Friday was quite the day. Up early to climb and ski Mount Superior with Derek and then a late night at the Backcountry.com (I work there) warehouse “putting out a large fire” I was spent when I finally hit the pillow just shy of 2am.
Like Friday, Saturday started early as well with me up at 6 and off to the Salt Lake Temple with the youth of the ward and then back home around 11. I had planned a mid day bike ride with Chad and so I hit the pillow once again for a quick 30 minutes of shut eye. I couldn’t sleep any longer knowing there were projects to be done so McKinley (my oldest son) and I cut siding on the table saw before Chad arrived for our ride at 12:30.
Our destination was to ride around the Jordanelle Resevior, which would be the first solid ride of the year for me. We headed out of Kamas on Hwy 248 heading towards Park City. Chad dropped me on the first hill and try as I might I couldn’t catch him. I reached the top in 19:45, a poor showing considering my best time on that hill is sub 17:30. We sailed down the big hill and pushed up the Browns Canyon intersection hill, a slight headwind in our faces.
Rather than ride completely along the busy Highway 40 we went into Park City, up to Deer Valley and cut through Deer Crest. I can’t say how thankful I am to the developers of Deer Crest who allow cyclists to pass through on it’s roads and trails. I grabbed the newest flavor (Superfood Slam) of ProBar from my jersey pocket and downed the 350 “energy packed organic and whole food mmmm that was great” calories. I was ready to rock.
After the tough hill into Deer Crest and a speedy downhill out the back we merged onto Highway 40 for the downhill towards Heber. We were both feeling it and knew the hill coming out of Heber towards Francis would be tough.
I told Chad as he passed me at the start of the climb (which measures just over 2 miles at 8% grade) to wait at the overlook. But to my suprise I was able to hang on his wheel. It was a grind but a short while later I passed him and worked to set the pace. He later passed me and we pushed hard to the top, straining up the last hill through the road cut.
We road casually around the rest of the lake, saving a bit of juice for the Francis hill which like it always does put the hurt on us. 2 hours and 18 minutes and I was home with a great ride under my belt. I’m anxious for the next one!
Ride Details – Taking the route we took we covered 40 miles and 3500′ vertical of riding.
Aside – As we were heading down Highway 40 towards Heber , Art, the founder of ProBar drove by in his Audi that is wrapped with the ProBar logo.
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