The WOR training continues…
18.5 miles up, 4000 ft climbing and 3000 ft elevation change. It typically takes me about 4 hrs for the whole 37 miles. Yesterday we had hellacious rain, and there was a lot of moisture in the ground. I started about 45 min later than planned to let things dry out and warm up, but the trail still rode slow. I bought a new tire from Rage Cycles yesterday — wanted to get rid of that crap-ass Kenda Kinetics, and also see what another shop is all about. Adventure is getting harder and harder to get to, and while Bill is great I’m not sold on some of their other mechs still. Would not have made it on the slow tire, fer sure.
The ride was cool and pleasant the whole way through, at time it got downright chilly. There was a dusting of snow on the peaks near the top, rode through some vapor clouds — neat seeing the vapor hanging over the hills during sunrise. I’m going to miss the East Valley. Driving out to the trailhead, the views from the jeep road, the top…we may be in Mormon hell but it sure is pretty. Oddly enough, this is what I always say about Utah. The river is going to be what I miss most, it leads to so much diversity in the terrain and topography. Byron keeps saying T100 is just not close to Hawes — I’m hoping based on many other good reviews that he just doesnt know the cool stuff. Still its hard to think of a prettier area.
My time for the ride was almost 4:15, almost 30 min off my best time. And I was worked from the ride. Knowing that I was going slow made it harder to keep hammering through the climb. One muddy stretch — the rocky part at about 14 miles — took a lot out of me, and I had to push up the following mud expanse. Fortunately, the rest was just a bit moist in places.
A bunch of vehicles, I was out in front of most so I wasnt sucking exhaust following them. Seems like the road has a fair amount of powder on it from all the traffic.
Came upon a ~14 yeard old kid who crashed on his dirtbike and messed up his knee — his dad and brother felt he could ride off the hill on a quad while the bro rode his bike…the whole thing was weird, Dad seemed pretty cavalier about the knee and didnt want much help from me or 2 nurses who drove by right about when I did, like as long as there were no broken bones the kid was fine. the way the kid was moaning…there are a lot of things that can go wrong with a knee in a fall. I suggested they bracket the boy on the ride home and give him breaks if he started getting sloppy, but hardly anything else I could do 15 miles out on my mtb. Further up the road I saw all manner of donuts and stuff treaded into the road…not my place, but seems common sense to me that a boy with a powertoy is going to play with it and eventually fall? Its not like I’m trying to sound insensitive, and maybe its that I’m biased having never ridden a dirtbike, but man it seems dumb to give a dirtbike to a kid. This road also draws a lot of rookies and fools…who knows? The nurse were typical midwesterners I almost had to laugh when they were like “Aw geez I had some ibuprofen but its in my other car.” They seemed pretty content to let these guys on their way once it was obvious there was no immediate danger and Dad didnt want help. I had ibu and a vic, but I was also alone and didn’t think it was smart to give my security away, certainly not to stupid-Dad. Call me a dick…but its the little decisions that lead to the wilderness crisis, and I fell hard coming down on this road last time in September.
The climb was tough and took almost 2:45, the downhill 1:30 but I was cool and in control the whole time — always a good feeling. Back at the house I am feeling spent.