Thursday was a day spent driving with Kirkham to SLC. When I arrived I had to stretch my legs so took my mountain bike for a spin at the trails near my parents house. These are the trails that I learned to bike on. My dad took us over here before there was such thing as mountain biking. Then when I turned 14 I got my first real mountain bike. It was a Motobecane MB-4, the frame was champagne white. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I honestly remember the day I got it because I had gone to a friend's house after school & forgot to call home. When I finally did I was in so much trouble and they threatened to return the bike.
Even cooler though, was my brother's new bike. He got the MB-3, the upgraded model. I don't know what was better about it, I just knew it cost more. Anyway, my bro was nice enough to let me follow him on some rides and he taught me how to descend. He took me on the roller coaster (the highest part of the shoreline trail right above the zoo) for the first time. He showed me how to scoot myself behind the seat so I could ride something that steep.
Back to the present: I hopped on the shoreline trail by Hogle Zoo to go over to Dry Creek. A few minutes into my ride I ran into some new heartbreaking construction. Someone has decided to build a building right in the middle of the trail system. This happens every few years, they add more buildings up there, every time it eats up more trail and makes me sad. Where there used to be red dirt and beautiful mountain side, there is now a fence and these signs:
The great part of my my ride though, was on the descent of Dry Creek. I saw some guys coming up the trail on cross bikes & I thought I recognized one of the bikes. Yes, I recognized the gray frame & red handle bar tape. This is because of the lovely social site facebook. My friend Jamie had posted a picture of just his bike a few weeks ago & I had admired it. He, in turn, recognized my jersey because of...you guessed it, facebook. Had it not been for this silly website we would have ridden right past each other. But we got to catch up and hear about each other's racing. He and Jason tried to talk me into cross-racing. I'm not sure our budget or garage can handle another bike. But, it's on my list & someday I will get into it. Especially if I move to Oregon, the cross bike HQ.
Friday I decided to make the trek to Sundance to pre-ride the race course. I dragged my Dad along to babysit Kirkham while I rode. They were such good sports to wait around while I played in the mountains. I was in awe of the beauty of the mountains & trails & all of the color. The green & browns are so strong (not sun-bleached like I'm used to). The trails are soft and solid, no sand to be seen anywhere and very few rocks. Instead there were patches of snow and tree roots in the trail. The low hanging clouds made it feel like I was truly in the mountains. There were a couple of mud bogs, but otherwise the trail was in great shape. I wish I had spent more time figuring out how to do the switchbacks faster. We simply don't have switchbacks like that in Las Vegas, it's just time to relearn how to do such tight corners at fast speeds.
View from the race course