Ride: Wolf Creek Pass
Number: 1st time this season – 2008
Conditions: Sunny, great cycling weather, slight tail wind with climb.
General Feeling: Knee felt good, lungs and legs were hurting. Granny gear the entire time, too much standing.
Note: Permit me to use this blog as a bit of a cycling journal. After this my first Wolf Creek Pass ride of the season I wanted to keep track of my season progress on this my favorite mountain ride.
After missing the chance for a ride around the valley with my friend Jim Kane, I set out around 10am on Saturday to head up Wolf Creek figuring to stop at the base of the climbs and then circle back through the valley to Weber Canyon in order to get around 50 miles of generally flat to mild climbing. After reaching the Mill Hollow turn off where at mile marker 15 Wolf Creek Pass road pitches up I turned and headed back down. Just before getting to the Provo River in upper Woodland I saw Bill and Gordon heading up so I circled back and after some pleasantries I agreed that I’d ride with them part way up Wolf Creek as I didn’t want to do too much climbing yet. Yea, right.
Although they dropped me I managed to keep them in sight until just before the “S” curve about a mile from the summit. So much for no climbing. I felt tired and winded, but the familiarity of the climb and the enjoyment of making this my first Wolf Creek Pass summit of the season was rewarding. While at the summit Dave Peck came up from the Hanna side and the four of us kept a pretty solid pace line all the way back to Kamas.
Since my “no climb day” was shot, I joined them on 248 until the top at the Two-hey gate where I bid them farewell and headed back for home, making it 61 miles and 4000′ of vertical.
It’s a good start for my annual solo ride of the Kamas-Wolf Creek-Tabiona-Fruitland-Strawberry-Heber-Francis-Kamas loop. It’s about 125 miles and 8000′ of climbing. I think this year I’ll go counter-clockwise as the headwind that I suffered last year for 90% of the ride nearly did me in! Anyone out there want to give this loop a go with me?
click the image to see the map much larger
One Response to “Wolf Creek Pass #1”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Wow…that is a long bike ride. I bet the scenery was so beautiful though!