still some climbs on this shortcut, though. At the Summit, I refilled at the gas station and then headed towards Alexander Hollow trail. There is some new development starting on the north side of the I-80 exit - the formerly nice and smooth dirt road leading to Alexander Hollow is now raked up. Alexander Hollow was not all that great either - the grass is 3 ft tall and trail 6 in wide so one could not go down too fast since the trail irregularities were not that visible. Plus, the grass in this area is quite sharp and hard on the legs and hands. The highlight was a moose that was hanging out next to the largest beaver pond. At the end of the trail, I made a spurr of the moment decision to take I-80 back - I rode Emigration Canyon way too many times this year. So, I cranked up the iPod to some Beastie Boys and headed for the urban warfare. It was not all that bad, the traffic was not horrendous and the shoulder was relatively garbage free. It was quite hot down in the town and the smog was apparent so I did not hang out and headed straight home.
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